logictortured.com Blog

Out with the old…

July 23, 2010 on 6:05 pm | In Copyright | No Comments

I’ve written previously about the impending death of the independent book store.  It appears that publishers themselves are facing a crises.  Writers are bypassing traditional publishers and are making ebook deals directly with Amazon.  They’re able to do this because their original agreements with the publishers did not specify ebook distribution rights.  So under the law, such rights remain with the authors.  

I never understood why major music artists aren’t doing this.  Why do they let the labels take huge cuts from their work when they can sell their music directly through Amazon and iTunes and keep the profits for themselves?  

I wrote about John Mellencamp in the past.  He’d be a perfect candidate to break free from the labels, which he’s bitched about his entire life, and sell directly to his fans.  But yet he’s complaining that the label model is dying.  Artists like him are so locked into the label mindset that they don’t realise they’re trapped.  It’s like a rockstar version of the Stockholm Syndrome.

The only old artist who seems to get it is Mick Jagger.  He recently pointed out that the whole model of selling music to fans via plastic discs only lasted about 25 years.  He recognizes that it was a blip, a mere anomaly, and that artists should probably give up on trying to get it back and earn their money the old fashion way.  Performing.