Den of Thieves
posted September 7, 2009, 5:26 am | Log In To Post Comments | 
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Tags: Dark Star Line, Black Opus, Myspace
By willing giving your music to Myspace you are filling the pockets and greasing the wheels of the very machines that most many indie artist and fans say they are against.
What most indie musicians and fans do not know is that Myspace music is a joint venture between News Corp and three of major music labels.
When the joint venture was set up NewsCorp/Myspace paid the Major labels close to 100 million dollars as a settlement against law suits filed by the majors. In a sense NewsCorp/Myspace used royalties/money generated by independent artist and their fans to pay the labels off. A Major Label and NewsCorp/Myspace partnership means that when an independent artist uploads their music to Myspace and add points their fans to their profile page; they are filling the pockets of the labels as well as News Corp and receiving very little in return.This is a great arrangement for the labels, they generate millions in revenue from independent artist without having to pay them anything for their music. By partnering with News Corp/MySpace the Majors have co-opted all indie artist that use Myspace music.In fact indie artist that use Myspace have the worst label deal possible; no percentage of any revenue from the Labels or NewsCorp, even though collectively Indie artist content generates hundreds of millions of dollars. I do not belive in the argument that Indie artist and fans have no other choice than to use Myspace. Music Emmissions is a great example of an alternative to Myspace that is not aligned with the Majors.There are choices as and we should understand and take responsibility for the choices that we make as artists.
I think that it is hypocritical to have a band with a message in their music that speaks against a system and at the same time the band knowingly participating in the very system that they are criticizing.
Comments:
I agree, bands like what System Of A Down progressed into...Had a huge message and inspiration for their sound. And yet, they took it on the chin when it came to dealing with stardom, had to disband it got so out of control. In a way, you have to blame the listeners and how they pedestal these bands too...As for myspace, yeah, it used to be an independent project and got bought up. Its the idea of indie gone wrong for money.
posted on September 7, 2009, 3:39 pm
