Warner launch three song albums! the end of the single?

[MrTom]

sounds like they're doing the same as many independant sites who put on line songs by unsigned artists, except of course these artist will actually be signed by a "prestigious major" but appart from that Warner probably won't be spending anything on promo, there'll be an online top 10 or something to push some of the artists.
So no need for a greedy contract. Just yet.
If things start rolling for one artist in particular I bet they'll make him sign a different contract. An old fashioned kind of contract.

Or maybe they are just giving him best wishes for his career ...
The point is, before an artist is breaking, the artist might already be bound to a contract...otherwise he will get a better deal from the other 3 competitors...

[computo]

I think this is a total GOOF on warners part. Just shows how scared the higherups in the industry are of losing their jobs.

But Most importantly, to me this signals the end of supporting artists at labels. Sony only payed 10mil in the recent Payola suit, where the company likely made HUNDREDS of millions, simply from setting these artists into peoples ears. So, now they know that even if they get busted for pay-to -play, they are still making BUTT LOADS of loot off of pre-fab artists.

So they can put that energy into whichever artist they want, no need for smaller artists.

No need to nurture an artists popularity, if you can buy it on air.

and the masters? What good are masters of nobody-bands to anyone?

More like the industry saying "We dont even want your shitty masters taking up SPACE" They dont need them anymore.

Oh yeah, and if you like the idea of only selling mp3's, go right ahead. CDbaby allows distribution through every major online dist. site, for a really good rate. Or just go to Itunes and do it yourself.