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The Jamband/Grassroots scene is one viable alternative. The scene, which has its roots in bands such as the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band, the jamband/grassroots scene is based on the principles of "tour lots, play well, allow tape trading".

Bands like Phish, Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer (three rather different artists) have become very popular primarily because of tape trading and putting on a good live show which varies night to night.

Some sites of particular interest are Homegrown Music Network and Jambase, the latter of which has a huge database of members interested in and willing to promote the bands it serves. Bands seeking to promote shows in certain cities pay Jambase to allow them access to all the members in certain zip codes, cities and states. These fans get promotional material to spread around their area, thus gaining more interest in the concert.

Another great site is archive.org's etree archive which has full concerts of lots of bands (from big names such as Dave Matthews to the unknowns like the Motet) in lossless SHN format.

Of course, the limitations of this scene is that it's basically all wrinkly old hippies noodling away on covers of Grateful Dead songs, but there are innovators such as the New Deal and Disco Biscuits, who play live, improvised trance/breakbeat house. Or Howie Day, a singer-songwriter playing Radiohead influenced songs using loops and samples to create a unique sound. OAR play (somewhat turgid) reggae-rock, and Illinois' Umphrey's McGee present us with an alternate universe of "What if Phish listened to Pink Floyd and Genesis rather than the Grateful Dead?". There's something for [mostly] everyone.

John Mayer doesn't mind copying of his albums (at least his first album, which was out of print for quite a while). In his words, "You can burn a CD, but you can't burn a t-shirt". He also allows audience taping of all his live shows. Oh, and Strike Anywhere have pretty much their entire discography available in [128kb/s] Mp3 on their official website, so I'd say they're pro trading.

I've been trying to find blues travelers cover of johnny b. goode for 3 years now. the only place I've EVER found it was on napster. it was from a tape someone made at a concert. imagine john popper soloing on that song with his harp going at 3 times the normal tempo.

I'd gladly PAY for that song, however I've yet to find a place that sells it, including www.bluestraveler.com
Napster served one purpose and one purpose ALONE for me- rare bootlegs of songs the bands never put on cd. Oh, that and john mayer

while I'm not john mayer, I feel obligated yet again to mention his motto-
"you can burn a CD, but you can't burn a t-shirt"

decent people like him who are in touch with the technology will thrive in the next 10 years...
I'd be happy if every major label went bankrupt and all the indie's took over.

rock on wilco- I didn't see that post earlier, but I'll check them out tomorrow.

my favorite is when artists who support the stuff START gettting big because they're doing it.

John Mayer is this posterboy of this phenomenon. he started off locally and posting mp3s on mp3.com, and the next thing he knows, he's on conan obrien, leno, vh1 mtv, etc...
check him out if you get a chance. his 2 cds are the only one's I've bought in the last 4 years- I mainly listen to hippie music from the 60's and blues.

yes there are, and there are some that are extremely "pro" net.
John Mayer is one of them.

besides having his music on the radio and on vh1 and mtv, he also has a really cool attitude about mp3's- "Remember, you can burn a cd but you can't burn a t-shirt."

he's also a really cool guy. He's got some interesting views on digital music- it's not an RMS or anything, but it's fair to guess what his views are while listening to "this is my napster song"

btw, Since I heard his mp3's from a friend, I've bought 2 of his CD's and took my girlfriend to see him in concert.

AND, for those who think mp3.com doesn't work, check this out.

Ask HIM.
That's how I found his music, and I've bought one CD, and am going to see him on the 5th at calvin college in GR.

Now, I ask the RIAA, is he losing money because of napster? seems funny that he would write a song entitled, "this is my napster song". You can also check out his stuff here.

just another napster success....
*watches RIAA shake in it's boots*