So, now the recording industry is racist.

As most of us already know, superstar-legend Michael Jackson has accused record labels of ripping off black artists. They give so little of the profits from album sales to black artists, he claims, that these artists are forced to travel and tour endlessly in order to earn an adequate living wage. And, although his idea of adequate is probably quite different than that of your average wage-earner, he does have a point: recording artists do earn the vast amount of their income from touring, not from album sales.

Money is not lining the retailers' pockets, either. It seems, I know, outrageous to customers that they are paying $18-$20, and, I agree, it is. However, your local retailer is paying $13-$15 per disc, on average, at wholesale prices--he is just making a living. But, at these prices, someone out there is turning a huge profit and, generally, Mr. Jackson is correct: it is not the artist. The bulk of the money turned on a release does go to the record label behind the artist, and the artist will make the majority of his share on tour supporting that release. However, two things strike me: (1) touring is part of the artist's job and (2) race has nothing to do with that fact.

It is difficult for me, or anyone who is working excessively to almost make ends meet, to sympathize with the complaints of a musician who feels he shouldn't have to continue touring to earn his keep. Touring constantly, year after year? Well, you know, most of us work at our jobs constantly, year after year, and I've no doubt that our average income is far below what these people are earning on their tours. Think that expecting an artist to perform frequently is too stringent a job requirement? Well, voice your complaints to a truck driver, a factory worker, or to the waitress on her feet all day in your local diner. Mr. Jackson feels that artists are being made to sing too often for their supper? Hrmph.

And, as far as racism is concerned in this equation, I feel there is very little to be said on the matter. Quite simply, artists of all races are touring for the bulk of their income. Making this into an issue of race is simply ludicrous and is, ironically, a racist attitude in itself.

All of this does raise some points about the music industry. The problem is not that the record labels are taking too large a piece of pie--it is that the pie is too large to begin with. Overcharging for CDs is only going to hurt the life of the music industry in the long run. During the golden age of cassettes, most people still bought the real deal instead of dubbing a copy from a friend. Why? Because the price of cassettes was still reasonable, so it still made sense to get a retail copy instead of going to the trouble of making your own. However, in this day and age, when one can burn a CD very easily for very little investment, why would anyone expect that people would prefer to purchase a retail copy for $19.99?

If the music industry is to survive, it is going to have to wholesale its CDs at a reasonable price so that retailers can offer them to the public at a reasonable price. Label artists are going to have to stop crooning their "woe-is-me" tune and realize how fortunate they are to be earning a living doing something they love. We all have problems, yes, but no one in the real world, living on a real budget, has any sympathy for the over-the-top "necessities" these people are peddling, and we just do not want to hear it.

Michael Jackson had a chance to make a significant point and, possibly, a difference in the way music is marketed. Instead, because he is upset about the failure of Invincible and his own downslide in popularity, he chose to infuriate, hurt, divide, and, as is the trend these days, spin responsibility away from himself. His album sucked, and that is why it failed--no amount of money can change that basic fact (well, okay, boy bands and Britney Spears are good arguments against that statement, but that is an article for another day).

The music industry does indeed have a problem, but that problem is not racism.

It is, quite simply, greed.