Since the whole 50 vs Styles P and Cam'ron thing people have been talking about what folks really make on Koch.  Everyone says 7 dollars but that has never made a whole lot of sense.  By the power of Google I found someone breaking it down how it works.  Thought that some of you might find this interesting.

You have some control over wholesale, so technically you could set it at $3.00 or you could set it at $9.00, but $7.00 is standard and ain't nobody buying your shit knowing they have to mark up from $9.00 and try and eat off that. It'd end up making the CD $25.00 dollars in some places.

So, yes...technically these people, on paper, are getting their $7.00 per CD wholesale, or whatever they set it at.

What is misleading is this:

These are artists oversimplifying *LABEL* business because the average fan only sees an *ARTIST* talking about "I get 7 dollars per CD!". They are discussing GROSS, not what they actually make.

In actuality, they have to press 200,000 CD's in order to SELL those 200,000 CD's (you wouldn't get 7.00 if it were a press and distribute deal, so these artists are pressing their own product)

Thats 200,000 X 1.50-2.00 off top. So, on the first step alone you are taking that much per CD off your profit...add in shipping 200,000 CD's ALL OVER THE GLOBE (you are responsible for this, you get charged backend) and returns for broken, unsold, etc product.

Take into account promotion, hiring publicists for the record, pressing promos, vinyl promos, shipping for all THAT shit, etc etc etc.

And who is doing all this work? Oh yeah, gotta hire employees. Gotta pay for the beats yourself, mastering, engineering, etc etc etc.

Bottomline, no *ARTIST* makes 7.00 per CD like they would have the general public believe.

They want you to think "200,000 times 7.00...1.4 million dollars...wow, Jim Jones is rich!"

No.

It's a business. That 7.00 per CD is simply one step in a very complex business plan, alot of bigger artists just conveniently leave those parts out cus it sounds better.

The sentiment is technically correct, but not right at all.