Film creator Robert Bolger sent me an email this week about his upcoming film, Behind the Suit and Tie. Take a look at the film description:

Through a series of interviews with players from both major and indie labels, Behind The Suit And Tie will also showcase the truth of how the music industry is being affected by the downward spiral of hard CD sales and new up-and-coming artists must learn to adjust to the changing times with today’s major transition. According to a press release. ‘Behind The Suit And Tie’ will spend more time with the people behind the labels rather than the more musician-focused approach of most music documentaries to address piracy, corruption, manipulation issues and the future of a record label.

This is interesting because everyone by now has heard how illegal online music distribution is hurting the music industry, but there is another fact that is rarely talked about, and it’s a point brought-up in the trailer below: not only is music incredibly easy to get for free, but there are more record labels and more independently-produced musicians competing for your dollar than there ever have been before. Which poses an interesting question: “What does the future look like for the Metal recording industry?”

This article poses another interesting idea – what are you actually paying for when you buy a CD? Are you buying a physical thing, like a microwave, that comes with a warranty and is yours to do whatever you want with? Or are you simply “owning” a right to play music through whatever medium you purchase? I see it as the latter, but the person in this article sees it as neither. The author gets bent out of shape because it’s illegal to distribute the music for free and consequently, says you should be able to return your CD if it gets scratched. In my opinion, the damned CD only costs $15. You’ve had the CD for 10 years, it’s called “wear and tear” jack-ass. Would you go to your local computer store and try and return your scratched-up Windows 95 disc? No? That’s what I thought.

This is a perfect example: people want free music, but music costs money to make, so how do you get around that obstacle? Some bands sue, while other bands simply give away their music with the hopes that people eventually will buy. Both potentially cost a lot of money. Programs like Itunes and Zune Pass seem to offer a pretty good compromise; you can get music quick and cheap while still getting at least most of the money to the musicians and those that worked to make the record. But it’s not a perfect system because there are still bands out there that opt-out of these programs (Metallica songs, for example, are not available through Zune Pass, but you can purchase a digital copy of the album).

Interestingly, more and more consumers are buying the old vinyl records, more so than they are CDs (as affirmed by our informal poll). This makes perfect sense really – true music fans appreciate the nostalgia and warm tones that you get from a vinyl record, and those that aren’t buying records are getting their music in digital format (free or otherwise).

I don’t know what the most fair remedy is. Obviously if you distribute music on a CD or as an mp3 it’s going to get copied and distributed illegally, but that shouldn’t prevent you from selling CDs. The problem (or solution, for some) is that the internet, like it has done in so many other situations, has allowed small-time musicians to distribute their music to a huge audience. Some folks love the internet, some hate it. As for myself, I love being able to get music instantly, but I also want the people who made that music to get paid so that it continues to exist.

I’ll end with this final perspective: the metal industry, like many other industries, is simply hyper-saturated. There is too much supply for the demand (granted there is still a lot of demand!). It’s damned near impossible to keep up with. How do you think all of these metal blogs survive? Someone’s gotta keep track of what’s going on!

For more information, visit www.behindthesuitandtie.com.