It sure as hell can be justified when you consider this is a monopolistic market. The RIAA (four corporations in name, one in deed) controls all the methods of promotion, MTV, radio play, etc., which for the last few decades has been the only way for musicians to gain the (inter-)national exposure it takes sell cd's. Do you think musicians would be crawling over each other to sign on a major label otherwise?
In a competitive market, you don't complain that X company has a ridiculously high profit margin, you keep quiet and enter the market yourself to get a piece of that. Prices fall, you make money, everyone's happy. But mainstream music is not a competitive market. If there were some competing record label that could muster even a fraction of the promotional clout of any of the big four, the artists would go there immediately, cause they're just as fed up with this shit as any of us.
Sure, you can listen to any old band you listen to, but if you still turn to the same tv/radio channels as everyone else to find new bands your choices are already confined to RIAA pawns and a few pawn-wannabees. Which makes the big 4 so confident that you'll "choose" to keep buying their artists' music that they charge $18 for a cd that's already gone platinum.
But on the bright side, the potential of the internet as a cheap promotional tool may be what it takes to break the music monopoly. If we take sites like mp3.com seriously, and are wiling to actually spend money on mp3's from bands we've never heard of offline, some musicians may be able to make a living promoting themselves. And if that happens, the floodgates are open for musicians to cut out the middle-men.
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It sure as hell can be justified when you consider this is a monopolistic market. The RIAA (four corporations in name, one in deed) controls all the methods of promotion, MTV, radio play, etc., which for the last few decades has been the only way for musicians to gain the (inter-)national exposure it takes sell cd's. Do you think musicians would be crawling over each other to sign on a major label otherwise? In a competitive market, you don't complain that X company has a ridiculously high profit margin, you keep quiet and enter the market yourself to get a piece of that. Prices fall, you make money, everyone's happy. But mainstream music is not a competitive market. If there were some competing record label that could muster even a fraction of the promotional clout of any of the big four, the artists would go there immediately, cause they're just as fed up with this shit as any of us. Sure, you can listen to any old band you listen to, but if you still turn to the same tv/radio channels as everyone else to find new bands your choices are already confined to RIAA pawns and a few pawn-wannabees. Which makes the big 4 so confident that you'll "choose" to keep buying their artists' music that they charge $18 for a cd that's already gone platinum. But on the bright side, the potential of the internet as a cheap promotional tool may be what it takes to break the music monopoly. If we take sites like mp3.com seriously, and are wiling to actually spend money on mp3's from bands we've never heard of offline, some musicians may be able to make a living promoting themselves. And if that happens, the floodgates are open for musicians to cut out the middle-men.