How to save the record industry( or at least stop them from wasting so much money )

Earlier today I received in the mail three copies of an EP from a major label artist. I IM'ed my friend and said, "I bet you if major labels stopped sending out 4 copies of records to people they would save a lot of money and would not be doing so poorly.". He said to me " No kidding!!! Over the past month I have gotten in a lot of the Modest mouse single" So I pressed and tried to see how much he had been sent. Overall he got in 2 copies of the first single sent overnight to him. Then he got 3 copies of the record on a CD-R . Then when the next single came out the same thing happened and then again when the full EP came out again.

I am no rocket scientist but this seems like a no brainer. Lets say we are just talking about the world of college radio. If you are overnighting a record to radio

( let me take a second to say how stupid this is in the first place, It has become so easy to send a record, a single, anything over the internet instantly why ever ... and I mean EVER would you need to overnight a CDR or a cd? EVER!)

So back to what I was saying if you overnight a record to radio it is going to end up costing you ( on the low side because they do so much volume and thus get a "deal" ) five dollars a pop. So you are sending this record out to 1000 people at least, that's a waste of 5000. Then you do this for the next single and then for the full record. thats 15000 you could of saved from one artist. Believe me when I say these numbers are on the low side of things.

How much would it cost to send all this out digitally? I believe that would be too small of a cost to meeter really.

And yet it seems the major labels, for the most part, are more hell bent on protecting the CD. Going after anyone and everyone that makes them loose money from missed sales due to downloading. When really major labels are hurting themselves more than the consumer ever could. How can you say a CD is worth 10-15 dollars when you WASTE 1000 cd's for promotion.

My friend told me well they can't stop sending records people will complain. Let them complain I say. If one of the major labels were to stop sending promotional copies out and only service records digitally, slowly they all would.

When something gets too big it becomes hard to manage. Things fall through the cracks and poor decisions get made. While cutting mailing CD's to radio stations and press people might not "save the record industry" It would save them a TON of money.

I am still a Baseball fan.

You knew it was coming. I did at least. And it's not over by a long shot. I am talking about the whole Steroids "era" that has been clouding baseball over the last 10+ years. But I am tired of it, in fact I stopped caring about it a long time ago. BUT IT WONT GO AWAY

Enough is Enough.

Baseball players did/do Performance enhancing drugs. Why does it matter so much when its safe to say football players do all the time. I am willing to bet basketball and hockey players take drugs. GASP Shocking I know. The point is really I am tired of this FAKE outrage towards baseball. Chances are your favorite player did drugs, but does that make his base hit / strike out any less awesome. NO. But I suppose it does give someone with nothing better to write about something to write about.

In 1994 , after the strike, baseball had to make a big comeback. Everyone was PISSED off that everyone just quit on the game. So there was no World Weries and there was a lot of work to be done to get the game back to where it once was.

We famously had the home run chase between Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa. Do you seriously think no one knew they were on something? Come on. There was too much money to be made by journalists. "oh look everyone baseball is awesome" "home runs are fantastic" "OH the game is back!"

And now all these holier than thou reporters need to move units again by tearing down the sport they pretend to love. Those that were yelling Home runs are awesome are now screaming that drugs are bad and anyone that does drugs should be suspended. They do this on the pretense that its for the fan . But the fan's do not care. When I listen to talk radio or read sports blogs I hear the "fan" chime in and ask why people are still talking about this. They really do not care that much about the PED's. This is so obvious by just looking at Manny in LA. Everyone there LOVES him SOOOOO much. They could care less he got caught taking drugs. Many other cases could be made, attendance was projected to be down because of the economy. However if people really did care that much, wouldn't they just stop watching?

The only people that seem to care are the talking heads on the radio and TV.

Well I for one am bored with all the steroid talk. Can we move along? I doubt we can. I mean if the media can't even see that Ricky Henderson should of been voted in to the hall of fame by 100% of baseball writers ( along with a lot of other players I am sure) Then how can they see that this story is getting old.

Ok I am done ranting for now

Here is a good article that is most likely a lot better written than mine.