Age & Music, Is There Bias In The Biz?

This has become an industry wide practice that in my opinion needs to be put to rest. Record Distributors in the 80's had the notion that if they marketed music towards a younger demographic and also putting out artists that were younger that they could relate to, they would benefit from years of escalating proft margins of record sales which caused them to collectively raise the retail price of the cd.

What they didn't see coming down the road was the onset of the digital age with downloadiing, streaming, Live Nation, and the state of the economy, and the multitude of acts that become one hit wonders saturating the market with music that is garbage. They made this mess for themselves and now expect Congress to bail them out with the "Performance Rights Act".

I am a producer that believes in all artists getting paid for their work, but this new law would be akin to a paint shop providing Picasso with his painting tools and then wanting to receive revenue because they gave him the tools to paint his masterpieces.

There are a large number of artists with good material that get overlooked because the Big 4 has decided that it is too risky to market artists of a certain age demographic because of some of the reasons I stated above.

The UK is a totally different story altogether. One of the top selling and performing artists for years over there has been Alexander O'Neal. Can anyone remember "Fake"? Numerous domestic artists from the states enjoy years of success over there touring year round such as Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ultra Nate, and a multitude of jazz and soul artists..