Record companies -- indie bands.

What do you think who's is releasing the best bands last months?
The record companies or are it the bands who release their own CDs?
Is there still an important influence of the record companies in what stuff a band will release?
I mean they have to do what the record company likes to get on a CD to sell as much as CDs?

In general the labels do stifle the creative freedom of many bands. In general, I think self-released material is better than label-released except perhaps in the production area though labels sometimes overproduce, too.

Does that mean that more bands are going to release their own albums?

More bands are already doing that. Buying recording gear is a lot cheaper in the long run than paying enormous fees for studio time. So, more and more people are buying digital recorders or computer software so they can do their own recording/mixing at home. And, with the age of the MP3 being here, many indie artists are not even bothering making CDs anymore. They are releasing their product directly to different paid MP3 download sites. Eventually, the CD will disappear and all music will be bought by download from the Internet and listened to on your IPod or similar listening device.

When bands record their own CDs they can decide what songs and how the do their CDs.
No record company who only is worried if a CD will sell well.
I think this is a good thing for the bands.
Not the label is deciding what comes on a CD but they band self.

I think independently recorded albums are fantastic, but......
Sometimes the production is so terrible I just can't listen to it.

The music put out by big budget record companys you has much better production, but a lot of it is the same old stuff just repeated over and over, and can be very boring.

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