I can't believe that in this day and age, when CD sales are down so low from 10 years ago, that people honestly think bands are making music to exploit people into buying their record. I'm not calling anyone in particular out, but you must be walking with blinders if you seriously feel that way. There are far more lucrative avenues to pursue these days to maliciously extract money from people (like for example -- go to work for Activision). Just because you don't like a musician's music doesn't mean said musician doesn't have his or her heart in what he or she is doing. Don't like it? Don't buy it. But it's not Nickelback's fault that millions of people disagree with your personal taste in music. I don't like them, but it is what it is.
I'm going to break this down and this is going to be a long post. Hope that's cool!
In this day and age, there really is no standard for a record deals anymore like there was in the 90's. Nowadays, your band could strike a record deal in which the label takes the right to your publishing (in other words, the rights to the songs themselves) AND the CD. Now, this may seem evil, but it really isn't. CDs aren't selling what they used to, so the label is able to recoup the money it loses on promoting and releasing the CD faster this way.
However there are bands nowadays like Periphery, Cradle Of Filth, Celtic Frost/Triptykon, Dillinger, etc etc etc etc who sign licensing deals with the label and keep their publishing. In other words, they basically sign a deal with their label to only distribute and promote it, but the label doesn't keep any rights to the songs themselves, or even the CD itself. They only get the rights to release it exclusively. This means the band actually makes more money with each CD sold. However, it also usually means that the band will be responsible for paying for its studio costs (and some other costs usually such as touring) on its own.
The point that I'm making with all this though, is that if you buy the record, yeah the money may not reach the band, but it helps the band. If the record doesn't sell and the band gets dropped, the band is fucked plain and simple. I hear alot of people championing the death of the label, but I really doubt that's happening any time soon. It is virtually impossible to accomplish the proper touring, promotion, etc without outside assistance and outside funding. No serious booking agent will book a band without a label backing the release and no serious distributor will distribute just one band unless that band is huge or has proven sales potential.
I also don't want to sound like I'm one of these die-hard assholes that ostracizes downloaders and points fingers. I download plenty. In fact, I think downloading is one of the best things to happen to this industry because it gives the buyer an option to try before he or she buys. However, I do think that if you like the band you should support the artist and buy it. By doing so, you enable the artist to keep making music and keep them on the road. Just personally handing them 10 bucks doesn't necessarily help this cause, because after all, most of these bands are not business-savy. They just want to jam their tunes and write music.
but you raise some valid points Zach.
