Country music sucks, but...

Ok, this isn't news at all, but it's new to me, and it illustrates a point I've been making for some time now. Garth Brooks signed an exclusive deal with Walmart to distribute his music. This means no RIAA involvement, because he has no contract with his old label. All artists should do this. Now, I don't expect Walmart, or any other major retail outlet, to be interested in exclusive deals with just any little garage band, but it shouldn't take much to get a deal with iTunes or Yahoo or somesuch. In fact, I think independent deals already exist with iTunes (someone who knows, leave me a comment).
Seriously, widespread distribution is the only function of a record label (that and stealing people's money) and that function is obsolete. I suppose they're also responsible for promoting bands, but the internet (myspace, etc.) makes that function obsolete, too. The RIAA knows this, and they're just trying to grab up as much as they can before artists figure it out, too. Unfortunately, our rights are getting jacked with in the meantime.
And you know, even if the recording industry had an actual purpose, which they don't, they'd still die because they're making the world HATE them. Google's mantra of "do no evil," for example, seems to be a much better business model than the **AA's "do excessive, government-sponsored evil." Heck, Google could be deceiving us all, gradually positioning themselves to take over the world while pacifying us with their nifty little innovations. At the very least, I know they're a company, which means they're only interested in consumer satisfaction insofar as it brings them profit, but hey, at least they pretend to not be jerks. The AA's won't even do that anymore.
Ok, rant over...for now...