Quote:
Originally Posted by sortie
What will happen if the music industry doesn't get it under control is there will just
not be enough money in it for the artist to go into the studio and the result
will be that your music choices will dwindle down to "Chocolate Rain".
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I have often said that one of the services that a record label provides is filtering of the garbage. I used to write for a music magazine back in the early 90's and I would get anywhere from 20-40 new CDs every week from various record labels and bands who wanted me to review their album or write about the band. 99% of these were from acts you have never heard of and for good reason - they sucked. The internet allows for any act not good enough to get a record deal to promote themselves, but again there is a reason they haven't gotten bigger. Sure, there are many acts that are good and for whatever reason have never gotten bigger, but these are the best of the mob, the rest of the mob are terrible.
The average music listener has finite time. If they have enough music that they are entertained for a short period of time they listen in the car each day they are happy. There are also a small number of people who collect as much music as they can get their hands on. However, are these people going to then go out and support every act that they download when they come to town? Hardly. They may go see a few each month, but most they will download their album, listen to it a few times and then forget all about it or pull it out every few months and give it a listen, but they aren't going to be going out and buying concert tickets and seeing live shows 4-5 nights a week.
I'm not for one second saying that record labels have the best taste or that they speak for everyone, but they get inundated with albums every day of hopeful artists. If we get to the point where they just give it all away they have nothing to lose and no reason to reject any of these people. They will just sign them to a ridiculous contract and put their album up for download. If somehow it catches on and the band starts selling tickets and playing before bigger crowds the label will then start to support them and cash in all these revenue streams. We the fans will suddenly find ourselves swarmed with hundred of albums each week to choose from. They will shift the burden of sifting through the sludge onto the fans. But the fans will have gotten what they wanted. They now get it for free.