How can major labels screw up your career? Here's an example, although nothing new. One of the best musicians who I've found from Twitter this year turned out to be recently signed by a major label. I knew that they would find a way to mess up his career. I listened to amazing live acoustic performances which confirmed that he is the real deal and a great acquisition for the label. I made a mental note to buy his album when it became available this fall.
I almost blindly bought the album which goes to show how much I thought that he could do no wrong. However, just today, I found the time to listen online to the album version of my favorite song from this artist. You would not believe how drastically overproduced the sound was in the studio recording compared to the beautiful live acoustic version. No wonder the free download of the acoustic version was taken down shortly afterwards and raised my suspicion. Why would you want to convert a wonderfully folksy song into an EDM? That's what remixes are for, not as an original release, and this would have been a mediocre remix at most. Major labels need to back off and give 100% creative control to the artist. Why do they mess with perfection? We all know the answer to my rhetorical question is their producers want to get involved to make money.
Anyway, I still support this highly talented artist, but won't be buying his extremely overproduced album which makes it sound more generic. The mismatched music distracts from his vocals. Is this even the same song? Not to my ears. The lyrics are the only way I could identify this track as being the same song and that's barely, because they were overcome by the music. Now this artist will probably be locked in his contract and lose credibility as a result of these generic studio recordings. He's sensational and deserves better. I'm not against indie musicians wanting to get signed by major labels, but today, major label equals major disappointment...again. Know what you are getting into when you sign your life away. Is it really worth making money to have bad music produced under your name? For some artists the answer may be yes. From music enthusiasts, the answer is NO!
