Quote:
Originally posted by W.W.L.D.
As a person who's cd-purchasing and concert-going activities are pretty much confined to those artists who never get played on the radio (Clear Channel -- not college radio), I have to wonder what you mean by "marginal?"
I buy an average of 5 cds a month, often directly from small labels, that often are very closely associated with the artist. So, it is possible to buy music that is released without a reliance on those music companies that "play a huge role in funding and promoting records."
For instance, a couple of weeks ago I purchased the new Wrens cd -- a limited pre-release that had been silk-screened and labeled by hand by the band itself, released on Absolutely Kosher Reccords. This band is certainly not "marginal" by any measure -- or are they crappy b/c they don't get radio or MTV exposure?
Of course, that requires that people actually look for good music, instead of buying what is pushed by the Sony-Clear Channel-Tower Records-MTV -etc. conglomerate of shit. I really doubt that will happen.
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I'm using "marginal" in the economic sense of the word. Some bands are screwed by the margin in the sense that they just miss getting signed; if the market was bigger for their music, they'd get signed. For others, the "margin" affects how much money record companies are willing to spend to promote their album. If there was better enforcement of copyright laws, bands which get a $100,000 promotional budget for their album would instead get $125,000. The dollar not spent is a dollar at the margin. The band not signed is the artist at the margin.
Maybe the Wrens would get a distribution deal if not for online piracy. Or maybe they are not sell-able enough that the difference wouldn't vault them into that next level (it goes without saying that I am agnostic as to the quality of their, or anyone else's music, for the sake of this argument. This has nothing to do with the question of whether it's good for the sake of the art to have one's music distributed by a distributor, large or small).
That said, if there were more consumers like you, the music scene would be a lot more interesting.
