The FSOL Message Board

Well, I guess that's what happens when you sign that contract. They now own the rights to your music and they can do pretty much as they please with it. I don't blame artists that choose to release music on their own independent label rather than deal with the big money companies. Even if it means they'll sell less and make less money.

They'll almost certainly make more money. Take XTC, who released 12 albums on Virgin between 1978 and 1992. To date, they haven't seen a penny from them.

Ross wrote:They'll almost certainly make more money. Take XTC, who released 12 albums on Virgin between 1978 and 1992. To date, they haven't seen a penny from them.

What's the draw then? Why do so many musicians sign for the big labels if they aren't making money from their own music?

The catch is - don't think that the music industry has anything to do with MUSIC, even though they contain the same letters and the same word.

The music industry is a business like any other, they have scouts, statistics guys, they control the medias (promoting, radio, music tv) and they just make money with smart moves. They recognize some talented people, offer them 200.000 quid (or whatever, it may be 2.000.000) for a deal that they record 5-10-15 albums for them, and then they make 50.000.000 profit from that album, and the people that made the music stayed with 200.000 in their pockets not seeing further profits from great albums still selling 20-30-50 years later.
- This is the general principle, there are variations - but 90% of the time - this is what you get with the BIG 5.

Musicians sign these deals because 6-10 years ago it was the only way you could be heard, and people who make music want to be heard. And most of them didn't even dream they'd sell in more than half-a-million copies...

Today, with the small indie labels (indie - I hate that word) and with the Internet, it gets easier, but the big companies will dominate for another 10-15 years before they die out... I think...

EDIT: It's not like the music industry is totally horrible, it's just not fair (most of the time), [and fuck it, people who make (real) music are not good at economy and deal making and general money-making] but also, many musicians get fame through them and can later live for many years from concerts, merch, and all kinds of music-connected stuff...

EDIT 2: This is why I generally don't give a shit and download whatever I can get my hands on (yes, this includes FSOL too), and later decide if I want to buy something from some band. I buy everything I can afford from FSOL and a handful of other bands, but that's about it.

The Haze wrote:

Ross wrote:They'll almost certainly make more money. Take XTC, who released 12 albums on Virgin between 1978 and 1992. To date, they haven't seen a penny from them.

What's the draw then? Why do so many musicians sign for the big labels if they aren't making money from their own music?

Partially because a lot of people aren't aware how screwed over most artists get. And yes, up until recently, it was very hard to get your music heard by people without signing an awful contract.
It's all in the phrase 'music industry' - music should not be seen as an industry.

Ulrich Schnauss - A Long Way to Fall

Pandemonium wrote:(stuff)

I think that one of the main problems is the super-soulless illuminati-pop that's is almost completely controlling the airwaves, apart from some small indie channels and media. And it saddens me to see the kids fully sucking in this mind-numbing crap, not evening looking at alternative sources. I actually wonder how much money the big companies push to promote this sickening mind waste to our young?

i.e. Miley Curys is pulling more weird but mentally dubious stunts than Marilyn Manson did in the 90's. And if we lose interest, bring out another mental breakdown. Who cares about the music, right?

And the further this goes, the harder it gets to drag the youth back to music that's made from the hearth and not constantly thinking about the monthly hit charts. And then the kids wonder why this musical fast food sounds like crap after a few years..

This is an age old mantra, but as a certain frontman of a certain band said, "the music doesn't play the same social function as it did in the past".. it's a shame that kids don't get that record shop-experience as much as we did anymore, I guess we all agree that walking into a record store and purchasing an album you'd been waiting for ages with you hard saved money had some real magic.

I know hanging onto these relics is living in the past, maybe it's just capitalism doing it's thing and sucking the juice out of everything original and cool.

So what I'm saying here is that the problem is actually the current state of society and peoples inability to enjoy and digest. Current state of music just reflects that.

No one is forcing anyone to listen to anything, people make their own choices. And let's be honest, pop music isn't always all that bad. I've discovered some really good music on the radio.

np:
Sunn O))) - Orthodox Caveman
Black One (2005)

Okay, so this isn't exactly pop stuff, if this were played on the radio people would be sueing the companies for having their speakers blown out and ears damaged

RazorJack wrote:No one is forcing anyone to listen to anything, people make their own choices. And let's be honest, pop music isn't always all that bad. I've discovered some really good music on the radio.

I agree, but also, another fact,
up until the '80s - the quality of (pop) music in general was much better.
It's a long theme... but I'm too lazy to type so I'll clump it one sentence:

Can anyone even compare Elvis Presley with Justin Timberlake??

Sadly most people don't make their own choices and simply buy into what is marketed at them.

The 80s is my favourite era for mainstream pop.

I had a rather weird experience the other day when I was approached by a stranger who looked a bit like Samuel L Jackson. After talking about what fish we should and shoudnt eat he went on to talk about the bible then the Devil. He explained that the recent wars and shootings in America are all the work of the Devil who has realised that his time is up and so is killing as many humans as possible. He also claims that the angel Lucifer was described in heaven as being pure music - then he was kicked out of heaven and became Satan / the Devil. This stranger then went onto say that music is how the Devil corrupts and eventually turns the children of the world. I presume he was talking about Eminem, and some sort of Metal - the usual stereotypical examples.I thought afterwards that i should have let him listen to some of my Tangents and see what he thought!

The only gripe I have is that the mainstream channel nowadays has absolutely nothing to say. Its like a drug they let their minds get sucked into to get by the week, then the second high kicks in in a different way on the weekend when entering a club or whatever. When we enter the hangover on Monday, no lesson, no evolution. People putting the "fun" mask on and not confronting anything or even thinking about things. For still being one of the main channels that people consume music next to the Internet its a real shame.

Its fine to "switch off" with music once and a while after going through a tough time, its also always been one of the best ways to do it, but I think as a whole this decade and the last half of the last the majority of people out there are going abit overboard with hiding from current problems in general, with nothing to say or give to anybody in the future to help out with what they're facing.

this is just a transition - All we can do is strive to make music that has meaning, and let other people hear it. Eventually pop will eat itself and the modern media control of all arts will start to dissolve, but for this to happen we have to be pioneers.
We have to challenge ourselves and the music we make and the art we produce and we have to understand that this modern world with which we have such disdain, is in the the final and most important step of creating a time where music art, spirituality and environmental concern enables us to move into a new age... a new paradigm, and an end to the previous one.

It's very important to focus on the positive side of things - do, make, say, think (hmm, where have I heard that before?). Even if what you do doesn't change things on a grand scale, anything positive you do has some positive effect. If the mainstream is so shit, then make the underground a brilliant alternative.

Ross wrote:It's very important to focus on the positive side of things - do, make, say, think (hmm, where have I heard that before?). Even if what you do doesn't change things on a grand scale, anything positive you do has some positive effect. If the mainstream is so shit, then make the underground a brilliant alternative.

this!