Slashdot Mirror
EMI Only Selling CDs To Mega-Chains From Now On
farrellj writes "According to Zeropaid, record company EMI has been notifying small music stores that they will no longer be able to buy EMI CDs from EMI, and will have to buy product from mega-chains like Walmart. Independent record store customers are some of the most loyal music buyers around. You are not going to find the back catalog, what used to be the staple of the music business, at your local Walmart. One wonders when the music business is going to run out of feet to shoot?"
Indeed it's not. On the other hand, suppose you're seventeen years old. On the one hand, you have extravagant lifestyles of the rock-and-roll megastars. On the
other you have the prospect of a career scraping by as an independent, self publishing musician. It's not much of a contest. In terms of common sense, it's
a lot like spending all your cash on lottery tickets in the conviction that you're going to win big someday, but when you're that age, you know it's going to be
different for you because you're special.
Not really, I work in software development and nothing near music industry, and even tho I'd want to be 17 years old again (damn those we're the best years), I'm not :) But I do have the understanding how business industries work, and understand how artists need the labels. You can compare it to outsourcing, if that makes better sense (+ they sponsor too, same with game development)
In effect, it's a long con. The message is "if you work hard and have talent, then one day you too will be rich and famous". I think the reality of the matter is that
there's higher profits for be made from a small number of megastars, than there is from lots and lots of stars, and there are more talented, hard working bands than
the big labels can ever hope to use under their marketing strategy.
You're underestimating the power of lots of less-selling bands compared to megastars. When you have lots of them, you have more fans, more income and more sales. You also have more stability -- You're not depending your business on a few megastars that usually lose their status in a few years.
I thought that was why bands had managers, myself. Don't need a record company for that.
The managers are there to handle contracts with record labels, gigs and possible other stuff. But record labels still do many of the things.
wait.. what? what do you mean no?
What part of the word "no" are you having difficulty with?