It's no secret that I'm no fan of the record industry. But I am a big fan of former Talking Heads leader David Byrne.
So I was thrilled with this Reuters story about Mr. Byrne railing against the greedy record companies and Digital Rights Management (DRM).
For the greed factor, Byrne notes that the companies pay the same artist royalties for sales over iTunes as they do for CD sales, even though there are only minimal manufacturing/distribution costs. And he admits that he downloads music "illegally" rather than put up with iTunes' DRM restrictions.
Byrne's sensible suggestions?
1. Have artists work independently of the industry establishment.
2. Use music as a loss leader for tours and merchandise revenue.
3. For promotion, do-it-yourself on YouTube and the like instead of paying millions to make videos for MTV and the like.
Now that's starting to make sense.
Oh, and if you want to take a stand, join Gizmodo's RIAA Boycott for the month of March.
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