the Incubator System

Coolfer mentions the latest spin from the Bunny.

This little ploy has been debated since early fall over at the Velvet Rope. You can't blame the major labels for this kind of thinking--business is not very good as the industry continues to wander towards decline.

The problem is that variations of this have been executed before--vanity labels, you'll remember, contained much of the same premise. And majors have set up distribution deals with some of the indies in hopes of essentially getting the same thing: hot acts whenever they become hot. The thinking goes that Warners can be the major leagues and have the indies as a lucrative farm system.

But that's more or less the way it is now--it's just that Warners will not want to be saddled with signing bonuses or any other contractual obligation that isn't favorable. And of course they shouldn't want these kinds of things. The problem is that a) no indie label of note will sign away things valuable things i.e. catalog to participate, b) why would an indie label want to get in bed with the competition, and c) this all looks like suspicious window dressing while other strategies within the label are being employed.