Our recent reporting of of former SFX/Clear Channel/LiveNation founder Bob Sillerman's comments to a Billboard conference on the impending death of big record labels has lead to some spirited and 
well written comments most notably by Glenn from Coolfer who wrote:
Sorry, but he's wrong. Very wrong. What sells the most records? TV and radio.
People will gravitate to what is popular, and they'll continue to use TV and radio to discover new music. Yes, the Internet is going to be the key marketing channel in the next decade, but who's to say the majors won't dominate Internet marketing just as they've done with TV and radio.
Then Squashed of Another Record countered:
The big record companies (are) milking the last wave of audiences. that's about it.
The new generation of audience doesn't even take MTV seriously anymore. The most cutting edge music (ie. the next stars that make music scenes 5-8 years from now) are not on MTV or clearchannel radios. Yeah yeah yeahs, clap your hands, gogol bordello, etc are all local, indie labels, festivals, internet driven. ...
Music scene is still about good music. And the good musics are not on Radio and TV anymore...
We stand somewhere in the middle. Major labels will still survive to milk catalogs and create some of the next wave of mass market mega-stars. But a lot more artists than ever before will take different paths and find longer, more creative and satisfying and reasonably profitable mid-level careers due to the power provided by new technologies to help them create, distribute, and market their art.
Read the article and full comments here and tell us what you think.
