The poor treatment and commodification of recording artists and creators by the mainstream record industry is well known. "The record industry went through an era of just hand over fist cash. But they made a few mistakes along the way," says Steve Knopper, author of the book Appetite For Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, discussing the traditional system of an up-and-coming artist with no financial leverage basically having no choice but to sign a recording contract with terms heavily favoring the record companies. Though as a writer who penned articles under a freelance basis before taking a ...