The RIAA has had a death grip on the music scene forever now. The antiquated business model they use was made obsolete when the internet became a mainstream reality, but they held on. They’ve held on and alienated their customers by suing first and asking questions later. It never occurred to them that the reason their customers were stealing from them was because of the way they were acting. I don’t condone stealing, but I also don’t condone being stolen from. That is what I equate buying music to, theft. It’s voluntary theft, but it’s theft all the same.

That said, Radiohead started offering music directly to fans a while back. This was the first step in eliminating the RIAA and it’s bullshit methods. The snowball is getting bigger now with Nine Inch Nails announcing on Monday that it has dropped it’s label and is moving to a direct to consumer model. Oasis and Jamiroquai are also on board and now the original Material Girl Madonna is on board. Madonna announced that she was dropping her lable and signing with Live Nation to deliver 3 studio albums, concerts, and merchandise. Live Nation is a promotion firm and not a record label so it’ll be interesting to see how that portion works out.

What I know is that I hope more and more artists are empowered to drop their labels and get the bigger piece of pie they deserve. Artists create the music, they deserve to be paid for it