[Chewbacca]

Yeah, we paid 12-14 bucks for a cd and sold it for 18-20. Of course that 6 bucks is not pure profit becasue you still have to account for expenses like payroll and rent as well as shrink. When it was all said and done, our real profits on cd sales were not enough to to stay in business at a either a store or company level having cds as our core product. With big box competitors underselling CDs and out of control expenses with no break from the labels in a tough economy, we were doomed. Out of 800 stores only 20 made a profit in 2002 in my previous organization and the company posted a staggering loss in the hundreds of million.

Believe me, I do not condone illegal filesharing at all, I don't condone big label/retail business practices either.

In the last five years I have been in the offices of all five major labels at least four times a year. They provided meeting space for district store manager meetings in exchange they would give us a lunch time presentation of the artists they were foucusing on at the moment. I not sure if agree, but in my short, but frequent visits I saw and heard about alot of waste.

Whether it was the $10,0000 conference table, or the literally dozens of artists they poor money into hoping one of them was the next big thing, but 98 out of 100 fizzle and get nothing for their effort and are locked into contracts that make it difficult to grown beyond being a pile of demos in the closet with zero radio play. A bunch of money tossed down the tubes and a bunch of dreams not only smashed, but restricted by prohibitive contracts. I think it is nuts.

Many of my friends who are in that part of the biz are in it for the love of music, but are also disgusted by the money practices they see firsthand.

I wont even go into the waste I saw at the retail level. It was just as bad, maybe worst in some cases. The CD party was over a few years ago, but they all kept on like it was 1999.

My disdain for the majors I think is rooted in sound principles and expirience from both a personal and business perspective of the industry. Sure, I am and have been disgusted by the big biz side of the industry, but I love music and I love(d) getting music to people who want it. Thats why I stuck with it for so long and am open to returning.

To reiiterate- I don't support illegal filesharing or big music business practices at all.

I do support proven and successful artist as-well-as fan-friendly business practices that are fair and equitable and not excessivley wasteful.