Riaa

[Ldsmith104]

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/9305.cfm

They won't even let the artist give away their own music

[King]

I like music but i'm beginning to hate everyone in the music industry.

[Cleatus703]

You should understand that the majority of the problem lies with the labels, traditional radio, and the RIAA. The labels don't want artists to release music outside of the traditional chains because they don't make money off the works unless they sell them. Radio stations like the status quo because they make lots of money from advertisers if they are where you can here new music first (even if it is only a handful of bands), and the RIAA likes it because it just likes control.

An increasing number of artists seem to be realizing the limitations of the traditional label model (you have to sell as many as 400,000 units to start making money as the artist, the labels never seem to come clean on the financial side of the arrangement to begin with, if the labels don't love you getting airplay and promotional dollars to support the album is nearly impossible, and the only place for artists to make money is on the road and through merchandise). A band I like is doing a lot of direct releases out of their website with MP3s. They finally released an album late last year that contained some old, old stuff from the archives and are now working on a new product, but they've released something like 16 songs through their web site in various forms (some new, some older ones live, some new versions of older songs, some covers) and figure that if they release the music free, they'll get the fans through word of mouth and at concerts. So far, so good...

The inherent lies of the music business is in the price of CDs. In the beginning (back in 1985 or so), the prices were high (about $15 per CD) with the argument that the infrastructure to make and distribute them (new packaging format from albums, requiring new racks), was expensive and required higher prices than albums. While the price, when adjusted for inflation has come down a bit, it's hardly kept pace with the capitalization costs decline.

[Ldsmith104]

If you are not aware already research how Dave Mathews got started

[cavalierlwt]

No big deal. In twenty years RIAA and most of the musical companies won't exist, they'll be an outmoded business. Bands will give away their recordings and make money from live performances, no massive corporations involved.