Former BLACK SABBATH vocalist TONY MARTIN is featured in a new interview with Richard Warrell at Born Music Online. An excerpt from Part 2 is available below:

Q: The recording business has been facing major declines in profits year on year for the last decade, with the rise of illegal downloading, and other digital mediums such as iTunes and Spotify offering music for consumers at a cheap – or free – price while artists receive a far lower percentage of profits. What are your thoughts on the direction the industry is heading in recently?

Martin: "The business is messed up these days. I’ve studied in the last few years actually. My lawyers and the union people – I’m not a big union man but sometimes you need them – they have a big interest in what I have to say about the industry. I think that it is probably time for the artist to take control of the industry now, because the major label system is not working anymore."

Q: How has it changed since you first became a recording artist?

Martin: "I was talking to Geoff Nicholls (keyboard player in Black Sabbath from 1980-2001 and current keyboardist in TONY MARTIN'S HEADLESS CROSS) yesterday about this in fact. We reckon we were probably one of the last sets of people to sign the old style of record contract, where you got an A&R; guy, an advance and a five year deal – all sorts of things that built the band and the product up. You don’t get that now.

The old system has been ruined by the downloading thing…we still take time and money making a ten track album and someone will maybe download one track. Its probably time to think about doing single track releases, so each track is heard by itself. The labels are shooting themselves in the foot by asking for a ten track album to release. If you release one track at a time, each track gets heard on its own merit, each track gets paid for. Maybe after releasing seven, you could put out all of them on a CD with four extra tracks."

Q: What do you think is the future then, if record labels are becoming a thing of the past?

Martin: "I think the thing is the artist needs to get a grip instead of relying on record labels and their outdated method. If you think about the chain of events, you’re the creator, the person at the start. The songs are worth everything at that point, but as soon as you hand it over, from that point you’ve got promoters, publishers, everyone down the line takes a slice and you’re at the end of the line. Well, there’s no money at the end because they’ve all had their percentages. So you’re the first person in the chain and the last person in the chain but you’re the same person. So I’m saying we should take it into our own hands, and make a new contract. Maybe personally…social networking is a very personal thing where you connect to fans directly."

Go to this location for the complete interview. Click here for Part 1.