I recently watched a documentary, Artifact, that followed the band 30 Seconds to Mars as they tried to make an album, This Is War, while its record label, EMI, sued the band for $30 million for a breach of its contract after the band was pissed at EMI for failing to pay them their royalties. I thought the documentary was an incredibly enlightening depiction of the record industry, and a big label trying to wrap its grubby paws around as many bands as possible, sucking all life and creative energy out of these individuals while taking any and all money in its path in the name of legalese. There's a great part where Jared Leto gets legal advice for about one minute on his cell phone, hangs up, then forgets to ask how much it cost, wondering if the band even has the money to pay the lawyer for that one minute.

Despite what my initial impressions were of Jared Leto (and more accurately: the celebrity machine that follows him), he comes off as incredibly likable and driven by his passion for music and art. After watching this, I really have a lot of respect for the guy. He is a very talented and blessed individual to be able to provide so many people a degree of happiness in music, TV, and film. I can also say from experience that he flies coach!

This documentary got me thinking about the long lost idea of bands "selling out." Once people started stealing all of these artist's music, selling out was no longer called out because it was hypocritical to call someone out for wanting money as people picked their pockets. So bands turned to different forms of music that may have a broader appeal with the masses. Then advertising began to take advantage of this movement as bands' songs began to be featured in commercials, movies, TV, and so forth. The people in these bands have to make a living somehow and as evidenced in the 30 Seconds to Mars documentary, it's clearly not in album sales (save for the Katy Perry's and Taylor Swift's of the world). This is their livelihood. I read an interesting take from an advertising executive who had previously been in a rock band who bluntly stated that artists' distrust of record labels has brought a transparency to brands. While the brand plays their songs in their ads, the hope is the artist at least understands how these brands are using their songs. As I watched Artifact, this quote (TANGENT: which I came across because I was reading a bunch of David Carr's articles after his death - this article is hilarious and seems to encapsulate Carr as he goes to SXSW and is amazed at the degree music and brands have become somewhat of a packaged product), although somewhat depressing, spoke volumes to the state of music right now (and that being said - please go support bands at live venues!!):

"The willingness of artists to partner with brands happened because revenues dried up from physical discs,” Peter Gannon from an advertising agency said. “The labels are not going to get a lot of sympathy because they were not very good to artists. At least when a brand is involved, there is an understanding that we are borrowing the cachet that the artist has built and we try to make high-quality projects that give value to both the client and the artist.”