[Danny Tse]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0217-01.htm

[John Watson]

A lot of truth in the concern about soulless conglomerates.

Little musical tribes and cults is not the ideal alternative to todays MTV and radio mediocrity.

My worst nightmare is Bill Gates getting control over content as well as media.

Has anyone composed and executed a decent piece of music called Matrix?

[Michael Hein]

Nice little read. Nothing really new stated in the article but its good to give the problem some exposure and veterens like Don help it.

[ChristopherDAC]

Sadly, the feudal system was much better for creating fine art than the market system. You didn't have to worry about the tastes of the mass market, just the archbishop of Salzburg. Think of it, only having to sell a piece to one person... but having it heard by thousands

[Josh Simpson]

Good read. It is sad how music seems to be style over substance today, thus affecting sales and the industry.

[Paul.S]

Preach it, Don.

Too bad he didn't mention CD pricing. As sure as independent retailers (and I think NARM) sued the labels and major retailers alleging price fixing, long-too-high CD prices have IMO contributed to ". . . many perceiv[ing] the music business as being dominated by rich multinational corporations."

"While you were sleeping/They came and took it all away,"
-p

[Yee-Ming]

I wonder if it's viable for artistes to form a co-operative? They band together to cover overheads for things like manufacturing and distribution, the co-op takes a modest cut to cover overheads?

But one suspects many labels started that way, then sold out to the big faceless conglomerates when loadsa money was waved their way.