Record Companies the real pirates
I've been pissed off by the deals bands get from record companies for years. Bands that sell millions of records make nearly no money and don't even own the music they make at the end of it. For example, I put live MP3s of Pre_Shrunk on my Home Bass website. Pre_Shrunk are happy with this as long as the quality is good and the songs are available for purchase on a studio recorded CD (so no unreleased tracks). However technically this is irrelevant. I like Black/Yak Records [Pre_Shrunk's label, as well as The Whitlams], so no offence to them, but even if Pre_Shrunk are happy for me to put their music on the web, I still need the label's permission because they own the music. A good label would go with what the band wants.

Same goes for The Secret Chiefs 3, an amazing band from California with members of Mr Bungle. Trey, the guitarist and song writer of SC3, is happy for me to put his music on the web at "Faith No More - Under The Covers". Luckily he actually owns his own record company, and his music. Mr Bungle and their manager do not want their music put on the web, and I respect that. But even if they did, Warner Bros wouldn't, and they own the music. It's stupid.

And those two examples are only fan recorded live music, not even tracks from commercially available CDs!

This fantastic rant from Courtney Love of Hole pretty much says it all. I don't agree with some of her points as a musician myself, but it's very interesting to see this from someone on the inside, instead of the bullshit the record companies spout. She touches on the Napster vs. Metallica case, recording contracts, MP3 and the industry in general. Well worth a read.