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The reasons for republishing this article here, which I found on a site called "Bomb Hip Hop" (www.bombhiphop.com), are manifold:
1. This is the Musical Intifadah. This means that the message is carried in music, and it also means that the only way for this music to reach the ears of a considerable number of people, is through the existing mass media. After reading this article, you will understand what incredible giant an independent producer of music is up against.
2. Most of the people who visit this site are, in some way, consumers of the regular music industry. It is interesting to see where your money is going, and why.
3. I find the article a true eye-opener for those who never expected their media to be run in this fashion, and an insight-providing read for those who do suspect their media, and think they know how it works. I know it shed some light on some of the murky sides of this issue for me, and I hope it will for you too.
My compliments to Jeriko One, writer of this excellent article.
THE REAL DEAL (the truth about the music industry)
by Jeriko One
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench,
a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free,
and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
- Hunter S. Thompson
The truth is that big business controls the types of music and artists that get exposure and become popular. The record industry is a $14 billion dollar business. The five major record labels; Sony, Universal, BMG, EMI and Time Warner dominate 85% of the market when it comes to sales of Compact Discs. Leaving only 15% for the hundreds of independent record labels and thousands of artists out there. And when indies get too big or an artist starts making noise these major companies usually pick up the artist or label. This way they control the artist/label, get a percentage of the sales and keep competition to a minimum.
The Big Payoff (radio payola)
Ever wonder why you hear the same songs on the radio all the time? It's because major record companies are paying radio stations thousands of dollars to play their records! That's why you rarely, if ever, hear independent music on commercial radio. Most people don't know that virtually all the pop and rock songs they hear on the radio
(oorspronkelijk gepost op de weblog van Anja Meulenbelt op 19 maart; zie http://anjameulenbelt.sp.nl/weblog/index.php?p=830 voor reacties)
In de reacties op de opening van het nieuwe Yad Vashem museum wordt een belangrijk feit vaak buiten beschouwing gelaten, hoewel de symbolische impact en waarde hiervan in de richting van het Palestijnse volk verstrekkend is.
Ik refereer aan het feit, dat in 1948 op ongeveer 1400 meter afstand van het Yad Vashem museum de massaslachting in het inmiddels van de aardbodem weggevaagde Deir Yasin plaatsvond door Zionistische terreurorganisaties.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian trainers helping police to understand body language have caused a row by likening George Bush's facial expressions to a chimpanzee's. 
Interior Minister Patrick Dewael said he was unaware of the pictures when he signed a letter promoting the training package for police dealing with unruly soccer fans, and said the idea was "of bad taste", Het Laatste Nieuws daily reported.
The training presentation pictured the U.S. president's face in various expressions beside photographs of a chimpanzee, the paper showed on its front page, in what was meant to be a humorous introduction to the subject of reading expressions.
Dewael's office was not immediately available for comment.
Source: LA Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-yemeni30mar30,1,2983888.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer
SANA, Yemen — He was writing from prison, but at least he was alive. The smuggled letter from Abdel Salem Hila was the first his family had heard from him since he had vanished 19 months earlier.
It was, in a way, good news.
"I am writing this letter from a dark prison," the letter began. "I don't know why I am imprisoned…. I'm imprisoned in Afghanistan by the Americans."
Hila's family had seen him off in September 2002, when he'd left on a business trip to Egypt. Upon landing in Cairo, Hila checked into a downtown hotel, later placed a nervous telephone call to his family in Yemen — and disappeared.