Chance to Change the Music Industry

THE RECORD INDUSTRY IS a joke. We’ve gotten a lot of comments about the site in the past 2 days; most people are really enthusiastic, some disagree with our criticism of Apple or with our pro-filesharing stance, but almost no one disagreed that the major labels need to go. So let’s find the way to get rid of them.

The decentralizing power that the internet has already demonstrated can make it seem like the demise of the major labels is inevitable. A lot of people who would like to see a more open and fair music industry believe that the very nature of the internet will quickly make the major labels obsolete. But large corporations can be very good at keeping themselves alive long after they stop being necessary; we shouldn’t underestimate.

Nobody’s happy with what the major labels do to music. But it’s not one particular strategy or approach that’s going to save music– Lord knows we don’t want our musical lives to end up revolving around crap like Kazaa. So if we want a fairer, funner music culture we really have to figure out what our options are, pick the best ones, and get to work before we miss our chance. And at any move we make towards change– no matter what it is– the record companies will be clawing back.

Updates:
-We added a “To sum up” paragraph to the iTunes piece to try to clarify some of our points.

-MSmittys suggested we make a responses page. It’s email comments we’ve gotten in the past couple days and our replies.

-Check out our new flyers, courtesy of TYC. Sweeeet.

-HW, NR, TC