I ran across an article whilst browsing some of those "bored at work" websites that I just spoke of in my last post. If you've ever wondered why I haven't gotten off my lazy ass and gone to grad school to get a M. A. M. E. (Master of Arts and Entertainment Management) or an M. A. M. B. E. (Master of Arts in Music Business Education) degree, here's one of the reasons why. I'd like to consider myself a pretty straightforward and honest guy, and even though I absolutely love music and border on being a music dork, and would love nothing more than to devote my life to bringing good quality music to the masses, I just don't think I could do some of the shit described in this article. Read it. I'm the young A & R guy that longs to be the "fat cat" executive that calls everyone "baby". I've known about the inner workings of the music industry for quite a while now, longer than most people my age. But every day, the "average Joe" is learning more and more about how the industry operates due to the recent lawsuits filed by the RIAA against music downloaders. The article is called "The Problem With Music" and was written by Steve Albini, best known for producing Nirvana's In Utero album. There is a ton off good information in the article, especially the chart showing how money is distributed among everyone involved with a particular band. The one bright spot is that most independent record labels don't operate under these kinds of standards, although by the same token, that's one of the reasons they don't make a lot of money. The music industry is almost wholly corrupt and is moving in the opposite direction it should be. Signing bands that all sound the same, only releasing material that fits into the "radio ready" mold, pigeon-holing itself into a target market demographic of 12 - 21 year olds, suing it's own customer base, not keeping up with new technology, destroying great bands you'll probably never hear who are locked into bad contracts, or making one hit wonders out of perfectly commercially viable bands (ask me about what happened to Dishwalla sometime). Eventually the giant will fall here, I'm just not sure I want to be under it when it does, .....if you catch my meaning.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 11:15 AM