The Greedy Music Industry

It's the End of the Greedy Music Industry as We Know It

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Legal piracy aka major label recording contracts

The music industry is a greedy parasite that preys upon music artists. Agents and labels take advantage of young and naive artists, giving them raw deals in exchange for cars, cash, and ego trips. The industry skims so much from the top that most artists receive only about $1 for every $14-$16 CD sale. Most never receive a dime because the record company always gets paid first.

The intoxicating lure of instant riches fuels the business. Children are only too gullible to chase after the dizzying fortune of Brandy or Puff Daddy. Unscrupulous agents easily prey upon the cream of the crop, pitting child against child. The competition between thousands of potential stars allows major labels to take advantage of aspiring talent. Countless artists like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel can tell volumes about how they unsuspectingly signed away the rights to their own songs.

The music industry has only detracted from the art form of making music. It pigeon-holes artists into tightly-defined categories from which there is no escape. Corporate-owned radio stations constantly search for the next new sensation that will attract listeners of the coveted 18-24 age group. Once found, the stations play the same songs over and over until the budding star fades into "greatest hits" oblivion.

The music business sets destructive norms for youth culture. Thanks to the advent of music videos, the music industry can pump messages into the homes of millions of unsuspecting children. It's a marketer's dream. Images of sex, violence, drugs, rape, and stupidity fill MTV's day-time programming. As long as the kids drink Mountain Dew, it's all business as usual. Record companies would like nothing more than for children to be oblivious of real issues and consume their products with abandon. All the while, corporations like Exxon and Monsanto continue to profit from and ruin what's left of the planet.

mp3 is an empowering technology. Artists can record their own music and post it on the Internet for friends and fans alike. Without corporate masters, musicians can promote their own image and messages. Diversity will triumph.

There are many ways in which artists will make money without relying on CD sales. Fans can support their favorite artists by buying concert tickets and merchandise such as T-shirts. Aspiring entrepreneurs will set up their own music web-sites and generate revenue from advertising and special services such as the "song of the month" club. Music will become an interactive and service-oriented industry. Record companies that insist on upholding the archaic consumption-based business model will perish.

Today's corporations could benefit tremendously from mp3's popular digital format, but they refuse to because they are stuck in the past, unable to realize that their business has fundamentally and permanently changed. The major labels and their conglomerates enjoyed tremendous profits as CDs replaced vinyl. The same could happen thanks to mp3. Digital mp3 players are far superior to "sports" CD players. mp3 players don't skip, so they can be worn during exercise and while walking to school and work. As far as piracy goes, entire albums encoded in mp3 are too large to be transmitted over the Internet via 56k modem. The process is painfully slow and the average Internet user can not find the music they want when they want it. Many consumers would purchase data CDs containing mp3 files that could be downloaded to mp3 players. As bandwidth increases, listeners will flock to websites that offer instant downloads, even for a fee.

Not just any digital music format will be as successful as mp3. No format will overtake mp3 unless it is as convenient as mp3. Attempts at copy protection are a waste of time and money. The consumer is far too savvy to put up with schemes that won't let him copy a song from his home computer to his digital player or work computer. Any format that has built-in anti-piracy "features" will fail. It's as simple as that. Corporations can either embrace an open music format and participate in the revenue stream, or they can enrich cryptographers and engineers, and ultimately lose.

On the other hand, it's not in the artists' interest for the greedy bastards who run record companies to continue with business as usual, raking in profits while holding a gun to band members' heads. The technology exists to stop the music industry in its tracks. Nothing can stop mp3 - not corporations and not their barracuda attorneys. Now it's up to artists to see the light and make their own way toward freedom. The Internet will be filled with the sound of music.