My question to you is, “Why on earth would you want that?”

As someone who spent decades in the old and dying music business, I can attest to the soul-destroying horrors that most artists experience there. Only a tiny percentage of those signed actually make any money and they subsidize the thousands who only end up owing the record company money and selling their souls in the process.

If the record company spends a couple of million dollars recording and promoting you and you only get paid a few percent of record sales royalties, how many records do you think you have to sell before you see a dime? With less and less people buying CDs these days, it’s a lot! And when was the last time you saw a record store?

But the worst thing as far as I am concerned is that so often corporate committees who only care about money decide what you should record, who you should work with, how you should look etc. In other words, you’re forced to violate your integrity as an artist daily. No fun!

How is the music business dying? Well record industry veterans are getting laid off left and right and CD sales continue to drop. And most music industry people are at a loss when it comes to knowing how to use the Internet to properly promote a band.

A friend of mine had 5 number one records in England and made a total of $5,000. When he left his label and promoted his album on the Internet he sold 4,000 copies (which would have made him zero if he’d sold that few with a record label), but he pocketed $60,000 from those 4,000 sales by being his own label.

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