Off: Sad Music Industry

[BREVARD, Adrian R.]

Damn wish I saved the article.  Anyhow Washington Times Business Section
lead story concerned the continuing decline of the music industry.
Projected numbers thus far are 10% worse than last year which was a
disaster.  30,000 new releases in 1997 and only 2% of them sold more han
50,000 copies.  Bands are being dropped from labels at an alarming rate;
mega bands are signing lucrative long term deals based on what they have
done in the past and few are making money in this game these days.

The biggest problem cited in the article was that few, if any, of the
major labels are independent business; most are owned by large
conglomerates with an eye on the bottom line.  Sad, when artist ran this
industry we got art, with coporations running the show we are getting
"whats hot at the moment".

Everyone is waiting for the "next big trend to emerge" to pull the
industry up by the bootstraps.  This ain't gonna happen until one of
those ivory tower jerks discovers The Brain Surgeons 8>).

Who's really suffering from all this, music lovers and artist.  Death to
corporate music, long live the indy label!

Gonna go cry in some fake beer now.

lil ab

"JUST A GAME"
Words and music by Rik Emmett

Wizards of a modern age cast spells of electric power
But the corporate strings that make them dance
Lead up to an ivory tower
There sit the fates in solitude, far from the public eye
No one ever sees them smile and nothing makes them cry

Welcome to the kingdom, the land of bought and sold
A world of real-life fantasy where truths are seldom told
Try hard to remember all that glitters is not gold
You can pay the piper, but you cannot buy his soul

CHORUS:
It's just a game, you're in it all the way
It's just a game, don't let yourself slip away
It's such a shame, I heard somebody say
It's just a game, and all I can do...is play

What you do choose, now, what do you believe, now
Who are you gonna trust?
All you dreams and fancy schemes
Just crumble into dust
Calm and cool and computerized to calculate and collect
We wait and watch and wonder
Just which puppet they'll select

Like the moth, too near the flame,
Who learned his truth too late
We're all too deep into the game
That is the master of our fate

The poets and the pipers have got their motives
And you've got yours, no doubt
And so the game continues
That's what it's all about...