There's been a legitimate and intentional land grab by the majors, and here's why this happened: the majors blew up their own spaces, because they're fucking idiots. They controlled retail, hated independent record stores, and would make deals with Best Buy to price them out of existence. They controlled MTV and radio, and used this control to keep everyone else out and offer as few alternatives to consumers as possible. But then the internet happened, democratized music discovery, and their space blew up while the independent market thrived. All that was left when the dust settled was independent venues, independent bands, independent record stores. What were the majors going to do? In comes things like Record Store Day. Warner Bros partners with them and takes it over. Now, you go into your local record store and it looks just like the vinyl selection in an Urban Outfitters. They might carry deeper stock, but their featured titles are the same as Urban. That was a space I used to be able to compete fairly in with other independent labels that I now cannot. Now, my records are next to Harry Styles, the Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, and Drake—if there’s even room for them at all. There needs to be spaces that ensure fair competition. We have laws about this. We know fair competition is important. Everyone seems to agree on it, even if it's never enforced. But when it comes to music, you get this sentiment of "All music is just the same, man"—which is not true. We know that power in other industries matters, and we know what happens to the local hardware store when Home Depot opens next door. But when it comes to music? "It's all just music.” Majors have bullied their way into having Pitchfork write about things that they wouldn't have in a million fucking years. They bullied their way into independent record stores carrying records they never would have in a million years. They didn’t do this because they care about those spaces—they did it because they destroyed their own, and they’ll destroy these ones just as swiftly. When there's no more space for the independent stuff at Pitchfork and independent record stores, that leads to people not reading Pitchfork or going to independent record stores. Why would you go to one of those stores to buy Harry Styles’ album when it's cheaper on Amazon? Why would I go to Pitchfork to read about Bob Dylan's new album? They used to be a space where you could go and read about who the next Bob Dylan is. But they aren't anymore, and there's no room for independent spaces or voices anymore as a result. Where are labels like mine supposed to market our music?
Joe Steinhardt
