MPAA & RIAA Going Broke? -We are Winning!!!
 

MPAA Budget Slashed In Half, Are They Dying?

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 by Ernesto


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Last week the RIAA’s latest tax filing revealed that the music group has lost nearly half of its revenue because the music labels reduced their membership dues.
This downward trend is not limited to the music business – the MPAA isn’t doing any better financially either.
The most recent IRS tax filing of the non-profit movie group covers 2010 and is slightly dated, but it nevertheless shows some noteworthy trends. Like the RIAA, the MPAA’s revenue has been dropping year after year.
In just three years the revenue generated by the anti-piracy outfit reduced from $92.8 million to $49.6 million. The decreased budget is a direct result of the major Hollywood studios cutting back on their MPAA funding. In the same period membership dues dropped from $84.7 million to $41.5 million, more than a 50% decline.
Unlike at the RIAA where there were 40% staff cutbacks, the MPAA managed to keep the number of employees on par. However, they are now working for a lower average salary. In three years the money spent on wages sunk from $29 million to $18.2 million.
Not even former CEO Dan Glickman could avoid a drop in renumeration – his salary fell from $1.65 million to $1.11 million. However, that still made Glickman the best paid MPAA employee, closely followed by President Robert Pisano who resigned in 2011 after earning $1.09 million during his final year in the job.
Wages are not the only area where massive cuts were made in the MPAA’s spending. In a three year period money paid to law firms plunged from $13 million to $5.6 million.
But it’s not all dire news.
The MPAA’s lobbying budget remained stable at $4.6 million and despite their dire financial position the group still had enough money available to give some away, such as a $25,000 grant to the Democratic Attorney Generals Association. Yes, that’s the organization of Vice President Joe Biden’s oldest son Beau.
The same Joe Biden who reportedly took down Megaupload.
That brings us to a final remark. Despite a dwindling budget the MPAA has booked some significant successes in the last year. The group was one of the main facilitators of the Megaupload investigation. The MPAA also played an important role in several movie streaming domain seizures and arrests, as well was the conviction of Anton Vickerman in the UK and the NinjaVideo admins in the US.
While the MPAA certainly isn’t dead yet, one has to wonder how long they can continue if the Hollywood studios keep cutting back on their membership dues. If the downward spiral continues the movie industry group may have more difficulty “convincing” politicians and law enforcers.
END

:laff: :clapper:


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Re: MPAA & RIAA Going Broke? -We are Winning!!!
 

Actually it's better than you realize for several factors. This is about the MPAA, the movie enforcement division for infringement and lobbying for new laws. A bit earlier came the one for the RIAA which read much similar in scope. Both indicate dropping incomes for funding to the employees with many being laid off. Those of the senior management positions taking pay cuts but the one place both did not cut, is the funding for lobbying.

The future is even more grim for the parent outfits. Part of it is the public hate for them they have generated with their actions. In all the moral high roads they've attempted to take, the actions far better than words have told the story of just how low down they are. The public has gained not only a distaste for the majors by their lobbying groups reputation but are drifting away from them as an entertainment choice.

One such article mentioned that the majority of music listeners no longer really desire the new latest greatest. That they prefer the old rock n roll to the newer products coming out. So much for the future sales at this rate. Another is that these same listeners aren't finding places to hear new music, other than file sharing sites. Go to the radio and it's a wasteland of replay on the hour, every hour of the same songs. Those songs paid for to be played on the air. But hearing new music isn't in the cards.

Then there are commentators stories that tell of an even more disruptive trends. One stated his kids were 15 to 16 years old and they wanted nothing to do with TV, music, nor the other forms of entertainment that are all raising so much cain about pirates. His claim was his kids wanted the tv for game playing, not watching over the air broadcasts. This means the future of these outfits is even grimmer than it is today. Sounds like they got their wish in not one stealing their stuff and at this rate, they will have to give it away to get anyone's attention.

The next commenter said his kids were 3 and 4 years old. At home, they didn't have a tv. So they went on vacation and visited kin that did. The kids were dismayed that they couldn't back up what they had missed, could save it anywhere, couldn't pause it, and horror of horrors, it had commercials all over the place. Again representing the future generation market. No better than the ones ahead of them.

This is not about piracy. This is about failure to meet market demands again. These producers are going for reaping profit, not making a good product and it's caught up with them as they have reached the bottom of the barrel for viewership/listeners.

It doesn't end here. Let me give you a glimpse for the future of gaming publishers/gatekeepers/movie studios/newspapers/major music labels. Most of the independent makers of games are like the authors of books and their publishers. They make a product and turn it over to the publisher to get it out to market. Only when all is said and done, very few make any money beyond the initial loan made them. Either they get no royalties or almost nothing beyond that. The publishers seem to absorb all the money leaving nothing for the creators.

An independent game maker has had a successful series of 4 games called the Broken Sword series. It's basically a point and click game. It's won all sorts of awards of best game, best game script, and on and on. So it has quality. But the company isn't making any royalties off the games even after 10 years. The publisher contacted them to release the 5ᵗʰ game in the series only to be turned down. The company says this time they will do it themselves. Towards that effort they have started a kickstarter page to ultimately fund it themselves and likewise get pretty much all the money from the game, minus expenses.

Nor is the first of many kickstarter projects. Independent musicians have funded albums including quality artwork and jewel cases, an ink pen maker has funded his own specially designed pen, a movie director has funded his movie, among the many, many, kickstarter projects. They are all doing one thing. They are getting around the gatekeepers and reaching the market themselves. As they do so, those with the plan to keep all the money, such as movie studios and major labels are finding the way they do business is leaving them out in the cold.

Isn't this great? Say goodbye to these PNAs that are trying their best to control the internet for a store. Their days are numbered.

Re: MPAA & RIAA Going Broke? -We are Winning!!!
 

They are overspending.
This is normal when paying too much money to their lawyers and IT sabotaging crew.

Re: MPAA & RIAA Going Broke? -We are Winning!!!
 

As I posted before, the US are broke and now the Movie & Music industry are cutting the budgets for MPAA & RIAA this means all these copyright actions will soon lessen.....

Re: MPAA & RIAA Going Broke? -We are Winning!!!
 

Some good news at last ?? loll