"Jermaine Dupri is a Corporate Tool"

Mark Rizzin of Mashable posted an intriguing opinion piece in reaction to Jermaine Dupri' post on the Huffington Blog. Dupri complained

how completely unfair it is that iTunes offers consumers the abilities to purchase music as individual tracks, as opposed to entire albums. The blog posting is meant to be a rousing defense for Jay-Z and his decision to not let iTunes break up his new album American Gangster, but ends up showcasing much of what is wrong with the music industry.

Rizzin rebuts

Instead of fighting iTunes on behalf of the record labels, he should be fighting on behalf of the artists. I know it sounds like in his rant he’s really standing up for the artists like Jay-Z and Radiohead to sell their albums “in entirety.” What he’s really standing up for is for folks like him at the record label to continue to seize the majority of profits from a record sale. Why is it, do you think, that once given the opportunity most bands and corporate musicians move up the food chain to producing? Simple: your average producer like Jermaine Dupri makes between $90,000 and $192,000 off an album only selling a quarter of a million copies. This while the band makes something closer to $4,000.

I personally think Rizzin hits a major point, and something entertainers of all ilks need to take heed of. Either change with the times or get left behind. Welcome to the market economy! The more artists in the mix and the nearly infinite means of how fans can spend her/his disposable income means artists have to step up the game to compete-the gilded age of MTV Cribs is setting. If entertainers do not get creative, you will become antiquated like the handsome carriage.

Read Dupri's full opinion at the Huffington Post

Read Rizzin's full opinion at Mashable