Think Tank

I am appearing on a panel at tomorrow's Musictank evening, entitled 'How To Divvy Up A Download'? It's central debate is how do you take the money paid by a music fan and split it between the different parties, the most critical of course being the artiste. If you take a typical download, i.e. the 79p paid at iTunes, then this is a good start. First you have to take off VAT, leaving 67p. And after that, the publisher, the retailer, the credit card company, the record company, the aggregator and the artiste have to negotiate it between them. More complex is dividing up the money paid to mobile operators, and even more complicated, the money paid in a subscription service where individuals streams have to be measured in fractions of a pence. I can't promise any answers tomorrow but it will be a good debate.