Of record labels and protectionism
So, Touch & Go has effectively ceased operations, which really sucks. This article paints an accurate picture of the impact and awesomeness of Touch & Go. It also compares Touch & Go to Dischord.
One point the article does not address is how Touch & Go responded to the digital music revolution. I can recall being frustrated on several occasions trying to legally purchase digital music released by Touch & Go. It was basically impossible to find Touch & Go music in a legal digital format.
Compare that with Dischord’s policy of basically putting everything up on every legal digital music distribution service (emusic, downloadpunk, et al. - although at one point those 2 services were pretty much the only game in town). Now that there’s evidence that pirates and customers are the same thing, I’ve got to wonder if policies adopted by record companies in the spirit of protectionism actually damaged their businesses. I’d say it did, but the truth is probably more complicated than this.
