PodTech News: Independent Music Business Model = Freedom
07:44 | 
Independent music business model is about freedom. The Internet is the enabling technology that will unleash a new wave of innovation from independent music artists. Traditional labels have to come to grips with the fact that the Internet is a distribution outlet that can not be controlled.
Many of us have been saying for years that the record companies ought to chuck DRM (digital rights management), offer high quality mp3 files, and charge a dime a song for every download. He suggests the flood of orders would triple the industry’s annual revenue and increase the viability of many genres outside of pop, rap and rock, i.e., throw a party and everyone will come. It is true, something must be done about piracy. But is DRM really it?
On the other side of the coin, DRM has an “anti-criminal” flavor to it by locking users in to safe modes of customer behavior, while the violators are dragged into court. Who knows how long this can last, but Morgan Harris who runs the indie distributor Audio Lunchbox told PodTech News that the freedom to choose is one the biggest reasons people keep coming back to buy songs.
2 Responses to “PodTech News: Independent Music Business Model = Freedom”
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Copyright ©2008 PodTech.net. All rights reserved. Modified: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:56:33 -0700
December 29th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Your characterization of independent music as being comprised of “a few good artists mixed with a sea of mediocre local bar bands” before the internet is complete conjecture on your part.
Independent bands, labels, and distribution have existed long before MP3s and the internet became popular. Can you name any of them? Merge, Matador, Homestead, Sub Pop, Drag City, KRS, Fat Cat, Paper Bag, Secretly Canadian and Domino are some of the labels. Shall I name the artists as well? Plenty of great indie musicians, producers, engineers, and labels have been around before the internet.
“But the web has helped to promote some quality.” Wrong. It’s just made the music more accessible to people who want to hear it created and distributed without the ill intent of the major labels.
Not to disrespect the band, but Megaphone is not what I would consider to be quality independent music. Megaphone might be an acceptable gateway to those who’ve been born and bred on commericial radio or think Staind and Scott Stapp are truly alternative when they’ve just been co-opted by the major label marketers.
Jens Lekman on Secretly Canadian out of Bloomington, Indiana existed well before the internet was made popular with MP3 distribution and the like.
Your inclusion of Jens in your piece was your only saving grace, but that you didn’t connect the fact that Jens is Swedish, Secretly Canadian from Indiana and his success worldwide says that you really don’t get what technology has done for independent music.
Raj
October 10th, 2006 at 7:20 am
Thank you, I could not have sead it better my self.