Music Empires = Corporate Machines?

After a very long time, I visited an online drum forum and there was an interesting discussion about the state of the music industry.

You know how the saying goes, “they don't make X like they used to anymore”? (X can be anything, including women, but that's for another day). Well they bloody well do not make music like they used to anymore. What with the influx of good looking but untalented supposed “musicians” getting shitloads of airplay. If Paris Hilton can record an album and sell it, which she actually did, that says a lot about the state of the music industry nowadays.

Most of this can be blamed entirely on record labels. These money minded corporate machines only think of profits, and therefore the quality of music is lost somewhere between a band like Tool, talented bunch of guys who do not get much airplay and Justin Bieber who I can honestly say has not, will not and can never hold a candle to a band like Tool. The big 4 corporations; Sony, Universal, EMI and Warner, collectively control about 70% of the world's music which means basically almost everyone you hear on radio is signed to these labels. These labels take control of the image, music and the marketing of an artiste to maximise their annual earnings. The next time you see Justin Bieber with a new haircut or Lady Gaga wearing fishes as a dress, know that it was a job by the labels. The Westlife line up you know now? Yea, that's Simon Cowell's work.

To be fair to these labels, they run a business, and like every businessperson, they want to make money. But these monsters (I wish I could swear) do that at the expense of quality and regurgitate quantities of utter bullcrap. Not forgetting they also buy over smaller, independent labels that they think might be a threat to their business. Kinda like how the Mafia works. Yes, the music industry is a hazardous one, kill or be killed. Even established independent labels like Roadrunner Records (a label that caters to metal music) tend to at least co-operate with the bigger labels so as to boost their artistes' profile. Not only that, sometimes these labels also screw over their clients in ways such as not paying royalties, so yea, monsters does not cut it.

The only way this can be solved is to find the balance between money and creativity. Some labels like Roadrunner Records have successfully maintained the balance between making money and nurturing creativity. For all you know, if the bigger labels find the balance, Justin Bieber and Rebecca Friday might actually be able to sing.

Rock on.

Sticks