middlemen in music
kevin laws is back with the guys at due diligence, and today’s installment goes into where the power is in the recorded music business.
Music companies aren’t monopolies; they’re just middlemen who take a cut for helping the real monopolists.
we’re converging on the same language, which is a bit reassuring for me.
i do have one minor comment, and it’s more important in the big picture than at the top end of the power curve: i think i should note that the “minor labels” generally make their money “selling up” their acts. what this means is that there’s a whole food chain of “music companies” taking their cut as you work through the system (unless, of course, you are a music-industry creation and start ahead of the pack). these “little cuts” that everyone (label, manager, lawyer, new manager, producer, new lawyer, agent, new label, etc, etc, etc) takes are, effectively, a “death of a thousand cuts” for most of the musicians that start down this path.
kevin promises a future installment on “RIAA Enemy #1” – if my guess is right (and i do hope it is), you might’ve seen a little hint about why we both picked on walmart.