El Negocio Musical Según Chuck D

Un Año En El Monte De Los Fantasmas

Traducción del original de Paul Cur­rion, My Year In The Bush Of Ghosts:

1. Hace un año...

decidí dejar de formar parte de la destrucción de la antigua industria musical y pasar a formar parte de la construcción de una nueva industria musical. En ése tiempo no estaba seguro de lo que significaba; una vez que descubrí Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Archive.org and Official.fm, y que compartí algunos tracks lo-fi cortar-y-pegar que armé el año anterior, ya sabía que sólo había arañado la superficie del tema. Mientras más escarbaba más encontraba: una variedad de netlabels, el Free Music Archive, blogs de cultura libre, un ecosistema completo de creatividad que existía en estado de tensión ambigua con el negocio musical.

Mi lugar en ése ecosistema éra, y sigue siendo, incierto de mi parte (parcialmente porque la antigua etiqueta de "consumidor" ya no se aplica). Escucho una cantidad enorme de musica libre de todos los géneros y siempre estoy buscando más, pero no he producido nada desde el año anterior. Empecé a compartir un podcast mensual (esporádicamente mensual, pero siempre hay lugar para los sueños...) usando únicamente musica libre, y comencé un hashtag de twitter para compartir los mejores álbums que estaba escuchando (#yourfreemu­sic­to­day, por si alguien quiere sumarse a la diversión). Ocasionalmente le escribo a los artistas para agradecerles, comparto álbums específicos con amigos, escribo posts como éste, pero nada de ésto parece suficiente.

La razón por la que no parece ser suficiente se describe en el post de Alexander Stretton que termina diciendo "como consumidores de arte distribuido en libertad somos participantes en la cultura y comunidad de creative commons, pero es tiempo de volvernos activos". El internet nos ha provisto de nuevas formas de diseminar la música, pero aunque ése cambio ha creado una nueva infraestructura para el mercado y el comercio, aún no nos hemos alejado de la terrible etiqueta de "consumidores" de música. El negocio de la música continua dominando la música (aunque a veces el precio que paga a cambio es su propia existencia), parcialmente porque domina un modelo en donde la música es "consumida".

Por éso rechazamos la etiqueta de "consumidores"; no somos tragabolas engullendo cualquier canica de plástico barato que la maquinaria de la industria lanza frente a nosotros. Sin embargo, todavía no es clara nuestra identidad en una confusa economía musical post-escasez, donde las herramientas de producción están en las manos de los trabajadores gracias a una cultura tecnológica guiada por principios libertarios. No queremos que la cultura de la música libre siga el camino de la cultura de la poesía, en donde los interesados y la audiencia de la música sean los mismos que la están produciendo. La pregunta es: ¿qué otros modelos de participación tenemos a disposición?

2. El Monte de los Fantasmas

En una entrevista en el 2001 para el periódico Guardian, Brian Eno señaló que "las grabaciones fueron una pequeña burbuja en el tiempo y aquellos que obtuvieron su modus vivendi haciéndolas tuvieron suerte... Eventualmente serán reemplazadas por otra cosa". Eno es, por supuesto, una figura seminal en la cultura de cortar-y-pegar gracias a su colaboración con David Byrne en el álbum Our Life in the Bush of Ghosts, originalmente lanzado en 1981. En 2006 Byrne y Eno lanzaron dos de los tracks del álbum para hacer remixes bajo una licencia creative commons, un disparo temprano en el conflicto alrededor de la distribución de música que aún continua. (Tomaré la oportunidad para promocionar un proyecto que surgió directamente de aquél: Our Lives in the Bush of Dis­quiet, curado por Marc Weidenbaum)

El nombre de ése álbum fué tomado de la novela de Amos Tutuola, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, un clásico de la literatura africana. En el trabajo de Tutuola, aquellos que se adentran al "Monte de los Fantasmas" son transformados, y transformados y transformados otra vez; el Monte es el lugar "en donde los fantasmas y los espíritus de los muertos vivían como en su aldea... Una vez que se entra, no hay una forma fácil de salir. Uno no puede viajar al final; éso es tan imposible como sería para un mosquito viajar alrededor de todo el mundo sin perecer".

El Monte de los Fantasmas funciona como una metáfora / literal del subconciente humano, el pozo de creatividad de donde viene nuestra música. La industri de la música promovió la ficción de que el Monte éra tan peligroso que los mortales ordinarios no deberían internarse ahí, que necesitabamos intermediarios experimentados para navegarlo en nuestro nombre para traernos sus tesoros -los intermediarios éran, por supuesto, las compañias de discos. La creatividad siempre se ha manejado de forma incómoda, especialmente por las elites culturales a las cuales no les gusta la forma en que elude su control, pero las compañias de discos lograron algo grandioso: nos persuadieron de que participaramos activamente en nuestro propio distanciamiento de ésa creatividad.

3. ... el presente

Ése distanciamiento comenzó con la aparición de la música grabada, lo que en algunos sentidos fué una influencia democratizadora en la música: por primera vez, los artistas más grandes estaban disponibles para escucharse en cualquier momento y en cualquier lugar. Ésa luna de miel no duró mucho y, de cierta forma, la historia de la música popular ha sido un largo proceso para quitarle a las élites culturales el monopolio de la música. Primero, la ejecución musical fué retomada con la aparición de instrumentos eléctricos fabricados masivamente (especialmente la guitarra eléctrica y los teclados); después, las computadoras personales hicieron que el proceso de producción musical fuera más accesible para un rango de gente cada vez mayor.

La última barrera éra la distribución de música y el internet ha cortado las piernas del monopolio que previamente tenían las compañias musicales y las tiendas. La industria musica partió del principio de que todos tienen la capacidad de consumir música y se construyó alrededor de la obtención de máximo número de personas que consuman. El problema para ése modelo de industria es que ya no puede ganar suficiente dinero haciendo que más gente consuma música porque el costo de consumir música ha caido estrepitosamente. Todavía no se ve con claridad pero la nueva industria de la música parece partir del principio de que todos tienen la capacidad de hacer música y se dedicará a que el número máximo de personas lo hagan, en vez de meramente consumirla.

Éste es el Monte de los Fantasmas que nos advirtió la industria musical -peligroso para los mortales, lleno de tranformaciones, caótico y profundo- y también nos dijo que no sobreviviríamos sin su guía. Sin embargo, yo pasé un año en el monte, viviendo de lo que podía obtener y resulta que la industria musical nos mintió. Las transformaciones son peligrosas principalmente para la industria musical, no para nosotros, y podemos vivir perfectamente ahí (aunque ganarse la vida sea otra historia). Sin embargo, no puedes vivir ahí solo, necesitas alguna comunidad a tu alrededor; el nuevo reto es encontrar las mejores herramientas para construir ésa comunidad. Sean bienvenidos al Monte de los Fantasmas porque todos vivimos ahora ahí...

Paul Cur­rion es deliveradamente vago y escribe un blog en http://www.currion.net. El artículo tiene licencia CC BY-SA 3.0. Las fotografías de Koocbor’s pueden encontrarse en Flickr. La fotografía tiene licencia CC BY-SA 2.0.

Consejos de Trent Reznor

Algunos consejos de Trent Reznor para nuevos artistas:

I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media "got it right" regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here's a link to their store:

[illcommunication.beastieboys.com]

Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual "yeah, if you're an established artist - what if you're just trying to get heard?" argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I'll reiterate what I said here.

If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:

* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) - your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.

If you're forging your own path, read on.

* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this - give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people's email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special - make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters... whatever.

Don't have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]

Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.
The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact - it sucks as the musician BUT THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So... have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The Beastie Boys' site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in - available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging - they are established and you are not. Think this through.

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on - like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace - it's dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don't autoplay). Constantly update your site with content - pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any - Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

If you don't know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don't get it - find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig - good luck, you're going to be waiting a while.

Hope this helps, and I'll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to.

TR

TopSpin Media info:
[topspinmedia.com]


(disclaimer)
This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness - may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across.
TR


UPDATE 1:
Thanks for the insightful comments already - when I get a moment (and a reliable internet connection) I'll respond to some of your very valid points. Please keep in mind - these were just some thoughts I quickly wrote down and posted and not meant to be a complete guide by any means. I've neglected to get into publishing and some other things. I'll update pretty soon.

(...)

Bandcamp
[bandcamp.com]

This looks excellent to me. I have not used it but it appears to be great. This would cover your digital distribution of files and the collecting / amassing of your database. Looks like you'd still need someplace to handle fulfillment of merchandise / physical goods (like the Amazon link above).

Pay-what-you-want model
This is where you offer tracks or albums for a user-determined price. I hate this concept, and here's why.
Some have argued that giving music away free devalues music. I disagree. Asking people what they think music is worth devalues music. Don't believe me? Write and record something you really believe is great and release it to the public as a "pay-what-you-think-it's-worth" model and then let's talk. Read a BB entry from a "fan" rationalizing why your whole album is worth 50 cents because he only likes 5 songs on it. Trust me on this one - you will be disappointed, disheartened and find yourself resenting a faction of your audience. This is your art! This is your life! It has a value and you the artist are not putting that power in the hands of the audience - doing so creates a dangerous perception issue. If the FEE you are charging is zero, you are not empowering the fan to say this is only worth an insultingly low monetary value. Don't be misled by Radiohead's In Rainbows stunt. That works one time for one band once - and you are not Radiohead.

Why put something on iTunes for a price fans can get it from your site for free? Won't it piss people off?
Do it and don't worry about it. Lots of people apparently shop at iTunes exclusively and that's where they get their music. They are generally not the people that would be mad to discover they could have gotten the same record (at a better bit-rate) for free elsewhere. We put The Slip up at nin.com for free at all fidelities and STILL sold a fairly large amount of copies at iTunes for $9.99. At the time iTunes did not allow variable pricing (I don't know what the deal is now).

My Flash comments
I don't hate Flash, just go easy on it and avoid anything that takes time to load - ESPECIALLY your front page.

Managers / booking agents / small labels
Any or all of these may be good for you - or not. Here's a truth: nobody knows what to do right now, me included. The music business model is broken right now. That means every single job position in the music industry has to re-educate itself and learn / discover / adapt a new way. Change can be painful and hard and scary. If any of these entities we're discussing are interested in you, ask them about their strategies IN DETAIL. None of them know for sure what to do. Some of them have an idea of how to negotiate these waters. Most of them don't. If you are young and use the internet, you know more about your audience than they do - for sure. This is a revolution and you can be a part of it. The old guard is dying, if you have good ideas - try them.
Bottom line - before getting involved with anyone else, ask yourself what it is they can clearly bring to your table and is it worth their cut. Do they know what they're talking about, and does their strategies match yours?

I have not gotten into the basics which I believe are self-evident: believe in what you do, do the best work you can, work hard, practice, practice more, find your voice, hone in on it, take chances, play live (if applicable), practice more, keep believing in yourself and prepare for the long haul.

Copyfighter

Cory Doctorow en Rolling Stone Argentina:

(...) muchos músicos están despertando. Quizá no les guste lo que está pasando con Internet, porque durante toda su carrera les llenaron la cabeza diciéndoles "no te dejes copiar". Pero de ahí a ir en contra de sus propios fanáticos... En Estados Unidos, miles de personas fueron enjuiciadas, pero esas ganancias no fueron para los creadores. El artista promedio quiere ser recordado como el tipo con el que sus fans perdieron la virginidad, no como el tipo con el que sus fans perdieron el disco rígido. Es terrible que cada vez que pienses en, por ejemplo, Tom Waits, digas: "Por culpa de ese tarado perdí mi tesis de diez años que estaba en el mismo rígido que su álbum".

¿No se supone que estas organizaciones velan por los artistas?
Hay un sucio secreto en la industria discográfica: en Estados Unidos, el 97 por ciento de los artistas cobra apenas 600 dólares al año con este modelo. Es decir, con la excepción de un puñado de artistas, nadie en la industria musical hace suficiente dinero, sólo los ejecutivos. Siempre ha sido así. De la gran mayoría de personas que quieren hacer arte, sólo una ínfima porción logra hacer dinero con el arte. Y esto es culpa de la explotación de algunos intermediarios, pero también, y sobre todo, porque la economía en el arte es irracional. Cuando un zapatero se da cuenta de que el costo de reparar zapatos es más alto que las ganancias, busca otro trabajo; el artista insiste.

El Ataque De Las Netlabels

Una netlabel es una disquera que distribuye música a través del internet. Puedes descargar archivos de mp3 con el consentimiento de los artistas y en su mayoría, la música se ofrece sin ningún cargo. Los primeros netlabels se enfocaban casi exclusivamente en generos de electrónica e IDM. En estos géneros las netlabels pioneras en México han sido Filtro y No Copy Protection (Discos Konfort). En la actualidad y con los avaneces de la producción digital muchos otros géneros se han adherido al movimiento netlabel y ahora es posible encontrar muchos tipos de música que se distribuyen bajo este esquema. En México la música que no está en los circuitos comerciales siempre ha tenido dificultades para encontrar un público, pero con el medio del internet ya existen músicos que toman la iniciativa y graban y publican sus temas con licencias flexibles que permiten su libre distribución.




Por ejemplo, en la net label diablero se pueden encontrar lanzamientos diversos que van desde las islas de melodía en un océano de drones de los Homeless Ninja Robots, hasta el indie sin remordimientos de Atletia, pasando por las improvisaciones melancólicas de David Salas y los ambientes fuera de foco de Julio C. Mendoza.

Algunas personas opinan que el movimiento de la cultura libre abandera el fin de las industrias culturales tal como las conocemos, sin embargo lo más probable es que el sistema libre y el sistema tradicional convivan indefinidamente. A fin de cuentas, el mayor beneficiado de esta convivencia va a ser el público que por fín va a dejar de depender de los medios comerciales para explorar y encontrar nuevas músicas.

Música En Libertad

Chris Anderson analiza cuatro tipos de modelo de negocio que incluyen música gratis.

1. Direct Cross-Subsidy: The cost of joining The Spill Canvas Fan Club is $19.99, but if you join you get a 20$ Gift Certificate and exclusive content free.
2. Ad-Supported: Downloading Kid Rock’s new song American Warrior is free, but it is ad-supported by The National Guard.
3. Freemium: Radiohead’s In Rainbows was based on a freemium because those who paid subsidized those who got it for free
4. The Gift Economy: Prince gave his album Planet Earth away in The London Daily Mail in order to gain attention, boost reputation, and spur ticket sales.

Una Razón Para Comprar

Michael Masnick analiza el modelo de negocios de Trent Reznor:

The core of the presentation is the following simple "formula" that is the basis for making money in the music business (and, I'd argue, many other businesses) in the digital era:

Connect With Fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)

(...) a true reason to buy (RtB) is a voluntary transaction. Too often we've seen musicians or other content creators think that there is some sort of obligation to buy. And, so they put something out with a price tag, but without doing a very good job convincing fans why they should buy. There was no real reason -- and then they seem to lash out at their fans for hurting them. The fault, however, lies with the musician (like any business) who failed to give a proper reason to buy, and falsely assumed that fans had some sort of obligation to buy. If an artist believes there's an obligation to buy, fans will often educate the artist very quickly.

(...) One final point on this is the last question that people often raise: why should the musician be involved in any of this? Shouldn't they just be creating music. There are two answers to this. First, this is exactly where a smart record label, agent or manager can come in and be quite helpful. Let the musician create the music and let the "business guys" focus on applying this business model. Second, however, is that due to the way the industry is these days, the musician does need to be somewhat involved. You cannot connect with fans if you're in seclusion. If you don't want to make the effort to connect with fans, then that's fine: you won't have that many fans. It's a choice you make.

Disqueras en e-cultura

Lista de disqueras independientes en México, de la página e-cultura del CONACULTA.

Promoción con Cero Presupuesto

The Audible Hype $0 Music Promotion Plan
By Justin Boland on September 06, 2008

This is dedicated to broke rappers everywhere. This is a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on setting up your online operation right. It involves spending no money whatsoever, and you could easily sit down and get it all done tonight.

Crea Tu Propio Netlabel

¿Ya produjiste algunos tracks y no sabes qué hacer con ellos?

Sigue el camino independiente. Crea tu propio netlabel.

Archive.org ofrece alojamiento gratis para tus tracks y un directorio personalizado. Creative Commons te ofrece una fórmula sencilla para administrar licencias.

Nu-Trova

Radiohead está utilizando una estrategia singular para promover y distribuir su nuevo disco In Rainbows: está dejando que sus fans le pongan precio a la descarga de las canciones. Su manager, Bryce Edge, comentó para el New York Times:

Digital technology has reintroduced the age of the troubadour. You are worth what people are prepared to give you in the digital age because they can get it for nothing.

Alex Burns de disinfo.com hace notar algunos detalles al respecto:

• Radiohead have 3 release strategies for In Rainbows to hedge a "worst case" scenario: the download on 10th October 2007, the deluxe box in December 2007, and a possible CD release on a label in January 2008. Radiohead's managers signaled this strategy during media interviews in early October 2007.

• Even though In Rainbows will end up on BitTorrent and Russian piracy sites, many of Radiohead's fans are still willing to pay for the download --- and some will pay more than in-store retail because the money goes to the band --- and the music is worth the investment. Even if most people download the album for free, the band can still recoup its recording costs with the other releases, and through merchandising and touring.

• Consider Steve Albini's analysis of the standard recording contract in The Problem With Music: a new band actually goes heavily into debt due to the expenses of major label recording: artists & repertoire, studio, producer, management, promotional and video clip costs. Radiohead have avoided most of these costs by not being with a major label, not releasing a single to radio, no cover art for the download, and no expensive video clip. Instead, Radiohead has hopefully built its own studio, leased or bought the equipment, and offered producer Nigel Godrich a combination fee-for-service upfront and percentage points from the album sales.

• Even without a major label's public relations budget Radiohead still gets a 4.5/5 star rating from Rolling Stone. They get coverage from the agenda-setting media and the blogosphere. US radio stations stream In Rainbows in its entirety or let fans vote on what "singles" to play. Who needs 'push'-style' marketeers?

• Radiohead stormed the reality studio with OK Computer (1997). They deconstructed their roles with Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). They rocked back with Hail To The Thief (2003). Now with In Rainbows, Radiohead take on the recording industry's taboos: standard contracts and major label's cost structures.

Lo que querías saber sobre copyrights

Keep your copyrights, a resource for creators

Today, too many creators take a passive attitude toward their copyrights. The matter seems complex, and publishers or distributors may tell you that everyone does it their way, or that giving up copyrights is standard practice. But giving up your rights under copyright is a decision, not a default option. If you stand passively by, you may over the course of a long creative career produce a large body of work, most of which is owned and controlled by other people, whose interests and yours may diverge.

We encourage a more proactive attitude toward copyright management. We encourage creators to understand that you start with all the rights, and that you should actively decide what you want to do with them. Your copyright in fact consists of multiple rights, and you can grant one right (or part of one right) without giving away the others. Copyright was designed to serve artists and creators, but if you give everything up, that idea can just become lip service. Worse, if you give away too many rights, the business to whom you gave up your rights can use your copyrights against you to hinder your later efforts to create or to get paid.

La Música ha muerto. ¡Viva la Música!

La revista Rolling Stone ha declarado muerta a la industria musical:

The Record Industry's Decline
Record sales are tanking, and there's no hope in sight: How it all went wrong
Brian Hiatt and Evan Serpick
"The record business is over," says music attorney Peter Paterno, who represents Metallica and Dr. Dre. "The labels have wonderful assets -- they just can't make any money off them." One senior music-industry source who requested anonymity went further: "Here we have a business that's dying. There won't be any major labels pretty soon."

k-punk declara muerta a la música:

MUSIC IS DEAD! LONG LIVE HAUNTOLOGY!
Some musicologists are announcing the end of music. Not because music has disappeared but, on the contrary, because it has become so ubiquitous that it cannot lay claim to a specific place any more. If music is no longer central to either the culture or to listeners’ attention, if it is increasingly being consumed as ring tones, as part of advertising, or as background noise (using music as a bulwark against silence), must this be treated as only a melancholy prospect? Or is there a way of embracing the idea of music as something to be used as part of a larger assemblage?

Pero ambos ofrecen esperanza para la música como negocio:

Despite the industry's woes, people are listening to at least as much music as ever. Consumers have bought more than 100 million iPods since their November 2001 introduction, and the touring business is thriving, earning a record $437 million last year. And according to research organization NPD Group, listenership to recorded music -- whether from CDs, downloads, video games, satellite radio, terrestrial radio, online streams or other sources -- has increased since 2002. The problem the business faces is how to turn that interest into money. "How is it that the people that make the product of music are going bankrupt, while the use of the product is skyrocketing?" asks the Firm's Kwatinetz. "The model is wrong."

Kwatinetz sees other, leaner kinds of companies -- from management firms like his own, which now doubles as a record label, to outsiders such as Starbucks -- stepping in. Paul McCartney recently abandoned his longtime relationship with EMI Records to sign with Starbucks' fledgling Hear Music. Video-game giant Electronic Arts also started a label, exploiting the promotional value of its games, and the newly revived CBS Records will sell music featured in CBS TV shows.

Licensing music to video games, movies, TV shows and online subscription services is becoming an increasing source of revenue."We expect to be a brand licensing organization," says Cohen of Warner, which in May started a new division, Den of Thieves, devoted to producing TV shows and other video content from its music properties. And the record companies are looking to increase their takes in the booming music publishing business, which collects songwriting royalties from radio play and other sources. The performance-rights organization ASCAP reported a record $785 million in revenue in 2006, a five percent increase from 2005. Revenues are up "across the board," according to Martin Bandier, CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which controls the Beatles' publishing. "Music publishing will become a more important part of the business," he says. "If I worked for a record company, I'd be pulling my hair out. The recorded-music business is in total confusion, looking for a way out."

Y como forma de arte:

Can we imagine new vehicles for fiction, new combinations of words, image and music that go beyond the dreary montages of advertising? Mordant and Ghost Box are already doing so.

Independiente

Página de la cooperativa Roots Music Inc. en Florida USA. Tiene tracks descargables de sus artistas.

Roots Music Inc. is an artist owned independent musician resource co-op. Our goal is to work cooperatively with artists toward achieving a regional level of success. We work as a group to better the whole.

Cooperation not competition. Having more than one band split the cost on everything from promotional items to advertisements offsets the cost to each band and enables all involved to achieve more. We group like bands together and help with touring, booking, recording, distribution, promotion, and merchandising.

Indy is the future. R.M.I. looks for bands and musicians projecting a positive message, bands that are willing to do work to further themselves, and most importantly bands that put on a good live show. We stress a high level of performance, you will not go see one of our artists live and wonder if it was the same people that recorded the CD.

Take the power and give the people a choice. We are against the tight constraints applied by the current record industry. The music of the future will be more diverse. Eventually the people will realize that there are good bands out there, you just have to look. We stress the importance of grassroots marketing, street teams, the internet and word of mouth to get music to the people. The current music industry seems to have forgotten what started the whole thing, Music.

Demos en Línea

SonyBMG deletes demo CDs, logs onto blogs
By Gavin Haycock

LONDON (Reuters) - Thinking of sending your band's demo CD to a music label in the hope of landing a deal? Don't try SonyBMG, who want to sample your music online instead.

SonyBMG, the world's second-biggest music company, said that from Monday it would no longer accept hard copy formats.

Instead, budding musicians will be asked to sign up to a record label Web site such as www.columbiademos.co.uk or www.rcademos.co.uk to blog their music, photos and videos.

"Blogging is clearly one of the major trends in music, media and entertainment," said SonyBMG's UK and Ireland Music Entertainment Chairman and Chief Executive Ged Doherty.

El Problema con la Música según Steve Albini

The Problem With Music
by Steve Albini

Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed. Nobody can see what's printed on the contract. It's too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybody's eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there's only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says "Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim again, please. Backstroke". And he does of course.