The solution is to allow parents to select the best educational system for their children. Nobody knows better than the parent how the child learns best.
Anyone with reproductive organs and the urge to use them can end up a parent. I'm not saying that parents shouldn't be involved in their childrens' educations, but there are a good number of people who frankly don't give a ratt's-ass whether their kid is really learning anything.
Some kids need to be protected from their parents, or from their parents' situations (extreme example, the crack addict in the inner city) That, in my mind, is the job of the community, and the schools are the best thing we've come up with so far.
...that marketing is still necessary, expensive and risky...
Marketing is so expensive and risky right now because the major labels do so much of it. If it weren't for the fact that the backstreet boys had so much push behind them, due to the fact that the same conglomerates own both the major labels and the distribution channels local bands would find it much less difficult to get exposure.
The labels realize that it's a lot less risky to push the hell out of two or three acts that they know the public will buy, just on the basis of mass exposure, than to spread their resources across lots of smaller acts.
The demise of the major labels would be a great thing for everyone except Brittany Spears. Desktop audio software is now getting easy-to-use and cheap enough that a band with the dedication and the knowledge can produce recordings that rival those from a big 8-bazzilion-track studio. The only barrier to really-good local bands succeeding on their own terms is the overwhelming influence of the major labels.
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The solution is to allow parents to select the best educational system for their children. Nobody knows better than the parent how the child learns best.
Anyone with reproductive organs and the urge to use them can end up a parent. I'm not saying that parents shouldn't be involved in their childrens' educations, but there are a good number of people who frankly don't give a ratt's-ass whether their kid is really learning anything.
Some kids need to be protected from their parents, or from their parents' situations (extreme example, the crack addict in the inner city) That, in my mind, is the job of the community, and the schools are the best thing we've come up with so far.
Marketing is so expensive and risky right now because the major labels do so much of it. If it weren't for the fact that the backstreet boys had so much push behind them, due to the fact that the same conglomerates own both the major labels and the distribution channels local bands would find it much less difficult to get exposure.
The labels realize that it's a lot less risky to push the hell out of two or three acts that they know the public will buy, just on the basis of mass exposure, than to spread their resources across lots of smaller acts.
The demise of the major labels would be a great thing for everyone except Brittany Spears. Desktop audio software is now getting easy-to-use and cheap enough that a band with the dedication and the knowledge can produce recordings that rival those from a big 8-bazzilion-track studio. The only barrier to really-good local bands succeeding on their own terms is the overwhelming influence of the major labels.