[JackSpratts]

"Follow the Money: Who's Really Making the Dough?"

typical business school propaganda. nothing like looking down the the wrong end of a telescope - in this case an established but out of date business model. the fact is simple; record companies are no longer needed. they may have been needed at some point in the past to distribute product but that's no longer the case. any musician anywhere can now record - and distribute music to a worldwide audience without the parasitical "help" of a label.

when you see figures that show less than 1% of artists make a profit from their recordings but continue to record because they must to fill clubs, you know the business is one-way in favor of the labels and must change for music to stay healthy.

bands have always been able to make music & records by themselves without selling out to a label. the difference now is they can get their recordings to any listener anywhere in the world without the recording companies getting a penny. that's what terrifies the labels and that's why they're doing everything in their power to stop the p2ps. it's not about the musicians and the artists and it never has been. it's not about the store owners either - not when the labels want to do their own electronic distribution (you should hear the shops on this subject). it's a pure power grab by the labels for the labels, period, and it won't net the artist or the consumer one penny or benefit.

if you have a product that fullfills a need you can charge a fee for it and people will pay. if your product doesn't fullfill a need people won't pay - unless you get a law passed that forces them to.

it's a new take on the old communism which outlawed all individual enterprise and gave it to the state. in this new 'backwards communism' the state outlaws all individual private enterprise and gives it to the conglomerates! listen to the artists.

- js.