Selling out is so 20th century at Pandagon

AIN'T SINGIN' FOR PEPSI, AIN'T SINGIN' FOR COKE: Pandagon's Amanda ("No Relation") Marcotte has a wise post on why grunge-era qualms about bands "selling out" are totally L-Seven these days:

If you’ve ever bought through Ticketmaster, you’ll know that the fees are so out of control, they will double the ticket price for expensive shows and triple it for cheaper ones, causing me at least to vow that I’d sooner slit my wrists than buy through them again. So when file-sharing came onto the scene, it was contextualized as a blow by fans against a predatory music industry. The pushback from the industry that involved attempts to arrest 12-year-olds and old ladies and to interfere with college campuses to get them to spy on their students using internet, especially with the empty complaints about supporting artists (who barely see a fraction of the money earned through these out-of-control prices) only confirmed this opinion.

In this kind of environment, the idea that a musician who works at all with a major label or sells a CD through a store like Tower or had concerts with middleman ticket sellers who charge exorbiant fees could somehow remain pure from “selling out” by refusing money to have her music in commercials became utterly silly....

FWIW, I'm intrigued by the economics of Free Ozzfest this summer; could be a total disaster for the bands, but could be brilliant.