Indie Musicians Leverage Musical Trends to Thrive

Poor CD sales and Internet theft of song files spell tough times for the mainstream music business, but it's a different story for musicians who reject the conventional "record label" business model. For these artists, the same trends that hurt the conventional recorded-music industry prove to be a boon for independent musicians and producers. Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers reports.

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Only two complaints about the NPR story.

1) There is that unsubstantiated "piracy" claim again, which is somehow required for every music-related story.

2) The guy who narrates this sounds like he's barely awake, much less interested.

Beyond that, it's gem. I love the Arlo Guthrie quote which, paraphrased, was that if he has his own CDs made, it costs him half of what the labels will charge him selling to him at "cost."

Why the discrepancy? Buildings and secretaries to pay for, say the labels.

I'll make my own, says Arlo.

I'm with Arlo. I've been listening to him for eons. Listened to his Dad for longer than that.

Indie artists have always been better than RIAA ones anyway. They tend to make better music than their counterparts. and we all know this to be true. I've stopped listening to RIAA spoonfed bands many, many years ago.

Gather together a coalition of indipendent artests, this vast majority and start a lobying group. Voteing power outweighs the dolloar most of the time. Look at all the power unions have.

"2) The guy who narrates this sounds like he's barely awake, much less interested."

Welcome to NPR.

George and others,
I was able to refer an indie artist from utah to dmusic.com and garageband.com
The artists website is: www.peterbreinholt.com
I talked with his assistant, and she was very nice and knew a lot about the RIAA and there actions.
Just hopefully more people will hear his music, it is folk music.
Thanks

Good job, directive.

And I've got a hillbilly bluegrass band from Austin that just allowed me to post a few mp3s (haven't got to it yet, though). Kind of like "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" and the harmonies are awesome.

Faded -- I've really given the "coalition" idea a lot of thought. For instance, I was looking at the copyright office's call for objections to the SoundExchange (an unincorporated division of the RIAA) collection of royalties for webcasting.

I'm in Arizona. Right to work state. No musicians' union. Don't trust the RIAA. Don't trust ASCAP any more.

But I can't even object because I'm just me. I got into the DMCA by arguing a logical point with facts. I didn't have to represent anyone. Just the facts and my logic.

Yes, we need a coalition, but how do we do this? Do we have to create a non-profit organization or something? Just start a big list and say we are one? This might be how the Recording Artists Coalition works. They've only got about 50 or 60 artists. I've got almost that many signed up already for the class action suit. Do I just call us a coalition and start the membership list from there?

I think that's kind of underhanded, because it is not the premise under which I collected names. On the other hand, those are the perfect people to start with. I could write back to each one and ask separately.

And, as was raised elsewhere, how do we prevent it from turning to a weird version of the RIAA? Who's in charge?
I'll gladly be the chief troublemaker, but I don't want to be responsible for everyone forever.

Unless there's money in it.

Unless there's money in it.
(To support your wife and kids)
Just making sure greed is not there

"Gather together a coalition of indipendent artests, this vast majority and start a lobying group."

What do you think I'm trying to do Artists Against the RIAA It's going slow, but if you know ANY artist who are against what the riaa is trying to do send em' here.

Thanks
Erm

Doh' Link didn't work. http://noriaa.the-erm.com.

Of course what I'm doing is just trying to get an idea of how many artists out there who actually want there music out there for free.

Im a hobbiest who does electronic and music for fun but I am trying to put a real band together online for collabs and stuff. but, i bet if you try hard enough and look around the web more you will find lots of bands that would be willing to get together for a good cause.

"I don't want to be responsible for everyone forever."

That is exactly the kind of person we need. Someone who will fight for the cause, but when the goal has been achieved they will be glad to be rid of the position. This I think is the element needed in the leader to keep this coalition from becoming another demon like the RIAA.

And the next line "Unless there's money in it."
Personally, I think the goal should be to keep money out of it.