This is simultaneously the best review of Return of the King, and the best thing I've ever read on Ain't it Cool.
So this is weird. The first large movers in the digital audio distribution are not record companies, but computer hardware, software, and soft drink manufacturers. Apple, and Dell I can understand, it's selling their hardware. Microsoft I can understand, it's another area to throw money at while they try and diversify. This is something else though. Why is the real music industry letting a drinks company drive their market for them? It's kinda weird to watch an industry get dragged kicking and screaming into the future.
Steve is always interesting though.
The winners pay. The winners pay for the losers, and the winners are not seeing rewards commensurate with their success. And they get upset. So what's the remedy? The remedy is to stop paying advances. The remedy is to go to a gross-revenues deal and tell an artist, "We'll give you twenty cents on every dollar we get, but we're not gonna give you an advance. The accounting will be simple: We're gonna pay you not on profits -- we're gonna pay you off revenues. It's very simple: The more successful you are, the more you'll earn. But if you're not successful, you will not earn a dime. We'll go ahead and risk some marketing money on you. But if you're not successful, you'll make no money. If you are, you'll make a lot more money." That's the way out. That's the way the rest of the world works.
So you see the recording industry moving in that direction?
No. I said I think that's the remedy. Whether the patient will swallow the medicine is another question.
Just burnt out...
Not really had much of an opportunity to just sit and pontificate for a while. Not much new music since the enormous order from Kompakt either. A few good games, although nothing too unexpected so far.