Music industry, history and today

Mike B: Peter is right that there were some fantastic major labels during the album oriented rock and adult contemporary period (ie Geffen, A&M and GRP). Unfortunately those labels were either bought out or crushed by numbers-driven, multinational corporations during the 1980′s. I would still argue that the landscapewas better when the filter and promotion of major labels was relevant. That’s the current issue. Some of these major and independant labels still exist, but they are largely irrelevant. In todays market, record labels are much less of a success vehicle, yet they still take their traditional pound of flesh from the recording artist. I make no contention about their desirablility one way of the other, but they can do much less, and they provide much less than they did in the past and still require the same percentages. It has also been many years since those labels did tour support. On those lines, Don Henley wrote an article in 2004 called “Killing the Music” and it is a good read for those who have wittnessed the changes.

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