 albie81Premium join:2005-01-04 Mount Laurel, NJ | who suffers? the label? or the artist? soooo...
major labels through the RIAA is spending god knows how much money trying to recoup the revenue they are losing because they have been employing poor business models and "employee" relations for years...
you mean to tell me, that in 2008, in the age of digital music, no single legal music service was able to do what what a 20-something kid in europe in his dad's den was able to do with OiNK??? (i.e. bring together a place where EVERYTHING was available, drm free, from any artist, any label.)
the problem I have with legal music sites is several-fold..
1- DRM is stupid. If I buy it, I don't want to be told what to do with it. It's a SONG. I want to listen to it, copy it, share my listening experience with my friends/family. It's not a gun. I'm not buying something that is potentially harmful to the public and therefore my use needs to be monitored/limited. It's a SONG.
2- Availability is limited. If I want to legally download The Beatles, I have to go to one service. If I want Counting Crows, I have to go to another. etc. etc. The problem is, the major labels are all so proprietary, that they won't shake hands with different service sites. Did they do that back when brick/mortar stores ruled the music world? I don't remember thinking "Hey, that song I just heard on the radio is great, I wonder what record label they are on, and what music store I have to drive to, that the record label has a contract with, to buy it." No... I got in the car, I drove to Tower Records/Sam Goody/FYE/etc. and I bought the album. Enough said.
3- All of the above said... the artist sees precisely squat from album sales. Unless they are a very very successful artist (i.e. U2) they get absolutely raped by the label. So where is my incentive to spend money that I know isn't going to the guy who wrote/played the song?
This is a great read for anyone either questioning the validity of the music industry, or trying to "make it" themselves:
»www.negativland.com/albini.html -- "What happens when the clock reaches 999?"........ "Nothing. You just suck." |