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It would be useful to know which content owners do and don't subscribe to this scheme, so I know which to boycott and which to support.

The only 2 I know of for sure are Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph Records, though it seems Epitaph has been moving in the 'corporate whore' direction for a number of years (ironic, considering that the anti-establishment punk sensation Bad Religion is one of their top artists).

Bullshit. Look at Epitaph Records and other independent punk labels.

Yes, the power of major labels ruled by the RIAA are a problem. But these artists signed a contract, and they're obligated to uphold the contract. Too bad. Now they've learned a lesson.

Ug? Bad Religion

Personally, I've been doing just that. I also let retailers know why I buy some music and give other music a pass. A Boycott is a "drop in sales due to piracy" unless you actually let people know that you're boycotting the RIAA

Obligatory links:

• RIAA Radar allows you to determine if a recording is distributed by a RIAA-affiliate.
• Epitaph has some of the best indy punk music available
• Audio Lunchbox has a great selection of tunes for purchase in MP3 or OGG Vorbis formats

Do you expect growth in indie labels due to the monopolistic major labels taking so much money away from the artist and all that capitalist stuff? Or will they maintain their monopoly?

It seems like there would be an overwheling struggle by major labels to keep down the indie people so as not to lose money on their Britneys and Christinas.

This is a power thing. Only the RIAA will determine what music gets to be popular and what does not. Not the listeners.

I don't know about that... if the RIAA can scare people away from sharing major-label music on P2P networks, the main source of free music on the Internet will be independent musicians. If you buy the argument that free downloads promote CD sales, this might hurt the RIAA in the long run (although I don't think it'll be *that* big).

It's also important to notice that a lot of big-name bands - not just the little ones - are offering full-length, high-quality "previews" of songs - bands like Linkin Park, Jimmy Eat World, and The Dropkick Murphys. In the end, I think the main result of the RIAA trying to kill P2P is that people won't be able to get free music. P2P is certainly a nice way to "sample" music, but there are other ways to expose yourself to new music - anyone use MP3.com, Ampcast, IUMA, or Internet Radio? I don't think P2P is that big of a threat for record companies, and I don't like the way the RIAA is messing up people's finances for sharing MP3's - but at the same time, the bottom line is that people are stealing the information that the RIAA people's paychecks are based off of. What else would you expect them to do?

The Loss of Revenue part got me thinking. A few ways to give the RIAA the finger:
1. Go to the shows. Support bands that come through your town. if you like the show, buy a tshirt or other merchandise. this is where most minor bands (that're indie or in the mainstream) make their money.
2. Buy vinyl. I only buy analogue, since most labels supporting the vinyl are indies and therefore non-RIAA. In case you get an RIAA-vinyl, you can still rejoice in better value/qualitylfie expectancy. This is becuz a CD will just stop working on you (as with a good 50 of the 450 CDs i own)
3. Support indies. Independent labels will usually have more equal distribution of funds, becuz they dont spend XX million $ promoting Britney/christina/eminem and all the other pop stars, and neglect their other artists. They have to wait for you to discover them, and you should, becuz tomorrows great artist will come from the underground labels, not the marketing machine of the RIAA. Besides, Roadrunner, Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords all offer free mp3s of their artists. Hobby Industries and its kin in electronic music also offer free sampling of the records, Hobby streaming its entire catalogue. So whatever you flavour, theyve got some treats for you.
Try it. Let the RIAA die and wither, we dont need them.

The punk mentality has paid-off in some situations. Look at Epitaph or Fat Wreck Chords. Not only are they highly sucessful, but are good to the bands. And, the bands are good to the fans.

It's funny that they didn't mention the most successful indie label out there, Epitaph.

Did anyone hold a gun to their head and force them to sign the contract? No.

Did anyone force them to work as a musician to earn a living? No.

Are there other options? Yes.

Here's one.

It's just like choosing an operating system. No one forces you to use Windows XP, but you need it if you want to play all the latest and greatest major label PC games. No one is forcing you to play those games, though, there are plenty of good games out there that aren't for Windows, it's just harder to find them.

I agree with you, EMusic is great for getting more unknown artists that don't get radio play.

For example, for you punk fans out there; Epitaph has put every record current in print on EMusic, so for 9.95 a month you can build yourself a very good collection of punk music. It's a good deal, especially since they give a free trial :).

I got 4 entire albums, stuff that I couldn't find on Kazaa without paying a cent (then I quickly canceled my subscription ;) ). Give it a shot, I wasn't disappointed; I may join them again and this time pay them.

I too am an Emusic subscriber and I love the service. Nearly every album on the Epitaph label is in their archive. And that's about 90% of what I listen to.

I find this headline funny considering EMusic is a owned and operated by Vivendi!

At the end of the day, who'd want to pay a buck a track for something as non-permanent as an mp3 track? I reckon that the reason why ppl in general refuse to pay for mp3s is, if u hit two buttons on the keyboard, its gone. even tho more behaviour from RIAA like this should be encouraged, a p2p system with subscription still seems more feasible to me - suppose you pay $15 for unlimited downloads of music. i havent checked the numbers, but i would imagine that the money saved from packaging/distribution should more than make up for the lower income. How difficult can it be to monitor which songs are downloaded and pay artists accordingly? And ppl will pay the subscription fee if theyre guaranteed high quality content. But how come that the guys at Epitaph , Fat wreck and Roadrunner as the only ones have found out that while selling mp3s is possibly not a great idea, its great for promotion. "How you remind me" by Nickelback was put out as a free mp3. Gold and platinum records started streaming in and international success for the band is a fact. Not bad for an independent label.

Unless you want obscure stuff. If i hear that XYZ indie punk band has a great album...I want to hear what they sound like before i buy it...

I listen to punk music and have always enjoyed the openness of the companies that sell the music for non-fans and fans alike to listen before buying. Most indie labels have inexpensive samplers or online mp3 download segments from artists. I listen to many obscure punk bands, and almost always there was a venue to hear them before buying. Toxic shock had the Shock Report with floppy 7" recording samplers. Notes in Thrasher Magazine was an excellent review resource. Flipside had samplers. Nowadays you have The Fat Club or Punk-O-Rama. Cheap CD offerings where you get about 10 to 15 different bands showcased. Enjoy!

OF COURSE THERE ARE NON-RIAA labels, yes and they are not owned by any of the big 5(the big 5 are the top level companies) the there is Epitaph, the offspring's former label(they released smash under it, making it the biggest indie album ever) there is Fat Wreck Chords by fat mike of NOFX, and many others, none of their bands never get radio air play because the big5 own 90% of the contry's radio stations. NOFX's "Punk in Drublic" album has gone gold with no Ad's radio airplay etc...

Not only does AOL makes me angry, Taco keeps playing "Dead or Alive" by Voodoo Glow Skulls. Look at Epitaph's Website. The fans are pretty outraged.

The problem is that distribution is much harder. Today, with internet commerce getting product to the end sale is becoming less of an issue, but still the vast majority of record sales is at places like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster Music, and other national chains.

Bad Religion's former-and-future-member Greg Gurewitz founded Epitaph, a highly successful alternative label. But even though Epitaph's sales took off as they picked up great bands, they couldn't meet Bad Religion's needs for publicity and distribution. Bad Religion just couldn't get into the big mass-purchasing chains.

Bad Religion joined Sony, and then Atlantic, where they've been for awhile now.

The good news for Bad Religion is that now their CDs are avaliable in many more shops across the country. However avaliability is mixed, and some Sony recordings are hard to come by. By contrast about every thing they released under Epitaph is still avaliable, save singles and Into The Unknown material, which they don't want out anyway.

There are many sources out there to get good independent music. I would recommend going to: Artist Shop in order to get a better idea of what is out there. There is a company called Discipline Global Mobile that produces outstanding music and operates under a philosophy of *true* respect and cooperation with artists. They don't have contracts with their artists and they don't own the copyrights to their work so that the artist maintains their right to their work instead of some label owning it. While they make mainly terrible punk music, Epitaph records is an independent label that has some good artists on it...Tom Waits and Wayne Kramer (of the mc5) namely. For better punk music check out: Dischord Records. The owner of this label is in the band Fugazi and they're a truely amazing band that I would recommend to one and all.

It's nice to see that independent artists are getting some attention from a more mainstream audience in the wake of the general disgust the world seems to feel towards the RIAA. Independent labels have helped nuture less commerical bands that have often changed the way that music is defined. Bands like the velvet underground, king crimson, and joy division were all able to make an amazing contribution to music without the aid of a large record label.

In case you haven't already been;mp3.com is a good source of outstanding independent music. Anyway, I hope this helps someone find independent music that they enjoy...music is my passion in life and I love to help people find stuff that they might like :-) In all seriousness though, people should have been looking into this stuff *WAY* before the RIAA decided to go after Napster and for some reason started a boycott (one company sues another one and we side with the one because we honestly believe that they're 100% right in what they are doing or because they are giving us something we want...hm I wonder)...independent music was always there for you to hear if you were interested...or if you cared...

Best wishes,

Jon Swinghammer

NOFX releases most of their full-lengths through Epitaph, but they aren't contractually obligated (7 record deal, etc etc) to them. A few other bands on the Fat label may have some releases through Epitaph, but Fat is an autonomous company run by Fat Mike himself. :)

p.s. I did link to Fat's site on my original post... yours seems to be broken. ;)

Hasta Lasagna!

If you're into punk rock, the majority of punk rock bands are on indie labels (not affiliated with the RIAA). A few are:

Nitro Records - AFI, Guttermouth, TSOL, One Hit Wonder, old Offspring, Vandals, etc.

Fat Wreck Chords - some NOFX, Bracket, Propagandhi, others

Epitaph - Rancid, NOFX, older Bad Religion, some Offspring, Ten Foot Pole, Pennywise, and a ton of others

Alternative Tentacles - Dead Kennedys, SNFU, random other bands

If you're into industrial, TVT Records has KMFDM, some old Nine Inch Nails, and an assortment of lesser-known bands

And of course there's always mp3.com - they sell cds of most of the bands featured there. Some are actually pretty good.

Why are they charging $10 for digital music? I buy my CDs for $10-$12 (mail-order from record labels such as Nitro Records and Epitaph) and that includes the cost of pressing and mailing the CDs (there are no shipping/handling charges). Since selling digital music doesn't have those overhead costs, it should be cheaper, not the same price.