I hear what you're saying Tam , but I know that many small labels and individual artists manage to bring out quality albums for a fraction of the costs that are incurred by the big labels. The big labels are using an outmoded and wasteful model where it is assumed that in order to produce quality music you need a big organisation with a large payroll and where it is also assumed it is necessary to throw obscene amounts of money about. That's because its not about music to them, just potentially high-grossing product: the more you spend, the more you make...

Q, I'm not convinced that many major labels are that interested in using big selling albums to subsidise minority stuff anymore. I'm trying to think of some recent examples of this and I'm coming up blank. Most of the interesting new music I hear these days comes out on smaller labels... the majors tend to pick up on this stuff once it becomes apparent that there's a chance it might sell reasonably well (and when they do, they often overproduce it and smooth it out to make it more palatable to a mass market!). In this respect, the indies act as useful, risk free testing ground for the majors in many ways.