I would love to hear from anyone about their thoughts on the various weird and wonderful contents that make up major recording contracts. I would like to start by putting up this interesting link that I found today. It talks about the way the basic royalty is calculated and how digital downloads are subject to a deduction for 'packaging'. We all know that your average mp3 doesn't arrive in a jiffy bag!

I'm ready to hear some thoughts on this and on anything else.

have you read this article by steve albini? if you have, you shouldn't be surprised.
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

this article is interesting too, it is about why CD became so popular so fast in the late 80's.
http://www.negativland.com/minidis.html

for more interesting articles about copyright laws and music industry, go to:
http://www.negativland.com/intprop.html

I read a page by Steve a long while ago but not this one. This article is hard on the truth and it stings me to read it. Thanks for posting this. I'm going to check out the other link you posted too.

Yes, that whole vinyl and cd issue is one that puzzles me. I've bookmarked the page on the copyright laws so that I can have a good look later on. Thanks for those.