June 23, 2012

By George Howard & Jeff Price
(follow George on Twitter)

(Intro by George Howard)

We hear a lot about how it was “better back in the day.”  Gauzy nostalgia aside, I assume the “day” being referred to is some analog world (or, at least pre-file sharing world) where people purchased physical goods, and artists—ostensibly, at least—got paid a portion of the transaction associated with these purchases.  The refrain seems to go something along the lines of: pre-file sharing there was a system in place in which labels signed artists, promoted them, and then, when their records sold, paid them.  Sometimes stated overtly, and sometimes implied, in this line of reasoning is that, by dint of the fact that labels could only sign so many artists, they selected the more meritorious artists to release, and therefore the customer had fewer (and, following this line of reasoning, better) choices.  As opposed to today, where anyone who wants to release a record can, and, in so doing, “clutters” the market, which makes it more difficult for deserving artists to gain attention.  In other words, there are artists (and many industry types) who long for a return to these “simpler” times when an artist could make some demos, get signed, release a more-difficult-to-share record, and get paid.More