It's a shame that major labels lost the plot that their primary function is to act as curators, floating the best of the best to the top and making them availab

It's a shame that major labels lost the plot that their primary function is to act as curators, floating the best of the best to the top and making them available. 90% of everything is crap, and the same is true in the music world. An astonishing number of independent artists aren't very good. Historically, publishers were able to sieve off the top 10% and push them. Even if 90% of that 10% was still considered crap by any one person, in aggregate it was generally better than the 90% it floated on top of. The problem of course became profit maximization over curation and we've ended up with a hit driven industry, and everybody just remakes the hits over and over again. There's also an astonishing number of really great indie artists [2][3], but since labels have lost their curation function they no longer get exposure. So while independent artists have unprecedented access to self-publish, there's no curator anymore and great artists just get lost in the wash. In theory, this function has been "crowd sourced" and facebook shares and likes and youtube views and such kind of fill-in for publishing house's ineptitude. But it ultimately becomes a popularity contest, again returning us to a kind of hit-driven system. I think that good curators find an publish great music, and that in-turn builds and shapes the market, and that in-turn generates money for artists. The best example of this I can think of is the now defunct label "Windham Hill", during the 80s found an exposed a gobsmacking number of unbelievably talented artists. Their sampler albums are considered all-time classics.[4] 1 - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/science-proves-pop-music-has-actually-gotten-worse-8173368/?no-ist http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/science-proves-pop-... 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYv6-5VmNEM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYv6-5VmNEM 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1JUxeTg3U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1JUxeTg3U 4 - https://www.youtube.com/user/WindhamHillLovers/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/WindhamHillLovers/videos