The Folly of Record Labels

 Let us take a step back for a second. In talking about Cake before, I mentioned how the band is fairly in tune with the growing trend of music being a downloadable and sometimes free commodity. While Cake is only one of the many bands that understands that trends come and go, not everyone is ready and willing to adopt such an attitude. The top offenders are the ones that you would least expect, your friendly neighborhood record labels.

Record labels have been around for decades and have usually went with the natural ebb and flow of technological progress in the music industry. What is it that makes it so difficult in this day and age for them to accept change? The main reason is that the majority of the internet is public domain and with so much file sharing and piracy, most record labels are afraid to move their market online for fear of not turning a profit. The labels' reliance on CDs as their main media source drives them go at great lengths to protect their music rights, therefore removing said media from said media source and sharing it on servers across the web goes against their supposed claim to the royalties. The real kicker is, while the musicians are the true artists behind the music and deserve the majority of the profit, not only do record labels pay them less than they are owed they more often than not withhold royalties from the artists claiming some kind of contractual obligation.

Here is the sad part; it is because of this love affair with CDs that record labels, and the industry as a whole, are suffering. Not many people buy CDs anymore. A lot of people have the capability to find whatever song or album they might be looking for on the internet for either free or very cheap, so why would they go out and pay $20 for a CD? Record labels are not moving anywhere near as many CDs as they should be and they are in some dire straits presently, so it is reasonable for a lot of people to think that the industry is on its last breath.

The good news: The music industry is not going anywhere. The fact of the matter is that music actually does sell online. The majority of mp3 sites (that have songs for as low as 99 cents at times) have recently seen surges in their consumer base. The best part about selling the music online is that all the money goes into the hands of the musical artists who created the tracks. There is no greedy middleman micromanaging every detail of production in order to push a plastic disc with a pop hit on it, which is why many artists, like Cake, have decided to branch off on their own. The profits are better and the only micromanaging involved comes with a personal touch which more often than not leads to a better quality track. Now you cannot beat that.


Source(s):

Anderson, N. (2008, January 22). A brave new world: the music biz at the dawn of 2008. Retrieved
     from http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/01/state-of-digital-music-2007.ars/1