This is the fourth installment of Corporate Rocks Still Sucks buy JTk:
With the strong showing of the emusic service which features indie music and the recent success of indie artists like Los Lonely Boys and Franz Ferdinand we started thinking about the state of Indie music in general.
With the perpetual problem of getting heard marginalized by the �Net ( p2p, Mp3�s on artists sites, Amazon�s hear it before you buy it, alternative online radio stations, GarageBand.com etc. ) indie artists are playing on a much more level field then ever before. Just as importantly indie labels are starting to make real money.
Not major label money, but enough money to invest in bands that are good, interesting, have potential - and not �artists� that simply telegenic.
While the record labels have focused their efforts on selling 10 million units by finding the next media sensation ( which may or may not have anything to do with music ) indie labels are free to focus on producing music for people that like music and not pop stars.
While there are many great artists with major label deals they are not the focus of the labels. Unless you can sell 10 million copies ( Diamond ) then you are just not a priority for the majors.
It is just this focus on music that the big labels don�t get. As simple as it sounds, major music labels aren�t about music. They are about mainstream media, magazine covers for Britney, movies for Eminem, etc.
This also helps explain the conflicting sales numbers from the �music� industry. While there are less �artists� reaching the Diamond level, there are far more bands selling hundreds of thousands units then in the past.
Bands like Wilco, The Black Keys and Mofro have all found audiences that would have been all but impossible a decade ago. So while Cd sales are up, top selling �artists� are not selling multi-million units as often - which is a good thing for real music lovers.
Festivals like Bonnaroo and All Tomorrows Parties underscore the hunger that real music fans have for good music. Manchester, Tennessee is not the most accessible place on earth yet thousands upon thousands of music lovers descend on it to hear bands are diverse as Widespread Panic to Taj Mahal.
All in all the state of independent music is as strong as it has been in quite a while, and this, as much as anything else pisses off the majors. So do your part, head over to Sub-pop, Fat Possum, or head over to the Independent Online Distribution Alliance and help support independent music today.
