Dirty Little Secrets…

First off, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Do you have a COSTUME IDEA yet?

I just finished an eye-opening book entitled Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business (Why So Much Music You Hear Sucks).

I always knew that much modern pop and hip-hop music was completely fabricated by corporate suits (using professional song writers) and then presented to the public with a pretty face by charismatic pop stars who can sing and follow orders. But this book confirmed it and revealed that the situation is far worse than I thought.

The reason the record business is failing is not because of music piracy. In fact, the people most likely to pirate are also the ones most likely to buy music. The RIAA is actually punishing it’s own customers and shooting itself in the foot.

No, the demise of the record business has more to do with the Internet and the ability of musicians who can actually write their own material and perform it well to market directly to their fans without the record business as a middle man. The phony corporate pop music is all the record business has left to sell, because the true artists don’t need them anymore. So they pour millions of dollars into a handful of celebrities who garner media attention.

Worse, the old rules of PR and Marketing are increasingly INEFFECTIVE.

I give this book 4.5 stars, deducting a half star only because I wanted the author to go even further and give more specific details along the lines of The Monkees being a network TV fabrication to garner ratings, because The Beatles refused to make a TV show of their own.