Don't believe the hype: record labels aren't dead yet

At the end of a year in which record companies were dragged down a digital alley and given a good thumping, there's been much talk about how the labels will never recover and how the big four (Warner/EMI/ Sony-BMG/Universal) are going the way of Betamax.

Between Radiohead giving it away for free and Madonna spurning a new deal with Warners to sign with the Live Nation group of concert promoters, it was not a good year for the majors. But like most end-is-nigh stories of the last few years, there's a lot of exaggeration and wilful ignoring of the facts.

We've already heard how the single is dead, the album is dead and the record shop is dead. We're not supposed to be still walking into record shops and buying physical artefacts, but we are, in our millions.

The internet and sites such as MySpace haven't made the predicted dents. To date, not one single act has been broken by the net, and the two biggest MySpace success stories (Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen) were in fact broken by traditional record labels. MySpace helped by getting a bit of chatter going, but all that really did was to push label A&R people into signing the two acts sooner rather than later.

Much has been made of the 360-degree deal, pioneered by Robbie Williams and borrowed by Madonna in her deal with Live Nation. In such arrangements, one group not only looks after an artist's recorded output, but also live shows, merchandising, sponsorship deals, etc. It may sound fancy in its multiplatform way, but for artists all it really means is that instead of having three or four bosses taking 15 per cent, you have one boss taking a multiple of 15 per cent.

Bands such as Enter Shikari and The Go! Team defied convention by signing with a "label development company" rather than a real record label but, again, all this means is that the label development company is charged with getting them a record deal, finding a promoter for their tours and organising all their "marketing windows".

The talk about "opening up new revenue streams" outside of CD sales may sound good when a band are meeting their bank manager, but it's still predicated on the fact that these new revenue streams won't materialise unless you have a considerable musical presence first. And that presence is dependent on someone bringing out your album and working it for you.

What the majors still have going for them is experience and money. They can advance an artist the hundreds of thousands needed to record an album, they know about producers, they know how to get a record into the shops and onto the radio. Yes, they're lumbering, exploitative beasts that will toss you back out on to the street if you don't have a hit within 24 hours, but those rules have applied to everyone since the inception of popular music.

So, no, the record label is not dead. It has seen better days and may well have to do some "blue sky" thinking about how best to proceed in the download age. However, its presence in the marketplace is still formidable.

Radiohead have just released In Rainbows on a traditional record label, and Live Nation is looking at signing a deal with a traditional label to handle promotion and distribution of Madonna's new album.

Don't believe the hype.