Artifact Page #4

And then this debt gets carried on

to the next album,

the next album,

and the next album.

I don't know if most people have seen

long form contracts, they're insane.

And there's all these little,

these little things throwin' in.

It's kind of like legislating,

you know, legislature for a government.

They put up this big issue

but underneath that issue

there's like seventeen other little laws

that they threw in,

that they are not talking about.

So, when you say yes to this one thing

you are actually saying yes

to like forty five other things.

There's a worse one,

they use to have damage fees

with digital downloads.

Digital downloads?

Like, at first they were doing that like

they just trying to get away with murder,

you know.

It just like let's leave in there,

let's see if the lawyer sees it

kind of thing.

Some other hidden items

that the contract includes are:

packaging costs,

they deduct up to 25% of the artist cut

known as the royalty to cover the expense

of plastic cases and artwork.

This cost is even administered

to digital downloads

where packaging is non-existent.

10% is deducted

to cover breakage costs during shipping.

They started in the vinyl era,

continued when CDs replaced vinyl

and still applies today

with digital downloads.

The 10% free goods deduction

is an antiquated

system where retailers purchased 100 albums

but are given an additional

10 albums at no charge.

Since the artist is only paid on album sold.

they are not compensated

for those free albums.

This deduction still continues

even in a digitally dominated market.

Artists generate so much money

for so many people

that have nothing to do with

the creative process at all.

There is no road you can go down

that the artist isn't f***ed.

Most people out there who have jobs,

they can go to their boss ask for a raise,

they can leave and go get another job

if they are not happy.

Musicians don't really have

that ability to do that.

And by the way, if we don't like,

if we don't feel like pushing

your records anymore

we don't fell you gonna sell,

we're not gonna let you go,

we're just gonna put you

on the shelf over here,

we won't really let you work

but we're not gonna let you leave either.

It's like being in a bad marriage.

At what point does your husband beat you up

or your wife beat you up and you say:

I had enough I'm leaving.

That's the point we are at right now.

I'll be back in a second,

Irving is calling.

Can they stop us putting a record out?

It's really cool.

This is Taiko drumming

and I'm learning about Taiko drumming.

Shannon is a beast of a player.

He doesn't play in a song,

he takes the song over.

He inhabits it, he lives it,

he breathes it.

There's an energy

that he has when he drums

that's fantastic.

He's very animalistic.

He's completely emotionally reacting.

It's absolutely fascinating

to watch somebody like that.

My brother always had a love of music.

He had a real passion for it.

I would certainly not be doing this

if it wasn't for him.

The only thing I took seriously in my life

was music.

Before Thirty Seconds to Mars

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

I was doing construction, I was...

Breaking the law.

Jared often jokes about kids

from the wrong side of the tracks,

I was definitely one of those kids.

He would disappear,

you know,

he would just disappear.

I never knew

what he was doing.

I reached a point in my life where

I needed some sort of change and

music was the only thing that made sense.

He and Jared started

playing together a lot.

That's when it got serious.

That's when I was like: "Oh! Okay!

I need to follow this path."

He was the one

that was motivated to make music.

He was the one that was do or die with it.

Just the energy of us playing together.

That was exciting.

I just wanted to play, play, play, play.

Okay. Secret spot. Pinky swear?!

I'll never be able to find it anyway.

So, don't worry about it.

So, what's the deal?

You had a long meeting the other day.

Yeah, EMI wants to make a deal.

Interesting.

It's a shitty deal but, it's a deal.

So, we have a couple of options.

There's the option

that's exciting to go on our own.

It feels like there's a lot of opportunities

with that independent spirit

and taking the mindset at...

Rather than signing an antiquated deal

with a company that has no interest

in really doing anything

except making the numbers work.

But that's the reality,

if you want to sign a record deal.

That's what you're doing.

High nose. Both options.

Jared?

Both options are a big gamble.

Yeah,

I don't know enough to have a real opinion.

But it's seems like going on our own

is the only way to go.

I don't know, it's hard.

Give me a name of one band

that's had continued worldwide success

without a label.

I can't give you one.

Some people say to take the deal.

Settle.

Yeah...

Just take whatever deal you can get

cause this is so f***ed right now.

Basically,

you're looking for a record company

to handle very specific things

like promotion, marketing, and things

that I don't really want

to have to deal with.

Right.

If we go completely independent,

I'll end up...

That will be my life

- morning, noon and night -

is going to be having

to have a record company.

You feel you want to push army.

Yeah, I want to push army.

You take the rock of your choice,

or a bolder depending

how big your issue is.

And you throw it over the precipice

and when you throw it, you scream,

and you let go of this particular aspect of

who you are or something in your life

that's plaguing you.

And you leave it behind and...

And, well, we gonna do it right now.

I'm gonna start or you wanna?

I go first.

Yeah, you go first.

Let's see what you got.

I just heard somebody say "ouch!"

That's pretty good.

It never landed... what's that been...

This is so f***ing nuts.

Yeah.

By the way, I think I came up

with a name for the album.

What is it?

"This is War."

It's easier than ever

to make music and record it.

It's easier than ever to make videos

and record them properly.

It's easier than ever

to put them out there

but it's harder than ever

to make them heard

or have them heard

because there's so much noise

on the internet

so a record company

still has to do the job of helping

to filter that

and to promote things properly

so that they can get noticed.

And there's certainly exceptions of artists

that have done well

without a record company

but by in large

the overwhelming majority of artists

that have achieved, you know,

major success, have been signed

to major labels.

Major labels are

giant Cyclopes,

and they have one very

monstrously powerful eye

right in the middle of their forehead

and when it's staring at you, you know,

the world is a very bright and shiny place.

And when it's not,

there is no getting attention of that thing.

If I knew a band was going

to sign a major label deal,

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