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Comment by _mulder_ | Hacker News Reader

What is the point of this article? That we're not living in the 90s anymore?

Yes, times have changed since Radiohead first made it big and perhaps the author is right that they couldn't have made it today without label funding. But why? Internet downloads? Spotify type services? Increased cost of touring? Or TV talent shows diluting the talent pool? Or perhaps record labels just thinking they can make loads more money from kids with generic disposable pop stars instead of original music?

Who or what is to blame for this? I don't know and to save everyone some time, it doesn't look like the Author does either.

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I think his point is that the labels needed to risk a significant sum of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, on a band that is not obviously commercial.

This investment had to happen for a period of years, and surely many bands that received that kind of investment ultimately failed. Labels acted like angel investors, not just in the 90s, but in the 60s, 70s, and 80s as well.

Without that investment structure, it is very hard to get anything interesting off the ground. Pop music can be profitable fairly rapidly, but more interesting music, whether it is The Doors or Pink Floyd or Radiohead, take a longer ramp up and more risk.

Yes I agree with you, and the Author but I'm still no clearer as to why the Author thinks the Labels have changed their behavior. I get a feeling he's suggesting Piracy and free-music services are to blame, as these tone of posts often do. But there are many other factors that have probably influenced labels that he doesn't cover. Changing tastes for one.

I think he believes it is very simple: They no longer make the profits from selling musical recordings that they used to. -why- that happened may be a topic for debate, but fundamentally, without potential revenue, they can't invest.

He does - he says that people younger than him will pay for gadgets and wi-fi, but not music, toward the end. Ie pirating is killing the labels and thus new bands.

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