Actually, the article does indeed talk about that.
Believe me, I am aware of what recording contracts can be like. None of my bands have ever been courted by a label, major or otherwise, but I've done my homework, and I have a solid understanding of how the industry works. If a production knife company approached me to do one of my designs and their contract contained any of the terms you might see in a standard music industry recording contract, I would first laugh in their faces, and then light the thing on fire and tell them to go and pound sand. And yet recording artists sign contracts like these every day.
You will get absolutely no disagreement from me about how stupid it is to sign something you haven't read. Again, artists do it every day.
This is the digital age, my friend. For under $10k, you can build a home studio that will produce a polished, mastered, finished product that's as good or better than anything any major label is putting out. You can take your time making sure everything is exactly the way you want it, you don't need a big name producer or a label breathing down your neck , and you don't need to spend a fortune to do it. Shit, you don't even need to be an educated musician, you just need to be fluent with your instrument and equipment. More and more people are doing it every day. And you don't need a major label to spend a fortune promoting you. If you're doing good work and people like it, your public will do a lot of the promoting for you. And then there's Youtube and the various other social networking sites.
And this is why we're seeing all of this RIAA related horseshit. It's because now, in the digital age, it is more possible than ever before to completely bypass the record labels, and do things guerrilla style. And that's a GOOD thing! Because it means more artists able to maintain creative control over their finished product, earn a sustainable income, and far less record label sodomy.
Check this guy Jack Conte out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBUUO...1&feature=plcp
And:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Conte#Jack_Conte
Awesome compositional structures, extremely polished and tight, video and audio all done by him in his home studio. Zero label support. Zero radio play. And zero record label meddling. Almost A MILLION hits, just on that ONE song. Let me tell you something - this dude is getting PAID right now, and he's doing it on his own terms. If he were on a major label, right now he'd owe THEM money. And I guarantee you, his compositions wouldn't be what they are because a label would say it's not marketable and it needs to be dumbed down. In fact, a label probably wouldn't let this guy do a quarter of the stuff he's doing now.
And personally, I'd rather give my money to artists than to a record company that abuses them, stifles their creative spirit, and then throws them in the gutter when they burn out.
So tell me again how RIAA and the old school recording industry are good things?
You say the business model for the recording industry hasn't changed in 40 years? That's true. And that is why the traditional recording industry is dying. I say good riddance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyobanim
What that article neglects to tell you is how mych money the company has invested in the creation of that product. And it neglects to tell you that the artist has a piece of paper called a contract that they have to read and sign. If they don't read it then it's their bad.
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