I wasn't around when record companies came to be to be having this discussion then, but as for right now I suppose the key difference is ease of distribution. It used to be that in order to release a record it was a big financial matter, requiring distribution and manufacturing process, whereas nowadays its all digital and online and requires pressing 'send' from the user and very little from the companies. Also record companies have more direct control as to the content of the produced work since they are at least in part paying for its creation, therefor they should be responsible legally for the content, just like when you hire a hitman you are legally responsible for the crime.
Well, right, the past tense figures heavily in a lot of how we understood distribution, dissemination, etc to work, back when the online world felt more innocent. I don't think it requires anything remotely near the same level of outlay or opportunity cost that it used to, to amplify 'promising' voices or whatever.
If the main difference is 'ease' I'd say that that difference is long gone.
I wasn't around when record companies came to be to be having this discussion then, but as for right now I suppose the key difference is ease of distribution. It used to be that in order to release a record it was a big financial matter, requiring distribution and manufacturing process, whereas nowadays its all digital and online and requires pressing 'send' from the user and very little from the companies. Also record companies have more direct control as to the content of the produced work since they are at least in part paying for its creation, therefor they should be responsible legally for the content, just like when you hire a hitman you are legally responsible for the crime.
Well, right, the past tense figures heavily in a lot of how we understood distribution, dissemination, etc to work, back when the online world felt more innocent. I don't think it requires anything remotely near the same level of outlay or opportunity cost that it used to, to amplify 'promising' voices or whatever.
If the main difference is 'ease' I'd say that that difference is long gone.