Being a musician myself I can assure you that it is. Even to just make a cheap sounding little ep is a major expense. If you wanted to record a professional sounding full length album...my god, the costs are astronomical. If you wanted to record the album out of your house with your own equipment...its still an unbelievably pricey endeavor (gear costs alot...and before someone says that you can record on the computer...you can...but half the time that would case even MORE)
summed up...no one person can afford to make a record. THIS IS WHY THERE ARE LABELS. They fund the studio time, they get the disc out, and they expect compensation for it. True, they take several pounds of flesh, but they do take a huge risk. 90 some percent of records made lose money...odds are not on the labels side. Without them the artists wouldnt be able to make records, in the vast majority of cases. Its akin to a mortgage...the banks rapes you, but few of us could buy a house without one.
As far as not paying for a record as a way to hurt the label...yeah, they wont get their money, BUT NEITHER WILL THE BAND. A label might not care about each individual record (theyll make their money off the others they sell), but that might mean that the band might not eat. I am utterly serious...I listen to mostly underground hardcore, and at most shows the members are asking people to buy things(cds, shirts, etc), or in one case actually make a donation, cuz without it they wont have gas money to the next gig.
summed up: piracy hurts the little guy the most. Columbia Records might withstand it, The Backstreet Boys can withstand it, but labels like Trustkill, Relapse etc wont, and neither will the bands they carry.
Slashdot Mirror
Theres also one by the name of Amoeba...we have that running on "one" of the computers where I go to skool
The cost isn't prohibitive?
Being a musician myself I can assure you that it is. Even to just make a cheap sounding little ep is a major expense. If you wanted to record a professional sounding full length album...my god, the costs are astronomical. If you wanted to record the album out of your house with your own equipment...its still an unbelievably pricey endeavor (gear costs alot...and before someone says that you can record on the computer...you can...but half the time that would case even MORE)
summed up...no one person can afford to make a record. THIS IS WHY THERE ARE LABELS. They fund the studio time, they get the disc out, and they expect compensation for it. True, they take several pounds of flesh, but they do take a huge risk. 90 some percent of records made lose money...odds are not on the labels side. Without them the artists wouldnt be able to make records, in the vast majority of cases. Its akin to a mortgage...the banks rapes you, but few of us could buy a house without one.
As far as not paying for a record as a way to hurt the label...yeah, they wont get their money, BUT NEITHER WILL THE BAND. A label might not care about each individual record (theyll make their money off the others they sell), but that might mean that the band might not eat. I am utterly serious...I listen to mostly underground hardcore, and at most shows the members are asking people to buy things(cds, shirts, etc), or in one case actually make a donation, cuz without it they wont have gas money to the next gig.
summed up: piracy hurts the little guy the most. Columbia Records might withstand it, The Backstreet Boys can withstand it, but labels like Trustkill, Relapse etc wont, and neither will the bands they carry.