Not in most cases...that's myth if not a downright lie.
Whenever you have contracts built by people who control just about every aspect of your work and who have little interest in what you want, there is where the red flag should rise.
If they slander other organizations or try to discourage you from associating with other organizations you feel could benefit you, then it is likely that they never had your best interest at heart.
I have learned to do many things myself over the years so that I would never become dependent on other people who portray themselves to be some type of "top dawg" in the music industry.
The old way of promoting things does not work. I can back that up with a history lesson but I wont do it here...
But I will say that the industry has changed so much over the last ten years as Cd sales have depleted and record companies cut back on promotion & distribution costs.
One of the things I dislike about many of the so-called indie record labels is that they tend to limit their artists so much and want to play the proprietary game...Ha, as if they can do so much for their artists, when in fact they rarely make their artists any money to afford to pay for recording or promotion or to even eat at McDonald's, let alone pay their rent!
What is sad is that they make their artists feel trapped and obligated or indebted to them...
This is one reason why I started my own record label years ago, (Fire Frost Entertainment) with the sole intention of owning my own music and doing what I wanted on my terms. And now, in a sense it is not a record label, but rather an organic production house made up of artists who know PROPER marketing and who know the other aspects of promoting music that can be made accessible.
I don''t regret the hardships or hard lessons learned. I thank the lord that these have been very valuable lessons from which to learn from.
Now I am practicing the art of having a label without having a label
As My friend and REAL hip hop artist
Bevon says, "Your dot-com is a dot-bomb, I've taken the liberty of addressing all the things you got wrong"
Forward we march.
Alex
