Posted by Peterson on 10/31/05 01:30

I beg to differ...this is essentially the very same means bands used to use
to get their music out to the masses before MTV. You just have to go out
and build fan bases, pure and simple. Constant touring, word of mouth,
patience, and actual honing of a band's songcraft.

I mean, let's face it, for the bulk of the bands on major label contracts,
the only revenue they see is from selling merchandise while on the road.
Ticket sales go to pay the venue, record sales go to pay the label.
Stickers and t-shirts go to feed the band. And considering the success
bands like Fugazi have had by self-distributing (I'd include botique labels
like Righteous Babe, but I don't know if they're in an umbrella or not),
it's not impossible. Sure, you deal with smaller fan bases, and you won't
sell maybe as much as you can through the labels, but let's face it, the
bands that we all want to download are usually the ones the labels aren't
marketing very hard, either.

If anything, this whole digital age makes it even more cost-effective for
bands. They don't have to pay to produce actual cds, they can just release
an album digitally. And if they were to perhaps work with a pay service,
they have an easy avenue to sell their work.

Yes, it'll be harder to spread the word and get their sales really rolling,
but it will take PHENOMENALLY less sales to overcome their oppressive label
contract and to actually start seiing profits from their work, rather than
feeding some fatcat who knows even the best band is just as disposable as
the next in this current system.

And it should be noted, that most of the free streams or downloads are, in
fact, simply more promotion!

-Peterson

"Zombie Wolf" <zmbwf@gwi.net> wrote in message
news:uZ6dnbqP1bLiDcPeRVn-hQ@giganews.com...
> This will never happen. How will the artist even become well-known enough
> to sell his music , without a giant organization with money bulging out of
> its pockets to pay to "promote" them ? Promoting these artists costs
> millions, an investment the recording industy is only willing to make if
> they are reasonably sure the artist will make MORE than they will have to
> invest to promote him. "Art" has been boiled down into accounting numbers.
> Take a look at the artists who DO post their "free" music on the internet
> right now, and tell me how many of them are "making it", either
> financially or in terms of fame.... You will find the very few that are
> have "signed up" with a label somwhere. This fantasy of artists being able
> to sell their art directly over the internet without some kind of
> intervening organization to support and promote them, is a pipe dream.

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