Ryan had a great post tonight about illegal downloading, and its effect on the music industry.

He posted a letter from some music producers, which they included in one of their CD jackets, and it is a must-read.  Here’s a bit of it:

It makes no difference to us whether we sell records in the form of physical CDs or as digital downloads, but the production and distribution of music is an expensive proposition regardless of whether or not physical product is involved. We have to service DJs and magazines, help our artists with recording and design costs, provide tour support, and connect artists with agents and concert promoters. This all costs money, but these activities are not our primary concern. Our primary concern is to find and polish a few select gems, drawn from a vast wasteland of often atrocious music, that we believe stand above the rest and are deserving of a wider audience.

We spend months - sometimes up to a year - working with our artists, helping them to fine-tune and polish their releases to be as fully realized as possible. This type of coaching can turn an above-average demo into a fantastic debut which is a more diverse, professional product than the original recordings. At the end of the day, it is the audience who benefits from all of these finishing touches, inasmuch as they result in better music.

So if someone tries to tell you that record labels have become redundant in the age of the Internet, rest assured that they have no idea what they’re talking about, as most of them clearly have no clue what kind of work goes into producing a record. If you’re still not convinced, we suggest you spend a few hours looking for decent demos on MySpace to disabuse yourself of the notion that good music grows on trees, and to see for yourself how finding and developing new artists constitutes the lion’s share of a record label’s activities - not pressing CDs, which accounts for only around 5% of our workload. Our primary mission is to make the best music possible and to ensure it stands out from the rest.

If you’re still of the mindset that music should be “free”, please read the entire post, here.