You know, people sometimes get down on major record labels, but they do some pretty good things. I just discovered Rachel Platten’s most recent album (even though it came out last year) and I’m really impressed.
I met her many years ago when she was opening for Matt Nathanson in San Francisco (which was an awesome concert, by the way) and (a) she was actually a great performer (b) she was a really cool person–like somebody who it seemed I would want to hang out with. I liked her performance so much that I actually bought her album at the show, which I’ve rarely done. When I listened to the album, it was okay, but it wasn’t nearly as good as she actually is live.
Many years later, she was signed by a major, and the album she did after that is great! It really shows off what a fantastic singer and songwriter she is. I think there are a lot of stories about the “bad” things that major labels do, and I don’t even doubt that some of those stories are true. But one of the things about these big companies is that they have the power and resources to really bring together great artists (like, in this case, Rachel and the people who produced her album) in a way that brings us a level of artistic quality in recordings that we actually might not really get to experience otherwise.
I read an essay by David Griffin (a successful record executive) many years ago, and one thing that he pointed out was that most people go I to the record business because they _love music_ (at least, the original creators of these companies do). It’s not even the best way to make money–for example, I did a bit of math, and I probably still make more money per year as a programmer than Rachel Platten does as an internationally successful recording artist. There are reasons the companies behave the way they do, which mostly have to do with the economics of the industry. It’s not something I’m going to go into (or really, even particularly defend it–there could be a better model for them, I think) here, other than to just provide another reminder of an important fact:
People are basically good. There is evil in the world, but sometimes it’s best to assume good intentions unless you have the right evidence to indicate otherwise, even for (or perhaps especially for) large organizations.
Max Kanat-Alexander 