Janis Ian articles on the music industry

Today I read two articles by musician Janis Ian, which evidently have caused quite a furor at the RIAA and NARAS. Much of the content is similar to other annoyed-with-the-industry articles written by musicians (which are popping up with more regular frequency) but I never get tired of hearing this rant, as it's much the same as my rant.

Here are the articles:

http://janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html
http://janisian.com/article-fallout.html

And here are the juicy bits I particularly liked:

Again, from personal experience: in 37 years as a recording artist, I've created 25+ albums for major labels, and I've never once received a royalty check that didn't show I owed them money.

And for those of us with major label contracts who want some of our music available for free downloading as well, the record companies own our masters, our outtakes, even our demos, and they won't allow it. Furthermore, they own our voices for the duration of the contract, so we can't even post a live track for downloading!

Getting your record played on the radio costs more money than most of us dream of ever earning. Free downloading gives a chance to every do-it-yourselfer out there. Every act that can't get signed to a major, for whatever reason, can reach literally millions of new listeners, enticing them to buy the CD and come to the concerts. Where else can a new act, or one that doesn't have a label deal, get that kind of exposure?

"So why are the record labels taking such a hard line? My guess is that it's all about protecting their internet-challenged business model. Their profit comes from blockbuster artists. If the industry moved to a more varied ecology, independent labels and artists would thrive - to the detriment of the labels"

Many thanks to Chris Palmer (see http://www.kineticworld.com/ and http://www.ctpdesign.com/The_Stuff/) who brought this article to my attention over an amazing luncheon at Berkeley's La Rose (incidentally, my favorite Berkeley restaurant)