Indentured Servitude All major label record deals suck and this is why. Highlights:

“The numbers are so stacked against the people making the music that, as recent Atlantic Records signee David Garza noted, “It only works for the artist if more than a million copies are sold. Period.”

The obvious problem with that, of course, is that of the approximate 30,000 albums released every year, less than one percent go platinum (certified sales of one million).

“We told our lawyer that we wanted to own our own masters and he was like, ‘Okay, when the Easter bunny gets through blowing Santa Claus then what else do you want?’” -Brett Daniel of Spoon, on negotiating the bands contract with Elektra Records.