"the music industry is changing"

Those five words sum it all up. Things are changing. File sharing/stealing has being going on for well over 10 years now. It is a reality that can not be stopped, otherwise it would have been stopped long ago. IE have the right idea to sell themselves in other ways. Record labels have not been able to branch out and make money in different ways. It is a shame.

I don't know what the answer is. Perhaps record labels could branch out by signing artists to twofold contracts 1) recording, and 2) touring. In this case Century Media would manage both the album making AND the touring. This way the more the music gets out (either through old fashion sales or through sharing/stealing), the more the tours sell, and the more all parties make.

--Previous Message--
: Iced Earth guitarist/mainman Jon Schaffer has commented on the
: lawsuits filed on behalf of Century Media Records :
:
: " It has come to my attention that Century Media is suing
: fans over illegal downloads of (among others) our latest album,
: 'Dystopia'. I felt it was important to clarify that we had no
: knowledge of this motion and were, sadly, not asked permission
: ."
:
: " We all know the music industry is changing. We have been
: adapting to this model by embracing legal streaming services
: such as Spotify and by bringing our music to places we have
: never played before by touring our proverbial asses off ."
:
: " As much as we respect that the labels are having a harder
: time selling music, we feel this is a misguided effort and want
: to make sure our fans know we would have not given our consent
: would we have been asked ."
: