Steve Albini wrote this rant for the Baffler (which is presently offline) in (I think) 1994, and it has been reprinted in Maximum Rock and Roll and a host of other places since then. It remains the most straightforward critique of what’s wrong with the music industry one is likely to see.

Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.

For the rest of the text, go to The Problem with Music.
It makes a nice companion to this little clip of Dick Dale.