All in all, it’s been a depressing summer for the delusional record industry. We’re seeing a total disconnect between labels’ unrealistic, old-school revenue expectations and what the market can bear… labels can’t help looking at what they used to earn from a big band’s latest release and wondering why they can’t score that.

In my experience, there are only 2 types of people in any given major label office: the executives who still believe they can charge $20 for a CD and spend 2 weeks of every month off skiing in Tahoe, and the peons who live in mortal fear of mentioning anything remotely related to the obvious problem with the “Emperor’s clothes.”

I don’t mean to be pessimistic, people, but trying to convince the majors that they need to change their thinking is like trying to convince your die-hard Republican uncle to ditch his beliefs and embrace Obama. That is to say: have fun banging your head against the wall.