Do bands need labels anymore? Saturday, July 28, 2007 Do bands really need a label anymore to promote themselves and become successful? I would contend that we are getting close to the day when they won't. Between podcasting, blogging, internet tools and emerging forms of electronic viral marketing I believe bands will have everything they need to promote themselves independent of a label. Now, that doesn't mean labels are not good for anything. Outside of my disdain for the big four labels that continue to disadvantage the consumer and music fan I beleive many of the smaller labels are actually concerned with the artists and fans. While I think we will continue to see the decline of the music industry as it exists today, I still think we are a few years away before the grip of the RIAA on consumer behavior is lifted. As bands start to realize they don't need a label to distribute their content and become moderatly popular I hope we will continue to see more social music networking occur for unsigned music along with smaller labels thriving in larger numbers with the purpose of aiding the artists in their efforts. I would love to see the day when we stop seeing so many big label manufactured pop stars with questionable talent pushed down our throats by their large media budgets and greedy executives. Will it happen? Probably not but at least I can hope. Maybe there are even a few new business models yet to emerge for the music industry as technology develops. Just because there are many great promotional tools available to bands and artists doesn't mean they know how to access or use them. Time will tell! Two more days to stop the RIAA Friday, July 13, 2007

Yes, the evil empire known as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is at it again. This time they are out to destroy internet radio completely. Lets pause for a moment and define who the RIAA actually is made up of so you can understand why they would do something as foolish as to end one of the best exposure and promotional vehicles for artists that exists today. The RIAA is essentially the big four labels, Sony Music, Universal, BMG and Warner and they control over 80% of all recorded music content. Lets be honest here folks, the record industry is failing quickly because of their own unwillingness to embrace new distribution technology starting about 6 years ago. CD sales have been continually declining and the labels have been losing enormous amounts of money. The leadership at the large labels has been primarily controlled by the prehistoric members from the boards of directors at each company who still cling to a business model from 1950. The RIAA is a way for them to band together and try to maintain control of consumers habits. They sue everyone they possibly can and are forcing all forms of distribution to pay them more and more money in unreasonable amounts to continue to be able to play and promote their music. They do this under the claim that it is to support the artists when it is actually just a way for them to slow down the bleeding of their dead business model. Their are really only a handful of artists that benefit from this behavior, the ones at the top of the food chain at best. The thousands of artists out there trying desperately to get heard are being silences by this activity.
To the topic at hand, the RIAA is now demanding that internet radio pay so much money in royalties for playing music on the web that none of the great internet radio providers will be able to sustain a business. Please help stop this absurd attempt to kill internet radio! Write your congress representative today. Also, please visit the sites below for more information.

http://www.boycott-riaa.com



More next time..