Record Companies are a Must

If there were no record companies, there would only be a handful of successful musical artists/bands. Record companies have numerous facets and departments in which assist in the success of a musician. They provide their potential record-selling artists with steps to develop themselves personally as an artist. They create the marketing plan for the album, delve in promotions for the album and generally take care of bookkeeping and overall finances for the album's production.

In a purely hypothetical situation, if I were in a band and there was no such thing as a record company, I would have an extremely hard time getting started. Usually record companies pay for a whole album's production while giving the artist an advance to live off of while making the cd/album. Thus, no record companies would mean, every bit of cost in producing my music would ultimately be from my own pocket or from an colossal loan of some sort.

Another hard obstacle would be the promotions part of my album. Usually record companies have a diligent department with the sole purpose of promoting and marketing their artists and albums. At this day in age, an unknown artist can't even get a radio station to play their music unless they're signed with a reputable recording label, which means that I would have to do a lot of a**-kissing to get my music on the air.

Without a record company to help me, I would have to play my music where ever and whenever
I can get an audience, that means in restaurants, karaoke bars, public streets, etc. I would have to play anywhere and as much as possible to get word out of my music. In addition to that, I would have to promote and do my own selling, and that means after my gigs, I'd have to sell my own cds. Inevitably, with tremendous perseverance and some financial debt, I'd be a mega-super-star in the rhelm of main stream music by my 40's-50's. WHOO-HOO!

Recording companies are needed for the high-level production and distribution of music, with that said, I'm now thinking twice about the whole piracy and illegal downloading issue.