They may do things that are stupid to the public but it is always with an end purpose in mind. Many time it strikes me they don’t think it through beyond the initial desire they support.

A good example of this is the sweethart deals that were given the major chain stores. They didn’t think through that giving these volume discounts would close the doors on mom and pop stores that provided more exposure and income through the back catalog sales. Nor did they they think through the realization that giving the chains the power to distribute the “product” would curtail their income for the amount charged for it.

Nor was it considered when they made sue’em all a policy that it would totally turn off the public. So much so that the artists themselves are now looking at disassociating themselves with the majors just so they aren’t painted with the same brush of hate as seen by their fans while at the same time removing the labels from the money chain. The end result of that means that if all artists go this route then the only thing remaining for income for the labels are made entertainers and back catalog sales.

When faced with the ultimate reality that refusing to lower prices could result in their total loss of that distribution chain when the chains would be willing to drop the sales completely if the price were not lowered has bitten them in the butt with lower income which strangely is attributed to piracy instead of their own screwups.

Now they are faced with their own distributors again demanding they alter their business methods before they drag yet another group into considering ways around the label to get product to the customer. There is no telling what that could take the form of. It might be the businesses dropping all together music from their shelves in favor of something else which could actually move to the sales register or it might mean stores offering indie only titles that might be willing to hear what they have as concerns.