I read that article a few years ago, and yes record companies usually tend to give artists a raw deal. For them it's just business.
However once I also read an old sonic youth interview where they stated that they decided to move to a major label because indie labels had difficulty offering them adequate promotion and getting money from them was always problematic. Plus for the first time in their lives they now had health insurance.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Steve Albini, and I admire the people that he worked with (The Jesus lizard, Zeni Geva, Slint) but commercially wise we are talking small numbers.
Back in the old days if you wished for success and big financial rewards probably major labels were almost your only option.
However that wasn’t my point, my point is that if you have big ideas in music nowadays, it will be difficult to turn them into reality because simply there is no money out there for big risky projects.
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