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Hmmm... I'm not the best person to give you the list you're asking for... but here are 3 sites I know that have both downloadable MP3s and non-RIAA CDs for sale:

• Courtney Love. She was the first "name" artist to denounce record industry business practices publically and effectively. Bookmark and wait a couple of weeks, the site's down for upgrading.
• Janis Ian is the one who recently wrote some remarkable articles on piracy and the record industry which have been slashdotted, she also sees MP3s as promotional tool, not product.
• Elian Gedeon. She's an independent artist who's just beginning to get the word out about herself. I know who's going the e-commerce route to market her CDs and merchandise. "New music" by definition.
• Here is what should be a complete RIAA membership list. If the label isn't listed, it's safe to assume that it is NOT RIAA.

However, the great majority of artists you've never heard of who are selling their own CDs and making downloads available are non-RIAA. If in doubt, ask.

(I know, I keep saying this stuff...Now it's a rant).

This essay is a work in progress. It's a compilation of various rants of mine. If you have ideas for improvement (or critiques) they'd be welcome.

My saga into the online music controversy began at CFP99 (the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference). A panel with both an RIAA representative and a rap-artist and a few other folks were talking (actually they were mostly shouting!) at/to eachother.

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is a very politically-well-connected music distribution cartel, consisting of five major record companies. The rap artist (whose name escapes me) had his own label, but he favored MP3s, too, because his music's popularity had grown in part due to online music trading. To summarize the arguments...

RIAA side:

You're a criminal, an ordinary thief! Taking this information is AGAINST THE LAW, even if you own the album/CD! The person who downloads music is stealing from musicians as much as a person who "pirates" software steals 'warez'!

Unknown Rap-dude's side:

No, you're a corporate shill, feeding enormous layers of middle men (who don't help our fans at all!) piled onto the backs of artists - who have 0 negotiating power against a giant cartel that's as powerful as the RIAA!

Needless to say, the session ended with the panel still arguing, mostly right past eachother. Everyone wanted to talk about the artists and the fans, but if you listened it was all about money even though words like "money" and "payments" were rarely if ever mentioned! A 1950s-era payment system was assumed to be the only alternative to "100% free."

I walked up, handing out business cards and quietly saying, "you know, I might have a solution to all this, it's called e-gold" to both sides, and both sides have been very slowly getting it (no marketing budget to speak of!) ever since! (Well, it's not been quite that bad, but it's close!) Now, I spend a lot of time asking artists to try e-gold, and some new tools have made it easier than ever to use.

One fan has set up http://www.radsfans.net for The Radiators, a very cool bar-band that should be more popular than they are, IMO.

I can understand why the RIAA dislikes the idea of e-gold. They hold onto their middleman position only because of the difficulty artists and fans have traditionally had in directly reaching or paying eachother. Some bands, like the Grateful Dead, thumbed their noses at anti-recording policies for years, though. I don't think Jerry's heirs are suffering now, despite the massive music-trading of recorded Dead shows which has gone on for decades. Despite the well known fears of bands like Metallica, there are a lot of subtle ways to make it in the music business, and my intent is to spread e-gold tipjars as another one.

I want to jump in on the RIAA's game (and as a middleman, I may charge a lot LESS than the RIAA does, but I'd charge something!) so they're understandably apprehensive about losing the things Courtney Love mentions in http://www.hole.com/speech/ such as "trips to Scores" (a popular NY City topless entertainment club). I think e-gold can be a much more efficient and transparent 'middleman' -- but of course I'm biased as hell.

I want small bands I've never heard of to be able to quit their day- jobs and play music full-time because of what I'm selling, and I'm not going to quit. Other people have said this better than I can, so I'm going to rely on them now.

I would urge everyone reading this to read Courtney's whole rant, even though it goes on for pages...In it, she reveals things like a band declaring bankruptcy after they received less than 2 percent of the $175 million(!) earned by their CD sales. Toni Braxton sold $188 million worth of CDs, and went broke because of a contract that paid her less than 35 cents per album. We all know what CDs cost, and I'm pretty sure most of us imagine the artists getting a better cut than THAT! Anyway, please go read the whole thing so that you can see from Courtney's math that the examples above are typical. Don't despair, the good part about tipjars is near the end.

Ok, now that you're back, let's get to the fun part and read some online comics about micropayments! First:

http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-5/ics t-5.html

and then:

http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-6/ics t-6.html

Whew. Ok, now look at what Courtney & Scott were both asking for, between the lines! First:

http://www.fastsci.com -- which allows ANYONE, even someone who is VERY non-technical, to set up the e-gold shopping cart. Then:

http://101574.clicktwocents.com/ -- which attempts to get two centigrams (about 19 cents worth, but two cents US is possible, too) donated to me for my long rant. Think to yourself, "I should ask Courtney & Scott to accept e-gold!" They were both asking for this, and Jim just demonstrated it!

Well, I've already asked them, but more voices will have MUCH more of an effect than just mine, so feel free to help me, and thanks for reading.
JMR

And everybody (most-especially me, to get any self-interest out of the way) wants to be the middleman. The question artists and consumers should be asking themselves is, "what kind of middleman do I want?" The current middleman/men? is what I call a quintopoly (a five-way monopoly) which has survived up to now largely because of the difficulty artists have had in directly reaching their fans through traditional means. The quintopoly is top-heavy with management who are used to (as Courtney Love put it) lots of trips to Scores and other perks. Life for the artists (even when they "make it") is therefore not nearly as lucrative as many imagined before Courtney's rant, which appeared in Salon a while back.

The internet changes (or should change) all that (and yes, I hope that the change will benefit me). How can music consumers make sure that most* of the money that they spend on music goes to actual musicians instead of non-producers? Well, I have a few ideas, but

http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-5/ics t-5.html

and

http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-6/ics t-6.html

show some cartoons that explain things visually better than I ever could in this rant. Enjoy.
JMR

* - anyone promising artists "all" the money is probably lying.

Speaking ONLY for myself!!!

And everybody (most-especially me, to get any self-interest out of the way) wants to be the middleman. The question artists and consumers should be asking themselves is, "what kind of middleman do I want?" The current middleman/men? is what I call a quintopoly (a five-way monopoly) which has survived up to now largely because of the difficulty artists have had in directly reaching their fans through traditional means. The quintopoly is top-heavy with management who are used to (as Courtney Love put it) lots of trips to Scores and other perks. Life for the artists (even when they "make it") is therefore not nearly as lucrative as many imagined before Courtney's rant, which appeared in Salon a while back.

The internet changes (or should change) all that (and yes, I hope that the change will benefit me). How can music consumers make sure that most* of the money that they spend on music goes to actual musicians instead of non-producers? Well, I have a few ideas, but

http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-5/ics t-5.html

and

http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-6/ics t-6.html

show some cartoons that explain things visually better than I ever could in this rant. Enjoy.
JMR

* - anyone promising artists "all" the money is probably lying.

Speaking ONLY for myself!!!

[Most of you already know what greedy-ol' Jim Ray is going to say, but I have to say it anyway and I don't care if I'm moderated down.]

I can show artists a system that (largely) cuts out any middleman right now, and will lead to (and become the base for) systems that completely do it, like (but not limited-to) ecoin, digigold, and maybe even PayPal (if they're ever profitable, that is...). The demise of Napster, if it happens, will mean very little if I'm right, but it's going to require some new-thinking on all sides.

IMO, to get the full benefit of happy consumers, musicians are going to have to do as Courtney Love said and go to a worldwide-tipjar model that relies on voluntary payments from honest listeners. There will be enough honest listeners to make this worthwhile, even if everyone's not perfectly-honest. For example, I leave nice tips while traveling, even if I know I'm never returning to a place. Part of this has to do with having once had a job that relied on tips, but I think most folks do the same (dare I say it's "good karma" to tip?).

People are used to getting something now for free, and that means the days of $15 CDs' profits sending promoters to Scores while only giving the artists a pittance are over. Fans will voluntarily pay (less, but not nothing) only for non-crappy music, so the days of getting away with bundling it with crappy music are also over. Artists are about to see an age of VERY direct feedback from fans, whether they like it or not. For me, it can't happen soon enough. There will be winners and losers, of course, but overall joe sixpack is going to benefit along with joe musician, while joe promoter busily looks for another sinecure-job and the RIAA bites the dust (good riddance!). The variety of music listened-to will probably VASTLY increase over the next few years, as AOLers discover what more technically-proficient users already know.

Will this all be perfect and utopian and theft-free and wonderful? No. Will it be a better deal than everyone's getting right now from the RIAA quintopoly? Probably so, at least I think it will, but I'm obviously biased-as-hell on this issue, and I'm (as always) speaking only for myself, YMMV, etc.
JMR

PS. Once again, any /. reader can obtain a free click of e-gold from me by sending me an account number. It benefits me for programmer-types to play with my favorite currency so I don't mind. Thanks.

Other bands that are going this route include Primus, who post tons of live shows on their site (mostly from tapes that fans send in). Prince is getting into the act. They Might Be Giants has songs at their site, as well as plenty of downloads at Emusic.com. They must be doing well with it since they keep releasing new stuff there (and their the number one act on the site... I guess the technology and their fanbase is a good mix).

Yes, record companies are just starting to feel the hurt. And it isn't because of anything illegal going on.

-S

I registered at Hole's Website to show some support.

It's a valid concern. After all, they're giving away all their products free, gratis and for nothing. You have to, really. Unless you've got a kick-ass game, it's tough to sell Linux software.

It sounds like they want to be a combination of portal and information pusher (remember Pointcast?). I think if they can get almost all free information, plus some exclusive information, assembled in one point they can succeed. If I want to know when Courtney Love is coming to town (per the article) I can check hole.com. However, if they want to tell me that Courtney Love is coming to town on the 17th, I have no plans that evening (according to Evolution), I have enough in my bank account (according to Gnucash) to buy a ticket from TicketMaster, and it was all done on my box so their server didn't have to know any of that stuff, that might be useful.

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