Setting a Positive Trend or Making a Rough Road?

Trent Reznor of NIN fame, has left his label once and for all, and claims that he will never again produce music under any label. Radiohead has already followed suit, and it looks like at least two other major bands of the past decade are also considering the same move.

Now this could end up being a huge deal if this sets a trend. The recording industry is just about at the breaking point and there is a core of acts who have simply sat on their resentment at the prosecution of little girls and grandmothers for too long. With a group carrying a fanbase as large as NIN's and Radiohead's, others might really be persuaded to leave the draconian RIAA behind. This would be an incredible move for the sake of inovation and it would open the market up to some real options. Men who never listen to music might actually have less control over what is sold then those who do. And I'm all for that.

However, there are serious potential challenges ahead. Not the least of which is that many, many struggling bands are given large amounts of money by the record companies to front their recording process. They will have to pay it back, of course. But many of these bands cannot afford the equipment or studio time to make a quality release on their own. They are dependent on the money put forward by the lable to carry them through until they make it on their own. So, this trend could potentially stifle some bands' ability to get there message out there. Of course, then we might actually return to the band that has to play their hearts out on the road and bulid up a fan base and earn their success, rather than having it all made in a studio for them.

Either way, it will be very intersting to see where this movement goes, if anywhere at all. And to see what it might do to the music industry if it is successful.