"Gosh, the same music industry that's always crying about how digital prices need to go up sells nearly a quarter of all albums via digital sales, not having to pay for all the creation, marketing, etc to get it done with so many companies out there selling their stuff for them."
Ah, but there you see why the music industry fears digital sales. They contribute nothing to the process, so what's to stop the artists from cutting them out of the process?
"Gosh, the same music industry that's always crying about how digital prices need to go up sells nearly a quarter of all albums via digital sales, not having to pay for all the creation, marketing, etc to get it done with so many companies out there selling their stuff for them."
Ah, but there you see why the music industry fears digital sales. They contribute nothing to the process, so what's to stop the artists from cutting them out of the process?"
Ding ding ding, we have a winnah!
That's part of the problem. The part is that the labels, the big ones anyway, are NOT signing or releasing anything of quality, and their output is WAY, WAY down from what it once was. Of COURSE sales are down, they release LESS. That's part they want you to not notice - and will deny until they're blue in the face.
Ask anyone from a major label this question: how much lost sales have you suffered in the last five years from the numbers of acts you dropped from your label, for "poor" performance, or during mergers and aquisitions?
Don't expect an honest answer.
Also, the entire industry is in a slump. There's no big fad going, no trend, nothing to sell into. We've had slumps like this before, they pass, when a new trend hits, and they start signing acts again. And everytime it slumps like this, the RIAA and the labels start running around sniveling and wringing their hands and crying poor, and start attacking their customers - they did this same poor pity me act during the 80's around the time of the PMRC and Tipper's follies, and were bemoaning the fact that people had the AUDACITY to buy a blank cassette when they bought an album, so they could...gasp...TAPE IT. (You know, one for the car, one for the office, one for the Walkman...) So they got Al Gore to pass a blank tape tax that's still levied, and they shut up and went away, hair metal blew up, and they made billions.
I work in the music industry. I hate the business side of it, it's as corrupt and sleazy and would make the dirtiest politician alive cringe at horror with their antics. But I love the creative side of it, so I put up with it, like many, many people do. And a LOT of people are questioning why they need the labels, and it's getting hard to find any - the labels are killing the preverbial Golden Goose, and blaming everything around them but their own hands around it's neck.
The common attitude I hear now is, there's no point to being signed to a major label, all they do is rip you off and hold you back.
I tell musicians starting out, learn ProTools, get a decent home studio, and do it yourself. The tools are all there - ProTools, websites, MySpace, touring, and you can publish your music yourself through ASCAP/BMI yourself, no labels needed. A couple of grand for a decent lawyer, a decent booking agent, and you're good to go. These are things a label used to provide, but they dont even bother to do that anymore, most bands pay for it themselves anyway (even if the label provides it, they still have to pay for it anyway). Make your own label, sell through iTunes, or the other music portals. Radio is dead anyway, so don't bother, but XM will play "unsigned" music. (Sirius needs a lot of work here).
It's basic math: 3% of 20K albums sold, or 100% of 20K albums sold (minus production costs, lets say 10K).
You bet the labels are worried - they have every reason to be.
They produce no music. They are in fact the "metalised plastic disc distribution industry".