(2002-05-15) g

Dave Stewart (the Eurythmics) launches the Artist Network, an "artist-friendly" entertainment biz, based on a core indie record label. At its core there is an independent record label, which will offer musicians more generous royalty rates than conventional deals, more transparent contracts and a greater degree of creative freedom and artistic development... "We can have a model which will make money on say 50,000 to 100,000 sales"... Furthermore, the entertainment industry is littered with failed attempts at artist empowerment. In the 1990s, George Michael launched Aegean, a record label with similar aims to Artist Network, but it didn't survive for long. And there was, of course, Tony Wilson's FactoryRecords, which was geared to serve the people that recorded for it. It had a 50/50 profits split between label and artists, a "non-contract contract" which gave the workers ownership of their own products. It went bankrupt in 1992. Given the concentration/corruption in the radio biz and music stores, I don't think this structure is different enough to fly (Business Models For Information).

Jun'2003: But now it has entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement, which companies can do when they run out of money.