Love Challenges Industry

Generally, most people look at Courtney Love as an emotionally and psychologically unstable piece of work. Over the years she has been through rehab, been referred to as "the most controversial woman in rock" by Rolling Stone magazine and the general consensus seems to reflect just that.

In my mind, Courtney Love has always been a wack job with a lot of personal problems. Genius hides in mysterious places. Although her math isn't entirely accurate, nor is it intended to be, she wrote a great article on the state of the music industry and the exploitation of artists by the record labels. I support a lot of what she has to say in this essay, which is actually pretty old and severely long, but its absolutely worth it to read the entire thing. Believe me, or just check it out for yourself.

For those of you with attention deficiencies:

The article basically goes into some hypothetical math behind the amount the average music artist or band gets paid, including advances and royalties. She goes on to argue that the labels are horribly exploiting artists with recoupable fees (read: fees they hold the artist responsible for) taken out of their royalties from music video production costs, tour support, independent promotion for radio airplay, and anything else the record label justifies. According to her math, in the end the artist gets around $45,000 and she concludes "the band may as well be working at 7-Eleven."

The real meat of the article is her solution that follows. Keep in mind that this article was written several years ago when Napster and Gnutella were at the top of their game. She embraces the online distribution model, claiming it will liberate the artists from the labels that screw them over. Her viewpoint is that the only reason artists have really needed the labels up until this point is because there was no other way to reach the people. Online changes that and enables the artist to reach the fan directly without the need of labels.

Why do you think the RIAA is being so sue-happy currently? The money received from lawsuit settlements isn't for the artist. The RIAA wants more money.

While I agree that for mainstream artists, labels are a very important part in promoting and distributing the artist's work, the option of independently distributing has been around for years, and the underground scene has thrived on it. Maybe not thrived financially, but if you really are just doing it for the way you feel about music, it shouldn't matter.

That being said, she does acknowledge that she expects proper compensation for creating something that millions of people buy and enjoy, which I agree with. It's evident that all mainstream artists get into recording contracts for the money. The important part is not sabotaging your artistic vision in doing so; in essence, "selling out."

Courtney discusses the various laws silently enacted by the RIAA in order to keep the artists from reclaiming their copyrighted material for 35 years, which has caused many huge artists now in their 60s and 70s to be completely broke. They didn't make enough money off their previous hits because the record labels own their material and end up shafting the artist in the end. Other laws prevent artists from declaring bankruptcy, which is the only way to get out of a horrible recording contract for many artists.

Although the article has questionable math and tax calculations, Courtney does a great job of exposing the larger issue at hand here. Are artists finally able to liberate themselves from the selfish labels they've depended on for all these years? I hope so. It's time for more people like Courtney Love to stand up and challenge the system for what it really is: labels aren't working for the artists; they're working for themselves and that may not be the only solution for much longer.