Back in the 1970's I went to work for Alberts - the publishing and record company - in Sydney, Australia.

Back in those days the entire music business ran with publishing and record deals that these days are regarded as usurious and unfair. Back then songwriters hardly ever got legal advice before signing a contract, even though they were advised to. And back then deals where revenues were split 50/50 were the norm.

Somewhere in the late 70's or early 80's things changed radically. It started with some of the major songwriting acts of the 60's coming out of contract and then using the opportunity to negotiate significantly different terms - like 80/20 on their mechanicals and a short retention period rather than the traditional life of copyright deals.

That new structure gradually permeated the music industry and became the norm, and the way that music industry operated changed too.

It changed partly because of the change in margin.

When you have a bigger margin you have a different philosophy.

When I worked at Alberts essentially leading the restructuring of the label from a dormant entity into something that became a beacon of success in Australia I didn't have to meet plan. I didn't have to get a certain number of hits. I was just told to go off and do what I wanted.

What I wanted was to get hit records. And I had a lot of problems to overcome to get there as I soon found out.

The fundamental problem was that Alberts owned radio stations. Yes - imagine it - when a record label owning radio stations becomes a problem. The problem was that Alberts owned 2UW in Sydney, which was an AM station (pre-FM) whose music policy can only be described as All Over The Road (AOR was Adult Oriented Rock). 2UW was everything to everyone and very little to teens. But they did have Laws and that enabled them to get really good ratings and great revenues.

The big station for teens was 2SM. Without getting airplay on 2SM you would never get a hit with a pop record. The occasional country or MOR record that cut through all age groups and started on 2UE or 2UW would occasionally get through, but there was never an occasion back then when a pop or rock record started on 2UW and became a hit.

I knew I had to get airplay on 2SM if I was going to build the label into something, and bear in mind that this was at a time before Alberts had become a success story with John Paul Young, AC/DC and others. This was ground zero.

I presented records to John Burnley the station manager at 2SM. I played records to Trevor Smith, the program manager. I went drinking with the DJ's at the pub they all drank at. I built relationships. But I couldn't get a guernsey for the music that we were producing.

On one occasion I talked to John Burnley about the problem and he told me that my records didn't sound as good as the internationally sourced music that was on the playlist; that when our productions were as good as the ones from overseas we would get airplay. I squirreled away and played more music to John. Then he suggested that even if we did better mixes, with better songs, and better artists, that we would still have a problem. The problem was that Alberts owned 2UW.

I had a bright idea. I took Ray Bean, the station manager of 2UW, out to lunch. I asked him for a favour. The favour was to not play any Alberts record on 2UW until it was on someone else's playlist. He thought I was crazy, asked me whether Ted Albert (my boss) had agreed to it. When I told him that I hadn't discussed it with him he told me that I would probably get fired for the idea, but agreed to do it.

When John Burnley heard the idea, he too told me that I would probably get fired. But clearly John thought it was pretty ballsy and so when shortly after that, we released Evie by Stevie Wright, it was added in high rotation, and that was the way that Alberts became a real label.

The point here is that back then I (and we) did things in music that we were passionate about. We didn't have to make plan. We just had to do what we loved.

A week ago, my wife, Robyn, who was also in the music business back then, told me that she had been talking to someone from one of the labels that we both knew back then. He is still in the business and doing reasonably well. He signed a lot of successful acts over the years. But he is now working at a label plodding along, working to meet plan. Its passionless. Its about profit for the company. And its soulless.

That is why there is so little important music being made these days. It is the byproduct of the money men running the business. But that is the byproduct of the default industry agreement moving most of the profit into the hands of the artist and the songwriter.

What has happened is that the recorded music business moved from being an entrepreneurs' game into being a game where you need volume to make up for reduced margin. And when you get into being in a volume business you might just as well be selling breakfast cereal or soap powder.

That is also the reason that P2P has built up critical mass.

Think about it. P2P is largely promoted by geeks who are passionate about technology, while the labels are run by people who have done their MBA's and are now trying to work in the corporate system in the knowledge that they are going to need to fight their way to the top using the corporate rule book. That rule book rewards corporate sociopaths driving profits without conscious need to deliver art. It may sound ugly but it is true.

Clearly record companies are never going to win against the level of networked passion to disrupt that is in the community. And its not disruption for disruption's sake. It is disruption because some people are still passionate about music.

As you download or upload a song, or as you A&R a record from inside a company, please think about this though: Without a decent margin you are going to find yourself needing to spread yourself thin and seek volume instead of quality. And once you do that, you have lost your way...

Bring back more margin for the intellectual property entrepreneurs, I say. And then we might see the re-emergence of a new era of Dylans and Beatles, and Stones, and dare I say, AC/DC's.