DEAR MAJOR LABELS, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.
Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 12:57pm by Vince NeilsteinIn case you live in an Internet-less black hole, there’s some big news going around today about Minnesota woman Jammie Thomas being found guilty of copyright infringement for sharing music via Kazaa; Thomas now has to pay $220,000 in damages to the record labels that sued her. Companies suing their customers… that strikes me as a GREAT way to drum up business in a failing industry. Great job, guys, this will surely help your public image.
Now, before I go on a rant, I would like to say this: I am not a record label hater. I fully understand the need for marketing dollars to help a band gain exposure, pay publicists, tour support, advances, yadda yadda yadda. I get it, and I am not of the “all record labels are evil” ilk.
However, those in the record industry (please note the distinction between record industry and music industry), and in particular the major labels, need to take a collective step back and realize the following:
