[Whilst Label:life does not condone the scathing tone and sweeping generalisations of this (somewhat badly constructed) sentence, we do believe that it does a good job of holding up a mirror to the industry, raising important questions and pointing out a few home truths to us all that must be addressed for the industry as a whole to progress to the next level with a sustainable (and, dare I say, ethical) business model. -Ed]
Let’s review our plot so far: We have an industry that is afraid of technology, its senior spokespeople lie to congress, they use Enron-like accounting, they somehow—WHOOPS!—forget to pay their artists, they are convicted price fixers, at the first sign of any kind of an economic rebound their instinct is to raise prices, they have ignored competitive pressures from other forms of entertainment such as DVDs, they ignore the devastatingly negative effects of radio ownership consolidation to their business model, they engage in all kinds of anti-competitive protectionism, they are unconcerned with the quality of their product, their customers are harried for time and distracted by other interests, their customers see nothing wrong with downloading music for free, some of their biggest stars are hoping the Internet will replace the labels, despite all too many signs that their product is over priced, they refuse to allow market forces to set competitive prices, they have consistently been one of the most mismanaged businesses in history, oh, and they somehow think they are immune from the business cycle. How are these guys still in business?
[Ouch!-Ed] [from www.bigpicture.typepad.com]