I've admittingly been spending to much time reading blogs and comments on this issue, most of which I agree with. However, I always grin at those who claim that record companies are out dated in the internet age and will soon go out of business. That the internet has levelled the playing field and any artist/band can get thier product out there and succeed. To which I say yeah right....
Of the thousands of CD released each year, which ones have the biggest sales? Those released by majors or thier imprints. Record companies have the marketing muscle, promo departments, and distribution networks to get product into peoples hands. If any artist wants to break out of the sub 100K sales they'll need to be with some sort of record company major or indie.
Myspace is touted a method of bands not needing record labels to push their product. So does having 10s of thousands fans signed up as a friend of the band translate into sales? What about the other 10,000+ bands who have pages on myspace, what kind of sales are they going to get by going direct to the consumer. Myspace just put out a cd with 17 of those 10,000 band of those. It still required to work with Interscope to get it to the marketplace. So when do the other bands get their chance in the spotlight.
Right or wrong labels serve as filters and have the capability to sell what the people want or think they need.
The part of the record industry which should change is the amount of control artists have over thier careers and product. Artists should be treated as free agents from the get go, being able to have control of thier masters from the start, and moving from company to company.
