The System Crasher Nonprofit Recording Collective is the brainchild of decibels, former guitarist for Macrophage. Started in his bedroom, it has grown into a new ideal about how music can be marketed and distributed. We start with the premises that the music industry in its current form is unfair to both artists and listeners, and that this does not have to be the case.
Not many people are aware that when a major record label signs a band or artist they attain the rights to the artist’s music. The artist no longer owns their own songs. Plus, most record label contracts are for seven albums – more than most artists make in their entire careers. The upshot of this is that the record label can potentially own all the artist’s work for as long as they are making music. Artists are often charged excessively for recording studio time, marketing, travel, equipment, etc, so before their album even goes to press they may owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the label. And they may receive as little as 20-30 cents per album, while the record label gets closer to $10.
At its best, music is an interaction between an artist and a listener that links them in mutual giving and receiving. The artist’s gift is music – in return the person can show support for that artist, either financially (buying CD’s, attending concerts, even by donating directly to the artist) or by spreading the word about that artist to their friends and community. Currently, a listener who buys the CD of their favorite band is hardly supporting that band at all, but instead supporting the record label that signed them. At System Crasher we are working towards a setup where the artist gets the majority of profits from the music they produce.
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