Top Indie Exec Says Major Label “Beasts” Have “Completely F**ked Everyone Up The Arse”

At first, the major labels made deals with digital music services in desperation – to provide an alternative to piracy. More recently, they've become motivated by short term greed in the form of big advances and ownership stakes. Now, the entire music industry is struggling with the consequences of their actions.

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“Ever since the 80s and the beginning of the consolidation of the record industry… the way that the people who run those companies are contracted and remunerated and rewarded is all short-term,” Ministry of Sound chief executive Lohan Presencer said at UK music conference The Great Escape.

"As we have seen from the Sony Wikileaks emails, they are incentivised to deliver short-term goals. So what they do is all driven by that … and the decisions they have made have completely fucked everyone up the arse," he declared

“The music industry’s response to piracy was: ‘Lets give everything away for free legally’. The movie industry didn’t do that and the TV industry didn’t do that. Even the book publishing industry hasn’t done that. And newspapers have managed to put paywalls around their content,” Presencer said. “Why would anyone want to start a fucking music service?! Why would anyone want to go and negotiate with those beasts?”

More @ TheGuardian.com