What value does the music industry add to artist's work...? [View all]

[mike_c]

I was just thinking about the recent efforts to pass SOPA and PIPA, and the federal actions against "pirate" web sites, and it occurred to me that the "record industry," or whatever it calls itself today, has gone the way of medical insurance companies, i.e. it has ceased to add anything of value to the products it doesn't actually create and become primarily a parasite on artists and consumers alike. One that is now fighting to maintain its attachment to it's host because there's still some profit to be sucked out.

The industry used to provide a valuable service. Recording equipment was expensive, and sound recording expertise was in relatively short supply. One went to studios, many of which were run by record companies in one form or another-- or which depended upon them for business-- in order to create recordings for sale, and the record companies also provided the means to make and distribute the copies. That required an industrial base of sorts, and a marketing and distribution network.

None of those things are strictly necessary any longer. I know musicians who do professional quality recording with a laptop, some software, and a few pieces of off the shelf audio equipment. This guy does it in his van, while driving around the country: http://www.tosimplify.net/

What value does the recording industry add to artists' work today? I presume they still maintain some sort of publicity and distribution networks, but those would seem easily replaced with existing technology and custom, e.g. via artists' own online presence.