"Where music, especially pop music needs to be nimble, mobile, and unbogged-down by layers of frightened corporate middle management, we instead have lumbering behemoths like UMG, reporting to stockholders who know nor care nothing for music, or anything, really, other than quarterly growth statements. To keep the quarterly growth statements growing in a shrinking market, they lay off more good people, sell more valuable real estate, massage accounting, delay payments to their artists and subcontractors, over charge their customers, and eventually will seal their own doom, leaving the door open for a newer, lower-cost renaissance of popular culture."
Really a great description of the situation from someone with eyewitness credentials. Thanks David for that. I hope that your prediction that these "lumbering behemoths...will seal their own doom" comes true. It seems that their struggle for survival at this point is based on lawsuits and acquisitions. I would guess that they will not be able to continue as they have but I think that the guys with all the money and the best lawyers will continue to control the industry by streamlining what they do and controlling the means by which it is most readily provided to the public. That sort of plays into your mention of how payola is alive and well in the form of "consultant fees" and that commercial radio is conglomerate owned as well. The bands that achieve any sort of success, and I think there is sort of a model for doing it without radio play (jam bands like Phish or Widespread Panic found their fan base using an alternative route or Ani Difranco) will tour under conglomerate control once they reach shed-size status, even before that in some cases. The big media conglomerates control tv, radio, concert venues, and ticketing. So, it leaves no choice but to buy your way in. This is what seems to be the part being played by the smaller labels, collect some artists you believe in and love, say like a Rykodisc, and try to negotiate your artists onto that playing field.
"So, it's a round of blackmail, extortion, and the like, and only a wider range of choices, like XM, or Internet radio, or small low-wattage local stations, or a combination of all of the above will ever break the back of these frankly sinister entities."
I don't know how well XM is selling and I think it'll be a tough go for that because how do you compete with the fact that radio is free. Although I will confess to the fact that I have a satellite dish at home and I love the satellite radio stations. The internet would seem to be a solution though as it's a great tool to discover all sorts of things and has already proved to be the largest thorn in the side of Megacorpoconglomerateland causing them to brand the innocent men, woman, and children that are the would-be purchasers of their product "criminals". Your recent mention of getting sued only seems to confirm my image of working in the entertainment industry as a job where you can judge your success and longevity by the number of lawsuits you've had to face. What a sue happy bunch they are huh? I suppose this is because it is the only means at their disposal to try to control something which was meant to be allowed to roam free and propagate but of course it's the nature of mankind to build fences. The internet, at present, would seem to be a great open plain to graze on though...I would guess they are foaming at the mouth to posess it.
Thanks for the discussion.
Reg
