My problem with the "artistic vision" argument is that most of these visions seem to suffer from severe astigmatism.

There are some artists I will without hesitation buy an entire CD, sound unheard, and gladly shell the money out for it.

But for every one of those, there have been tens if not a hundred other CDs I've bought for a couple songs I'd heard, and then sincerely wanted the rest of the money back. I'd even give the artist back the unused part of the CD, if they want it.

Live performances do help to judge the quality, but where I'm at the folk scene is... well, "stunted" is a good word. And even for other genres, concert ticket prices have escalated well beyond the "Hey, I'm bored, let's go see a show" level of purchase. I like music, I like singing music, I like listening to it - but I can't afford to go see every single artist I want to buy something from, and in many cases it's not even a potential option. The dead don't tour very well, and to a lot of decent smaller groups, a "tour" is playing three venues in their home town in one night.

Personally, I feel that the music "industry" (in this case, the larger labels) is hanging itself and is trying to blame everyone else without ever once looking to internal sources. Pop music has become a dead issue - with the now nearly complete monolithic ownership blocs sucking up every major market, the labels now have the ability to grind one "trend" for ages by simply introducing occasional "mini trends" to give occasional relief - it means that while the kids get more and more pissed, mom and dad know precisely what to buy. It all sounds mostly the same, so anything on the best seller list can usually be identified strictly from the cover as to whether a pop fan will like them. Rap? Is it someone glaring at the camera wearing a sports jersey? Rage rock? Is it a dark, brooding picture? Pop? Primary colors ahoy! Etc.

Combine that with the lack of support *any* other form of music besides what's popular is getting commercially, and you find a recipe for declining sales - which is exactly what is happening. If you keep pushing the exact same sound and kill any diversity, you'll saturate your market. If you then lower the quality level of the overall product, you'll lose even the customers who kept you running otherwise...

GAAAH!

I can't keep going on this. It's become a major hotbutton with me, and I tend to rant. Bankruptcy to RIAA!

M