I am often put in a position of having to defend my position that major label recording contracts are unfair. My latest encounter is with “JB” on brad sucks’ web log. I’ve chosen not to spam brad’s site any more and continue the discussion here.

JB’s attitude is hardly new to me. The counter arguments are always the same and always (as in: never anything else) based on an ignorance of how the system actually works. There are several places in that discussion in which JB and I seem to be talking past each other so I will try to make my point of view as best as I can.

Before going on, you’ll need to print out and read (yes, it may take half hour of your time but you will not get a better understanding of the discussion) Courtney Love’s breakdown of the numbers and then her request for representation. Please don’t continue reading this or anything else related to the recording industry until you have read that speech. You might think she is a bitch and stupid and killed Cobain and hates America and anything else — but as far I know her numbers have never, ever, not once been disputed by anybody. Just the opposite, when an artist has been brave enough to come forward, her numbers have been confirmed. I’m not crazy about her music, I don’t know anything about her as a person (I’m guessing we would not really get along) and I’m totally ambivalent toward her public persona. But her numbers are facts. If you can’t get past her to the facts then please stop reading.

Speaking for myself, when I worked in the industry, even as a gopher I was amazed to see how many signed artists were “living below the poverty line” (their words, not mine). My encounters with signed artists confirms her version of what life is like under contract to a major label.

In order to help frame the discussion even further: Until very, very recently a musician wishing to make a living in the recording industry had one choice: sign with the biggest baddest label they could find. The analogy I use is to a big, talented American football player in Oklahoma: it’s the NFL or bust. (Apologies to Canadian Football.)

We seem to be in a time of transition (and I’m doing everything I can think of to facilitate it) away from the oligarchy of major labels. There are two main fronts to this fight: 1) creating an alternative universe where artists and fans are treating fairly and 2) reforming the existing, old school record industry.

In many ways these two fronts are unrelated because in reality the industry will allow itself to be reformed only so much — even through federal laws. So an alternative route for musicians who wish to make a living and control their own futures will always be needed. In fact the road chosen by the RIAA to criminalize their fans, remixers and other artists makes the necessity for this universe all the more obvious.

The alternative universe is going very well, thank you very much. A complete inter-connected system of real businesses and volunteers are are just now converging. For the first time ever, an artist can purchase an off-the-shelf computer and with no modifications and less than $2000 for software and gear create a DIY recording studio good enough to produce a solid record of music at a quality that fans seems eager to consume. Now add licensing terms via Creative Commons, labels like Magnatune, publishers like Rumblefish and (just in the last month really) an amazing array of modern-day radio jocks in the form of podcasters. The only thing missing now is our own award show! The alternative system is nearing completion and it’s now up to the musicians to make compelling, irresistible music that fans will do anything to own.

So why doesn’t every new artist hop on? Well, they kind of are. Magnatune has 100s are artists signed and Rumblefish seems to be doing pretty well. I can tell you that in the first month CC Mixter has been up there are over 250 new pieces of music in the Commons, all of it legal for sampling, half of it legal for commercial sampling. I don’t know if we can keep up that pace but if one site can land 3000 pieces of music into the Commons in a year that tells me the odds are good something is going to spin out of it. No? (Now you know why I leave the business angle guys like John at Magnatune lol).

But the alternative system is hardly a gimme for at least these reasons:

• DIY recording takes energy that can easily distract from other creative processes. Computers are a crashing drag, software is painfully confusing and audio engineering is complete voodoo. It’s getting better but I get mail almost every day from readers of this site that are of the “what the fuck?” nature. I’ve worked with several young artists in the last year doing brain dumps of everything I know (for whatever that’s worth) and their sound has improved incredibly but it’s a hard and slow process.
• It’s unproven that you can make a living using CC licenses and everything I’ve said. I know many Magnatune artists are making money for sure, but a “living”? At the worst of times it feels like the whole Internet bubble thing all over again.
• Major label sex appeal still holds court in many young artists’ mind. As of this minute the chances of hearing your music on the morning drive radio show are stronger if you’re signed with Sony than Magnatune, so if that’s your life’s ambition (or even not-so-secret-hidden fantasy) then there’s a deeply emotional gravitational pull toward the majors.

It’s this last point that will be hardest to overcome. After all, they have a 100 year head start on brainwashing the most vulnerable minds in our society: young, hungry musicians. No matter how many times Courtney Love (bitch) or Victor Stone (idiot) or downhillbattle.org (commies) tells you that your career is over (dammit) the day you sign the major label contract it just won’t penetrate.

And why bother? JB would ask. If you sign that deal you get what you deserve! He’s tired of these celebrity hungry feeble morons crying “victim” when the deal doesn’t turn out the way they were hoping. This is the famous “making music as loan sharking” argument.

Folks that put forth this argument simply do not know what it is like to be signed to a label and JB is no exception. The deal he (she?) thinks you get when you sign the contract is actually nothing like reality which, ironically enough, makes JB exactly as naive as the celebrity hungry feeble morons he/she claims to loath for not understanding the nature of the business. “Unrealistic expectations” indeed.

Most of the myths are perpetuated with an attitude of how a sane, rational person thinks things should be. You’d be some combination of insane, stupid, playing the victim, lazy, naive to believe reality is something other than what it should be.

Or, maybe, you would just have to know the facts.

Here are some of the myths regarding the industry that I always run into:

• A savvy artist would never sign their masters away No one who has tried this makes this claims. You can’t name one non-celebrity, previously unsigned artist that got away with this. It’s got nothing to do with savvy. It’s not an option. You sign, you sign away. You don’t own your music anymore and you never will.
• Any artist who goes broke did so because they blew their wad on limos and cocaine. Even if you don’t “make a statement” by pulling up to radio station promotional events in a beat up van it’s pretty hard to spend $500,000 on the occasional rented limo for a photo op. And it turns out people give you the coke. I’ve never heard of a (non-addict) recording artist that actually spent money on drugs. Besides which, it’s mute. There isn’t any money for the artist to throw away…
• Signed artists make a living No, actually they don’t. There’s no ‘living advance’ in the deal. Every penny is spent on making and promoting the product. The numbers don’t lie and Love’s breakdown of where the advance goes is right on. The people I know who signed went from middle class lifestyle before they signed to below poverty levels after.
• Artists have access to the label’s resources.. Absolutely untrue. Imagine if our NFL player got signed to the Ravens and then was charged for gym use, doctors, locker fees, uniform, travel, setting up press, meds, footballs, towels, Q-tips, bandages, etc. etc. and you start to get a tiny feel for what “resources” are made available to the artist. It’s an expense account in reverse where the artist is responsible for everything and label pays for nothing.
• The label has manufacturing and promotion expenses. This is only 99% untrue. The manufacturing costs are fobbed off on retailers who have been facing more draconian charge-back rules every year. And promotion?…
• Major labels know how to promote artists It turns out major labels have no idea how to break a new artist because they have never done it. Funny, sad and true. Certainly not using their own “resources.” The in-house publicity office is mainly responsible for coordinating interviews with local papers that 98% of time would have happened anyway as a result of the artist touring. The cover of People comes from hiring your own publicist. Same for radio. Double for radio. The only thing in-house radio promotion is good for is ordering the snacks. You can’t name a single artist that a major label broke where the artist did not pay for 98% of the publicity and promotion themselves.

Love cites a 95% failure rate and because they will never release their artist roster I suspect it may be even higher. The folks can’t even win in their own game when some one else is paying the bills. (Maybe the can’t win because some one is paying the bills.)

So the artist gets what they deserve? Not only do they not make enough to feed their family at the start, they still aren’t making money after selling millions of dollars worth of albums. Yes, if I swim with sharks I will be dismembered. Buy why on Earth is swimming with sharks a requirement for even pretending that I could make a living playing my music?

Now you’re faced with a choice: either trust me regarding the alternative universe or take your chances with the major label. Damn. Now that’s fucked up.

So we battle on in the second front: reforming the industry. And not just because trusting me is crazy in itself, but because something as universal as music for chrissake should not be in the hands of the those that would treat the people that make music with so much wanton injustice. Yes, injustice. It is not just to treat those that you profit so greatly from so unfairly.

It’s not the most important cause in the world, but I happen to think it’s worthy. And I’m not the only one — although I would be.

We are speaking out about the myths vs. realities of the industry and yes, we participate in acts of civil disobedience. Unlawful acts. Because the laws are unjust and are being enforced in cruel ways. We sample. We mash. We host the Grey Album, we post bootlegs, we download disgracefully copyrighted material. We do so exactly because it has the opposite affect the copyright holders claim it has: it actually helps the artist who made the music. It helps them get their music into places they would have to pay promotion professionals to get into. It lets them hold onto one more dollar, a dollar they wouldn’t see if we bought their CD in a store. Unfathomable, isn’t it? Twisted as fuck. Who would believe it. So yes, assuming there was anything these folks put out worth having and by these standards I am theiving, if not merry.

Some of these activities may well hurt the mail room guy. And his baby. And the local records store owners and their babies. Not that it’s hardly on the same level, but I’m assuming Rosa Parks’ actions were deleterious on bus mechanics. And their babies. I wish I could change things. So I’m trying.