The Problem With the Music Industry

Steve Albini is an independent and corporate rock record producer most widely known for having produced Nirvana's "In Utero", has written The Problem With Music. Here's the bottum line :

The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties.

The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.

The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never "recouped," the band will have no leverage, and will oblige. The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won't have earned any royalties from their T-shirts yet. Maybe the T-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.

Other material On Intellectual Property Issues and Other stuff, inculding Mp3's

Update: But Don't worry about the Industry because the Recording Industry has a Grand Plan: Sue Some More against the evil file sharing , even if amidst the public ballyhoo about how rampant P2P piracy is costing the music business its very life (gasp! NO!), BMI announced it collected a record level of revenue and royalty payout to its artist members.