September 15, 2008 4:44 PM

The end of the world as we know it

The following is in responce to a post by JT Woodruff of Hawthorne Heights on AbsolutePunk.net

Full Disclosure: I HATE Hawthorne Heights' music, but I think Woodruff made some valid points.

This is not a new subject and I believe I've spoken about it here before. I rip cds to my computer and then copy them to my iphone/ipod/iwhatever as soon as i get them, but to me there's still something about looking at / reading the liner notes.

I think that labels should strive harder to sign bands for their talent and not their scene appeal and then nurture them until they are ready to release a record of quality material without the filler. Signing a band should be viewed as an investment and not a lottery ticket.

I feel like licensing songs to video games, television and movies are okay as is previewing half of the record or so on myspace or purevolume to garner interest in the band / record.

The labels should then only sell the full album, not singles, for around $8 for digital and $10 for physical. The lower prices combined with the ability to have previewed most of the record should promote buying. I know this won't stop piracy, but let's face it, nothing will. As long as there are goods in the marketplace, there will be those who steal them.

It's sickening to me to see the casualties of the war between Labels, Bands and the Consumer. There are so many quality bands out there that are drowned out by this flavor of the week crap from FBR, Victory or whatever label looking to make a quick dollar on whatever is popular for the moment. But as much as we want to blame the record labels for the situation we are in, the real power lies in the hands of the consumer. The labels wouldn't sign all of the talentless poser bands if we weren't buying the records they put out. I'm not going to lie, I've been at target or best buy and seen a cd and thought, "Oh, there's the Metro Station record. Those guys seem like tools, but that one song is catchy. Maybe I should buy their record." So I bought their record and it was crap. I don't know how many times I've done this. The bottom line is that if we're tired of labels signing crappy bands, then we need to stop buying their records.

In closing i leave you with this analogy: If I buy a computer, I read reviews online, talk to my friends and test it out at the store before I make a decision. If I'm going to buy a record, perhaps I should take the same approach.

Posted by zackery at September 15, 2008 4:44 PM

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