I still dislike major record labels for forcing the public to buy CDs and increasing the price dramatically despite CDs being cheaper to produce. I am old enough to remember going into shops and watching Vinyl disappear. Money hungry labels forcing customers habits.
The nature of a label is to take the raw creative energy of a great artist and turn it into something that can be received by fans/ customers. There is a big difference between a track made in the bedroom and what ends up at the other end. Alot of people don't see the work of a record label and how they shape the releases, how they create a product. This will remain, we may not get paid for it anymore but it is still there. I enjoy listening to music and then seeing how it can end up as a "thing" with artwork, a journey in music (the track order), the text for pr purposes, and sorting out mastering etc.
Also independent record labels are also a way of a music fan to keep buying good music a label becomes something to rely on for taste. The record label has many roles that will remain. There is no harm in the majors going bust, inflated egos and prices disappearing is no bad thing. The radiohead giveaway is good and the majors fining people for mp3 distribution is only hastening their death. At rednetic here we give away music on redose.com.
The money we charge is more than the production costs, but once you take into account the postage for sending and other costs running a label there is no profit. And of course it would be great to make money from music, but not at the cost of artistic integrity, I have a job where I can corrupt my moral and artistic integrity as much as I want, I will not do it with the music. If we make money brilliant but if not its no great loss.
So go out there and download as much as you can, rip as much as you can and once in a while buy a nice product, here at rednetic we do limited special editions that you wont get as an mp3. Also go and see music live, support it as much as you can, its one place where the artist can and does make money.
Finally I read a book once that describe how the major labels treated some of the great black Jazz artists. It was disgraceful. One guy whose name I cannot remember was in a hospital for the mentally ill and he wanted to leave but he couldn't, the label visited him and said they could get him out, all he had to do was sign the contract, I think it might have been a 5 album deal. Factory records may have been a financial disaster but is a record label a distributor of creative artefacts or a business first.
If you don't like what people art doing set up your own label, its not hard, lets compete and love music.
Mark
Comments welcome