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Because they are essentially giving into a massive bribe, often at a very young and vulnerable age. And keep in mind, the vast majority of musicians out there d

Because they are essentially giving into a massive bribe, often at a very young and vulnerable age. And keep in mind, the vast majority of musicians out there do not sign with record labels. Furthermore, only a small percentage of those who do actually become successful. It's essentially like playing the lottery. It used to be that record labels provided powerful marketing power in addition to the initial cash bribe, but these days superstars are born on myspace and YouTube. I think record labels will be replaced be smaller, more agile PR/management teams who understand how to nurture viral growth and also manage the business side of making it in the music business.

pyre 16y ago
In addition to marketing they used to provide: * Access to top-notch facilities * Access to top-notch talent (recording/sound engineers, etc) The problem was that in the fine print, they were not paying for all of this. You (the artist) were. They give you a huge loan with onerous terms with the expectation that only ~2% of artists will ever be able to make good on the loan. They loan you money, knowing that you'll never be able to make good on it. All of this is done in a fashion that convinces you that it's "no big deal." "These are the same terms that Nine Inch Nails got, so they're good enough for you!" The difference is that NIN was able to sell enough records to make good on the loan; there is no guarantee that you (the artist) will be able to.