Alec Ounsworth, of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is something of a poster child for this new musical revolution. This band has become immensely popular, while maintaining a record-company-free existence by putting out their own albums and promoting them online.
When asked to describe the band’s business model, he was proud of the band's independence. "I would like to imagine that it was purely independent. All the decisions we made at that time were done without anyone breathing down our necks, and without any implications…The simple goal was to put a record together. I think we benefited primarily from my own stubbornness to not deal with the music industry. I think if there is a choice to release a record, or make any creative venture independently, I think you should seize upon it.”
It’s a very attractive description, harkening back to a glorified simpler time where musicians made records, and if they were any good everything would roll out from there.
However, there is one key component to this process — the music has to be heard to be liked, and the reasons the record companies are as powerful as they are is that it used to be that they were the only way to get heard. Now, with the Internet and all the modes of self-promotion, it’s possible to reach an audience with nothing more than a laptop and a dream.
It’s not like everyone’s going to spend the day sifting through MySpace to find a band they like. We have other vehicles like Pandora or LastFM or others to discover music, and until recently, we also had Muxtape, a somewhat short-lived but brilliant mix-tape Web site that let people share their mixes of the moment, introducing one another to exactly what they’re listening to.
Justin Ouellette started the site with another simple idea — to help people share music. "I was working on something that would cause people to buy some new music, or at least discover some new music that they wouldn't have otherwise. And I think in that I was successful. I think the first step towards buying some new music is to know it's there, and that you like it. And we rely on hearing that music in some form of another, whether it is radio, or TV or the Internet.”
This is the ultimate Catch-22. We can put all of the strictures and laws and barriers in place to “protect” music and intellectual property, trying to guarantee that payments for work stay as they have been, but at what point does the music become so protected that no one gets to hear it. How will anyone know that it’s there, and learn to enjoy it?
Article comments
1 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Great Article...
...with each new technology, there are new opportunities for people to get involved with big media.
Yea, but Radio & Television combined didn't have the cost-to-access ratio in it's favor like the internet does. With both Radio & TV, the consumer would've had to spend big bucks to get involved on the program level. Nowadays, an inexpensive PC & a decent internet connection allows just about anybody to showcase their ideas & passions.
[I have to read some more...I'll be back with some more thoughts/comments]