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July 2, 2003
The Sad State of Pop Music
I was having an email discussion with some friends today about the music industry. We were all pretty much horrified by the actions taken by the RIAA over the past few years. From lawsuits against individuals to near-complete domination of US legislators, the music industry is running unfettered and taking us music fans over the cliff with it. If the RIAA were actually doing a good job at working first for the interests of the artists and the fans instead of for their own pocketbooks, we probably would have many fewer complaints.
This, of course, lead to discussion about the advantages (and limitations) of using direct publishing in the music industry. That is, things get better (in some ways) when fans can interact with and buy directly from the artists without having to go though a publisher (e.g., EMI, Sony, Universal, etc.). Jørgen Sundgot, Editor-in-Chief of InfoSync World summed it up best when he said:
And possibly the best part of all? The music would be controlled by what people like, and we'd all be rid of scantily clad, goat-voiced, computer-synthesized, glossy hellspawn courtesy of big American music companies.
Until then, keep supporting the artists directly and the small, independent publishers when you can. Some good places to look for more info include the Association for Independent Music and the original music website, the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA).
Posted by Craig in Industry
and Music & Audio
Comments
You've definitely hit the nail on the head, however, among the artist community this isn't anything new.
There's a saying here in Nashville, "Albums for show, tour for dough." In other words, album sales don't usually net the artist much. It's when they tour that they make the bulk of their money. So having the RIAA bitch and moan about lost album sales isn't as large of a problem to the artist as it is to the record labels. Album sales are the only way that they make back their money.
That's not to say that it doesn't impact the artist's pocket book, just that it's just a smaller piece of the pie.
Posted by: mashby at July 2, 2003 12:49 PM