[BioMichanical]

I'm not entirely sure if I agree with this post, I mean yeah, there are some good points, but to be that biased means your not seeing the whole picture. I honestly see for the very first time garage bands, and small unknown bands have more power to make it into the music business than ever. It's a matter of marketing - that's what every business relies on. It's not who you are, it's who knows you, brand recognition. I think with the new age of networking, you can either whine about the problems it created or use it to your advantage. Band's who were signed by large record companies were getting screwed badly. They would get a 80 thousand dollar check, go and blow over half of it on the recording and the other half on gear and drugs. And the only chance a small band had to make it was to "get signed" and then get screwed.

Now small bands if they are wise, can adapt to the marketing power that is available to them, with iTunes, musicians freind, even free peer to peer file sharing, can get their name out. And with a bazillion home recording studios opening up, the cost of recording has dropped significantly. All a small unknown band has to do is find a studio with fairly decent rates, make a killer album, and then promote themselves in every possible nitch they can find. History proves that no matter how bad you suck, people will like you. Small indie bands, if done right can sell as 10,000 copies. Do the math, 10,000 x $10 bucks a CD that's a hundred grand. Maybe not millionaire's but enough to get buy and do what you love doing while making money at it. That's not including money you get paid for doing gigs, which has always been the band's bread and butter, not record sales. The artist who were signed to large record companies has always gotten pennies on the CD sales. Now your band can sell Mp3's WORLDWIDE without them.

Dude, it's a new age, the only way to move forward is to adapt, those who can't and just want to live in the past are going to become old and bitter. If it weren't for the Internet, small companies such as new egg, musicians friend, would have never had the opportunities to become as large as they are now, and give the larger corporations one hell of a run for their money. Competition was small in comparison to what it is now - the difference is the smaller guys took advantage. I think it's a good way to give larger record companies a nice loud rude awakening. Because your right....

A lot of music to day SUCKS! I admit it has gotten better since the dreadful 90's but what I hear anymore is one band gets popular and everyone coat-tails off of "their" sound, mostly because their producer tells them how to make this "cut and manufactured" sound that will get them big. Where is the variety people?!?!?!? We love variety, not copy-cats.

There are still lot's of really great musicians out there, who can impress even the most critical minded people, and now they have the opportunity to promote themselves without the marketing prowess of large record companies, and become successful at it. They no longer have to impress the producers, only the audience. And if the audience loves you, at your show, they WILL buy your CD! Just give em something incredible and quit trying to emulate someone else. I think the problem with current music is that people are trying to emulate emotions into their music, rather than put down how they feel on wax. Make it real, because I can tell when your faking it! Then you will have a great CD that sells.

believe it or not, people will buy, and iTunes proved it, to the record companies who refused to even consider that the Internet existed for any other reasons than to pirate their CD sales, it was after they adapted did they finally realize there is a way to make a profit through digital downloading.

Oh and one last thing, giving away free music - to an extent is also a way of marketing. People do love free stuff, and if you can somehow restrict it to a small amount, like say give em 3 free songs they can download, chances are, they will be back for more, and tell others about you as well. This creates popularity, which also creates "tada" opportunity! You cannot control the consumer, only try to understand what they want, and then find a solution that works for both them and you. I think that a lot of people just want to be rich, and make it big, and make lot's of cash doing it, both musicians, and producers, so they look for the easy way out. But that's crap! It takes hard work and dedication to do anything worthwhile.