Groxie

Shameless plug: Record Theory, co-founded by my John, was just written up in C-Ville Weekly!

We’ve all been there. You want to buy an album. You could head to your local record shop and grab it, maybe even used, but the band will only see a small fraction of the outrageously high price you pay. Online retailers might be a little cheaper, but now you have to wait days to receive the album.

What if the cd will only see the light of day when you pull it out to rip it to your computer? You can probably save some money and resources by getting an mp3 version. iTunes and others have a ton of offerings, but it’s still pretty pricey and artists still see pennies.

Also, good luck trying to move purchases around from computer to computer if you’re an average user. Most legal music downloads are so chock full of digital rights management (DRM) technologies that you are punished for being willing to pay for music downloads. Even though you have paid for the music, it just isn’t really yours. Basically, buying music from Napster versus iTunes is comparable to buying a tape versus a cd. As soon as you attempt to upgrade or switch over to a different platform, you’re going to be screwed. They use different proprietary DRM technologies to lock you in to using their services, their software, their hardware.

All of these issues combine to make it very tempting to scour your favorite peer-to-peer sharing system and get the album for free. Sometimes the quality will suck, the file won’t be what it claims to be, or maybe some RIAA lawyer will try to have you arrested, but at least you won’t feel completely screwed over.

That’s where a label like Record Theory comes in. They charge a fair price for downloads, don’t add encumbering technology to the music you purchase, and give the artist the lion’s share of the price. They offer real cds when the bands choose to print them, and those are treated similarly. The customers win, the bands win, and they keep enough money to keep the label going strong.

Still, they’re just a small local label with 7 bands currently. Record Theory won’t solve all of your music woes, but they give me hope. Music sales are obviously moving in this direction, and I’ll be happy when every album is as easy to buy and move around as the ones on Record Theory. Less printed cds means less garbage taking up landfill space, and you know that makes me warm and fuzzy.

Later this week I’ll tell you what to do with those old, unwanted, scratched, or otherwise useless cds that you’ve already amassed.