Thom Yorke, Radiohead Frontman, warns young musicians should avoid getting tied with record labels, as they remind him of sinking ships, and says the world won�t notice their loss. Thom Yorke is long known for criticizing the entertainment industry excesses, and now he comes with addressing to emerging musicians in his new textbook for GCSE Citizenship Studies students, where he shares advice not to get too entangled with collapsing music industry.

In fact, record studios have been sinking since music became digital and this form of it undermined the stranglehold on methods of distribution. So music labels turned out to be bad marketing companies that found themselves not corresponding to a modern digital world where the artists are allowed to both market and distribute themselves without record labels� participation and almost for free.

Radiohead has always been the pioneer among the new music industry trends, starting with shocking the public 3 years ago when the band released its new album �In Rainbows� in the Internet directly to their fans, allowing people to choose the price they are ready to pay for the CD. This of course made music labels nervous, alongside with some industry members holding the conservative position, like U2 band manager calling the plan �backfired,� and Kiss frontman saying Radiohead is �on crack.�

Fellow bandmate Ed O�Brien, the member of the Board of Directors of the Featured Artists Coalition, joins Tom Yorke, believing that it will be just a matter of time (and most likely months rather than years) for the music labels to sink like holey ships.

Featured Artists Coalition is dedicated to assisting artists take control of their future and works, and profit from the possibilities presented by digital world. In other words, they are trying to create a reality where musicians would finally get paid for their works, but they feel themselves disagreeing with the self-protecting interests of the entertainment industry.

What Yorke is trying to deliver to the artists is that record labels are a distinct entity of the industry with their own aims, which are most often profits. In these terms they only see a musician as a source for making revenue. That�s why Yorke is sure that the collapse of music labels won�t be a big concern for fans who rather care about the quality of music.

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Bo pen nyang.

Amen

Yep, labels are reaping what they have sown.

The problem becomes, though, if the sale and distribution of music becomes the sole responsibility of the artists themselves, where does the power to enforce legislation to prevent theft and copyright infringement come from? At the moment, the labels are the ONLY people with enough clout to try and pressure legislation and influence link sites to prevent wholesale theft of music (which is ALL digitally distributed and prone to theft, nowadays).

I fail to see how any of you buy into the 'big, bad label' theory. Let's face it, if a label COULD afford to pay the artist what they think they deserve, surely one of these musicians would have started one by now? It's a LOT more expensive to do than you all think. If it wasn't, there would be NO 'predatory' labels. No-one would sign with them...

It's called the Music 'Business' for a reason... it IS a business. And, if there's one thing that history has shown us time after time, musicians make TERRIBLE businessmen! Look at the Beatles and Apple...

I'm sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but the labels aren't the monster we WANT to make them out to be. They are no more 'evil' than the boards of any large corporation, and we aren't espousing that the means of manufacture be placed in the hands of the worker, are we? Look how well that worked in the Soviet Union!

Capitalism allows any of us, if we think we can do a better job than current businesses, to start our own. And, if we do a better job than they, we succeed and they fail. This has been TRIED in the music industry. And the inevitable result is either failure, or turning into what we reviled in the first place (because the bottom line demands it). Look at A&M Records, or any other musician started label... Someone, somewhere, HATES them as much as Sony or any other big label!

But with the world addicted to free music, stolen from those who worked long and hard for it (whether by themselves or with a label), who is going to stand up for the artist?

Artists NEED labels, now more than ever...

Unless fame alone, with little monetary compensation, is all they should now expect. Seems to me that the general public is shafting musicians more than any label EVER did...

I think there may be some truth in that. I thought I read somewhere that most artists get most of their income from concert tours, so any 'fame' derived from the 'stolen' property would serve as advertisement for the concerts.......wouldn't it??? I mean, no one is going to come to your concert unless you're 'famous', right? Just a thought.

chas

Lets see... now artists make a few cents for every CD they sell...

Imagine Artists selling half the CD's they sell now because of more illegal copies and such, but making $7 a CD...

No way that artists need record companies...

Artists currently make 90% of their money from concerts, merchandise and addvertiements... and not from the CD's they sell.

This is good news and also proof that the record labels are greedy, totally disconnected from reality, their artists and listeners. They basically screw everyone over for a Profit.

How else can you have a product that everyone wants, yet you find yourself going out of business.

Music has always existed, and will continue to exist long after the fat cats and greedy labels are gone. We will simply have a far more personal industry that deals direct between the actual artists and studio's.

So this gets a big thumbs up from me.

James

I don't know if it is "good news" because anytime ANY company goes out of business people lose jobs ...

"How else can you have a product that everyone wants, yet you find yourself going out of business."

How many people buy an actually CD anymore vs. purchasing and downloading just the tunes you want from iTunes or where ever??? ...
And why is it that anytime people are in a business to make a profit they are "greedy" and "fat cats" ... are we not all trying to get the top dollar for what we do?
t.

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 06-16-2010).]

[This message has been edited by tony mads usa (edited 06-16-2010).]

once the record labels go out of business, then i gues its down to the artist to sort out the promotion design packageing , mamagement and distribution of their product.

After all that....they may even have time to write a song or two......

Google Pomplamoose. Great, talented kids, and they're "gettin over" without a label. Just got "Mr. Sandman", one of their recordings chosen for a Toyota commercial.


Things are changing...the jury is out, as far as I'm concerned on where things will end up and whether it will be better or worse.


Russ