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Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
Robin Fincke quote from May 2000
But even after working endlessly on the GN'R album, Finck is unable to speculate on how it's going to turn out.
"I'd helped write and arrange and recorded enough songs for several records," he says. "Honestly, we recorded so many different song ideas and completed so many different types of songs '” from quiet, very simple traditional piano songs to 16 stereo tracks of keyboard blur and everything in between."
But, he notes, "most of the stronger songs that ended up on A-lists when I was there were huge rock songs, built for the masses, really guitar-driven."
but it was all snippets and riffs...and many ideas have been rolled into one song...take IRS or Better as examples and in like '99 axl says 72 songs or something....in '06 he says 32
thats part of the reason i thiink this album has taken so long....axl has poured over literally hundreds of ideas and taken all the cool stuff and made what would have been 100 songs into like 25-30 songs and he tried to logically peice the material toeghter, thats why we see different guys go and record for 3-5 days at a time, just to flow the material together
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
with a net profit total of $2.52 on each disc sold on $15.99. With these numbers, album(s) from the CD sessions should sell a total of over 5 million units. In this day and age, it's an awful lot for one album
but for 3 disks its more like 1.7mill each...but the first one had better be amazing to get interest in the other 2
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
this is old info from pilferk @ htgth
C.D. cost breakdown with a price of $15.99:
- $0.17 Musicians' unions
- $0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
- $0.82 Publishing royalties
- $0.80 Retail profit
- $0.90 Distribution
- $1.60 Artists' royalties
- $1.70 Label profit
- $2.40 Marketing/promotion
- $2.91 Label overhead
- $3.89 Retail overheadi'll comment more on it later
anyway back to this most CD's are more like 12.99 or 13.99 these days for the big name bands so that throws different numbers in
- $0.14 - 0.15 Musicians' unions
- $0.65 - 0.70 Packaging/manufacturing
- $0.67 - 0.72 Publishing royalties
- $0.65 - 0.70 Retail profit
- $0.73 - 0.79 Distribution
- $1.30 - 1.40 Artists' royalties
- $1.38 - 1.49 Label profit
- $1.95 - 2.10 Marketing/promotion
- $2.36 - 2.55 Label overhead
- $3.16 - 3.40 Retail overhead
which makes it about $2.05 - 2.21 in universals pocket per cd....
@ $12.99 then it'll take about 6.3 million units to move to recoupe their costs for one disk or 2.1mill of each disk of a trilogy
@ $13.99 it'll be about 5.9 million units or about 2 million units each of a trilogy...
hell the label just may make it a double disk with bonus DVD footage to crank it up to about $20-25 for the album then it'll increase revenue significantly for them, but then if they increase the price it decreases the possibility of average joe to buy it for pure interests sakes
either way they are daunting numbers to consider...especially since the drop of sale from Contraband to Libertad was quite significant 
by the same turn though...back in 1998 cd's were prolly about each $18-19 and they were prolly making about $3 per disk profit thats about 4.3 million units so back then each album prolly woulda sold about 4 million so they woulda got back their investment plus double that...so at the time it prolly seemed reasonable...
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
hell the label just may make it a double disk with bonus DVD footage to crank it up to about $20-25 for the album then it'll increase revenue significantly for them, but then if they increase the price it decreases the possibility of average joe to buy it for pure interests sakes
With the current US currency exhange rate.... we over here actually pay that price for CD's already and almost always have.
Americans are such cheapskates... 
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
hell the label just may make it a double disk with bonus DVD footage to crank it up to about $20-25 for the album then it'll increase revenue significantly for them, but then if they increase the price it decreases the possibility of average joe to buy it for pure interests sakes
They could do what VR did & sell the cd for regular price, and the the cd +DVD for about $5 more for hardcore fans. Maybe a behind the scenes or interview included. Most casual fans may not care for that, whereas we would.
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
This recent article from The Economist doesn't promise too good a year for the record companies - again.
The two biggest majors'”Universal, which is owned by Vivendi, a French conglomerate, and Sony BMG, a joint venture between Sony and Bertelsmann, a German media firm'”derive some protection from their parent companies. Universal is the strongest and is gaining market share. But people speculate that Bertelsmann may want to sell out to Sony next year.
Three vicious circles have now set in for the recorded-music firms. First, because sales of CDs are tumbling, big retailers such as Wal-Mart are cutting the amount of shelf-space they give to music, which in turn accelerates the decline. Richard Greenfield of Pali Research, an independent research firm, reckons that retail floor-space devoted to CDs in America will be cut by 30% or more in 2008. The pattern is likely to repeat itself elsewhere as sales fall.
Second, because the majors are cutting costs severely, particularly at EMI and Warner Music, artists are receiving far less marketing and promotional support than before, which could prompt them to seek alternatives. 'They've cut out the guts of middle managers and there are fewer people on the ground to promote records,' says Peter Mensch, manager of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Shania Twain.
Third, record companies face such hostile conditions that their backers, whether private equity or corporations, are loth to spend the sums required to move into the bits of the music industry that are thriving, such as touring and merchandising. The majors are trying to strike '360-degree' deals with artists that grant them a share of these earnings. But even if artists agree to such deals, they will not hand over new rights unless they get better terms on recorded music, so the majors may not see much benefit overall. Tim Renner, a former boss of Universal Music in Germany, says the majors should have acted years ago. 'Then they had the money and could have built the competence by buying concert agencies and merchandise companies,' he says. Now it may be too late.
The full article also discusses the 'Comes with Music' phones by Nokia, with whom Universal recently struck a deal with. No doubt CD songs may eventually come with Nokia phones, if the business is good.
But overall, it's not a very good time to be negotiating from Axl's perspective. The winds of change are blowing and he actually seems better off when touring without an album.
- Boston George
- Rep: 1
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
However, someone was insinuating that this album will sell a ton because of the "Guns N' Roses brand" and I was arguing the point that they don't have that behind them because the average fan doesn't view this as "GNR".
Hey everybody. How are all of you? Nice site you all have here. It's been awhile since I have been a member of a GN'R board. I used to be a member of one a couple years back, but it became so one wayed and ridiculously ignorant that I decided to quit posting all together. I still view the boards weekly, or at least every few weeks, but I haven't had the urge to become a member of one again until now. Don't ask me why, because I honestly have no idea. I just stumbled onto this particular site a couple weeks ago, and it seems a little more objective and allows more free discussion than alot of the other forums out there seem to.
I agree with this poster ^ when he says the average fan doesn't view this band as GN'R, and rightfully so. The Guns N Roses that I grew up to and saw live over a decade ago were guys who had an unmatched chemistry. A group of guys who were able to record an extremely strong catalog of material and build a legacy as one of the biggest rock bands of all time. This re-tooled, post Slash era band of Axl's accomplishments have been virtually non-existant, and their legacy, if there is one, has been built on nothing more than a never ending series of lies, deceit, and let downs.
I'd be willing to give up the whole idea of Chinese Democracy from this nu-era band, if it meant having one or 2 one-off gigs of the classic five. I'm not trying to diss Axl's band or the demos that we've heard. Most of the songs ARE pretty good, but they are nowhere near being worthy of the wait that we have endured, or the demise of the real band.
I personally don't believe for a second that the record company has this album, or that it will ever be released at all for that matter, at least not without having Slash and Duff back in the mix. Regardless of how good some of the songs may be, it will never be considered worthy of the wait, and Mr. Rose knows this. That's why the man says absolutely nothing these days. He's resposible for the situation that he is in today.... and imo, his best bet would be to acknowlege Slash's apologies, apologize himself, and get back with the guys who created the legacy that GN'R are still remembered for today.
If I ever go to another GN'R concert again, I want to feel the same feelings that I had over a decade ago when I saw this band. I know that it can never be exactly the same, but I believe it would still be better than thinking Bumble-who ?? Ferrar what ? throughout the entire show.
Just my 2 cents ......
Again, cool board. Peace.
Re: Eddie Trunk on Chinese Democracy
welcome to the board boston george 
& we're glad you like the board 
i agree that the "wait" will be a hot topic if and when the album is ever released as well as the "where's Slash?" question. and it will be interesting to see the interest this new gnr generates in the media as well as its sales figures and how they stack against other current band. but until it gets out there its just opinons and well wishing.
Unfortunately...or fortunately, depending on where you sit on the fence, the old guys are gone and a reunion looks not very likely in the near future so it hink that whole argument is pretty much a moot point but beleive it when i say its been debated to death but yes it would be fnatastic if axl and slash and duff could put their differences aside ans even just appologise to each other
I think that joe public would accept this as gnr under a few key condidtons...promotion of them to a disgusting degree...every mag and radio station and video channel providing interviews with the guys on a get to know basis....and a couple strong singles out of the gate...again depending on where you sit i think that its possible for the public to accept this band and embrace it, but the public has to know who they are first and maybe even why they were brought there, not a pointing fingers sort of explination but as close to the truth as possible story...
