(image from flickr user garda)
Hello, and Happy Independents Day! To coincide with the national observation of our Independence, Independent record labels across the globe are taking today as a chance to celebrate their role in music. From the official website:
This is the first ever global celebration of independent music, a sector first home to artists including The Beatles, Elvis and Coldplay and still home to the likes of Radiohead, Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys and Bjork.
Coming out of a week of some downright evil maneuvers from EMI subsidiary Capitol Records, it’s refreshing to take a look at those labels that are keeping it small and caring. You too can celebrate by downloading the Independents Day MP3 Album, with tracks from Devandra Banhart (covering Oasis), Dr. Dog, Frank Black (and Hanson and Slipknot…). This album might be worth it for the Banhart cover alone, a rather shuffled version of “Don’t Look Back In Anger.”
Revenues from the sale are split between multiple good people, including A2IM, The Worldwide Independent Network, MusiCares (one of a rare few groups dedicated to the health and welfare of musicians), and a newly formed fund to be distributed to musician programs in Central America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. In addition to the album, you can also check out their series of EBay Auctions including a shopping spree with DJ Spooky, the chance to be CEO for a day at Shadow Beggars Group, and a Guitar Hero jam session with Dragon Force.
Independent labels are in a tough spot these days. While technology has equaled the battle in distribution, as online sellers like Amazon and iTunes are careful to allow equal treatment of majors and independents (on the front end of the site, at least), the path to total music equality has some serious hurdles. The latest online battleground has come to light after a rather famous Billy Bragg editorial in the New York Times: social networks using music as a feature on their site are now being asked to pay for royalties as these websites become tremendously popular and profitable.
Bragg:
The musicians who posted their work on [social networks] are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise. Their investment is the content provided for free while the site has no liquid assets. Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend.
What’s at stake here is more than just the morality of the market. The huge social networking sites that seek to use music as free content are as much to blame for the malaise currently affecting the industry as the music lover who downloads songs for free. Both the corporations and the kids, it seems, want the use of our music without having to pay for it.
The claim that sites such as MySpace and Bebo are doing us a favor by promoting our work is disingenuous. Radio stations also promote our work, but they pay us a royalty that recognizes our contribution to their business. Why should that not apply to the Internet, too?
As of now, the major labels have been able to leverage their politcal influence to receive royalties from these companies, but independents have been too small to sit at the table. Lucky for the independents there are unionizing movement afoot. Wired last month ran a great piece showcasing Merlin, a group that represents 12,000 independent artists and labels, growing to represent as large a share of the market as EMI and earning the title of “The Fifth Major” in some circles. Even more impressive is the fact that EMI still has a larger catalog then the Merlin groups, proving to some degree the point that independent labels are better at finding successful music, as they take an equal market share with a smaller catalog. Merlin now is looking to negotiate with music-driven social sites such as Last.FM, MySpace, and imeem. PaidContent has the story.
So while we’re all munching down hot dogs and watching fireworks tonight, take a moment to put your favorite local artist on the stereo (or perhaps the aforementioned mix) and toast one to the labels that haven’t forgotten the music end of the music business.
And Happy Independents Day, no matter how you spell it.
