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Point being, though, that Projekt CDs are easily available at most Borders stores and I've been able to find Young God products in Virgin Megastores, Borders, and other places. The tide is starting to turn somewhat in favor of indie labels; however, you may never see them in mass retail distribution because of the costs involved in retail store distribution in the music industry. Newsletters from Projekt spell it out- the reason they're not in more stores is because, generally, they rarely make money going that route (in fact, they tend to lose money per unit that way). The only function of selling through traditional retail venues for them is to get their foot in the door with consumers. The hope is that, once you have a CD by a Projekt artist, you'll like it enough to shop the website. Coincidentally, that's why the CDs from that label that are arguably the most available in stores are compilation CDs.

Honestly, I think the biggest reason for there being more diversity in comic books vs music has to do with the economics of the situation. I am not a comic book artist, so someone might be able to speak about the costs there, but I am a musician and I'm working on independently producing my first album. I expect that, by the time I'm ready to begin recording, I'll have already spent $2,500, not counting the cost of time from myself, my guitarist, my vocalist, or my instrumentalists, who are all volunteering for the love of the art. Granted, a lot of this money is inital outlays I won't have to make again, but there can be a serious barrier to entry in this respect. I'm lucky enough to have so many musicians around me who don't demand payment. I shudder to think at the financial hit many other indie artists take.

Assuming I get my work complete, distribution will be a perpetual uphill fight, and my best hope is to end up at an indie label with a good distribution model already in place. I'll never be able to count on sales in retail stores (except possibly deals I make locally). Most music stores are franchises or chains and have a formula for profitability. The costs of distribution through these channels are easy for major labels to accept, and if a band's got good placement already, there's a lower risk to the store and thus lower costs of using the store as a distribution channel. As an indie artist with comparatively little market presence, I'm a high risk and, as I don't have deep pockets, I probably won't be able to afford the costs stores will put on me. Labels with a good online model, though, care less. Their risk is mostly the cost of putting together a couple of webpages and having a copy or two of my CD on hand. Thus, indie music is more heavily sold online through genre-focused channels. This makes perfect sense, given the genre orientation music consumption tends to follow.

Again, I'm not nearly as savvy with comics, but I can safely say that I have never once in my life shopped at a franchised comic book store. I'm sure such a concept exists...I've just never seen it. Every comic book store I've ever been to was privately owned by a couple of local businessmen. Because of this, they have tended to not have formulas of success and the decision to carry an indie comic tends to be based more on the quality of the comic and the owner's feelings about the comic.

and to a lesser extent Metropolis Records
and Middle pillar

and labels like

Projekt Records - Who said napster was a good thing
Flaming Fish
UR-realist (Russian)

I can get a lot of good music and avoid the crap that the majors sell. I hope more artists begin to realize that majors are not the way to go to sell their music, your better off going independent and actually make money.

see there is a small problem with this. people won't boycott anything, they might say they will but in reality they'll follow along with the norm to fit in with society.

i personally try not to buy stuff from major labels and go see movies for several reasons:

1. i don't like most of the music made by the mainstream/riaa member labels, there are a few exceptions to that rule.

2. the bands and music i do like aren't on riaa member labels.

3. indie movies for the most part are well crap, once again a few exceptions to the rule but those are usually picked up by large studios.

4. all the mainstream music sounds the same, well with in the genre it is particular to. all rap sounds the same, all alternative/punk/grunge/college sounds the same, all metal sounds the same and well rap is just rehashing lots of old stuff and has repeated itself for years.

for the most part i listen to stuff from:
metropolis records

projekt records

ipecac records

soliel moon records

invisible records

not for the sole purpose that they are not members of the riaa, tho that helps, but because i like the music and also for the most part they all give away free mp3s for you to listen to.

the majority of the people on slashdot tho won't take the bold step to listen to something that deviates from the norm. tho they are big proponents of saying "down with the riaa/mpaa"

the movie thing i'm guilty of cause well i like eye candy and good stories, however i rarely go to the movie theatre, the last few movies i went to are lotr:fotr, spider-man and attack of the clones. before that i think it was maybe episode 1 or a movie i took a date to, but the point is it was a while since i went to the movies.

everyone here can talk the talk but frankly most aren't willing to walk the walk.

i kinda do both but it's not because it's to be cool, it's cause i like that thing better than what is considered "popular" or the "in thing".

however if the music i liked was part of the riaa i'd probly still listen to it no matter what cause i genuinely like the music and unfortunately that's the boat most people are stuck in. that and a lot of them are unwilling to take a step and be a bit different than the rest of us. that and we have all this pop-culture crap shoved down our throats constantly it's hard to ignore, tho i can do it because of choices i've made and my personal preferences, when there's "no market" aka no payola from the label to play the music then it's not on the radio so when i do listen to the "radio" it's via netcast most of the time.

all people really need to do is get some balls and take a step and be different but they won't and will say stuff on here and yet go out and by the latest snoop dogg or britney spears cds and watch survivor and take what ever the riaa/mpaa dish out.

"Artists need to pay their bills..."

well personally i've burned a couple hundred cdr's this year, mostly iso images and other files here and there.

i won't say i haven't burnt music onto cdr cause i'd be lying however i have only burnt music that i either owned and here's a list of what i DID burn that was music:

ltd cds i didn't want to ruin or lose the original cd cause it's worth money

music i downloaded that was allowed to be downloaded by the artists themselve, such as live performance of the legendary pink dots, edward ka-spel, dj lithium's sets, another dj friend's sets and other music the artists released to the general public

mixed cds i've made as a gift or just for my listening pleasure cause i wanted a few songs on one cd

i'd say all those are fair use of my own personal property as i've not sold ANY to anyone nor made any money off of them. however i am in canada and we are allowed to burn a cd we burn off of a friend cause we pay a levy on all recordable media that goes back to both the music industry and i think the software industry (don't quote me on the second part but i know about the music industry)

however on the flipside i can count on one hand how many cds i've boughten from the big record labels this year and need my second hand and maybe a foot to count the amount of cds i've gotten from the big labels in the past 2 years. i tend to only buy music from the "independant" record labels, such as:

ipecac records

metropolis records

projekt records

soleilmoon records

invisible records

beta-lactum ring records

most have either partial or full mp3's or other audio formats you can listen to their artists from, in projekt's case each artist has their own mp3.com site and you can download several full songs from each artist and distribute them, the owner loves mp3s and knows that they help the music industry and doesn't hurt it.

More information on Projekt's stance can be found at:

http://www.projekt.com/projekt/audio.asp and

http://www.projekt.com/projekt/napster01.asp

It's worth noting that Sam Rosenthal is not only the label's owner, he's also a musician with a fairly large number of recorded albums of his own.

More information on Projekt's stance can be found at:

http://www.projekt.com/projekt/audio.asp and

http://www.projekt.com/projekt/napster01.asp

It's worth noting that Sam Rosenthal is not only the label's owner, he's also a musician with a fairly large number of recorded albums of his own.

Ah, they do archive the list, though only since last year sometime. Here's an example, in case you didn't believe me. :)

Projekt Records' frontman Sam Rosenthal has been quite supportive of P2P music trading, saying that it's an excellent way for the "smaller" labels like his to get more of a widespread audience. You can find a lot of Projekt bands on mp3.com, etc, too. If you sign up for the weekly email list thing, he'll rant about it occasionally. He was quite pissed off when Napster got shut down.

nothing thats currently being put out by the recording industry is worth listening to.

Well, little that's being promoted by the major players is worth listening to, for sure, but to say that nothing good is coming out of them is a little extreme. Bjork is still doing phenomenal work. I believe that Rasputina is still on Columbia. Radiohead's on a pretty major label, I think. I thought that the latest NIN release was good, and I believe they eventually go through Universal. Then if you go just a few steps away from the "big" labels, you've got tons of cool things happening. Cold Meat Industry continues to be amazing, Projekt seems to be in something of a decline, but there's still some good stuff coming out of them. Warp Records is great.

So yeah. :P

there are artists and lables out there speaking up against the RIAA for example Projekt Records founder Sam Rosenthal has said that Napster was one of the best marketing tools ever devised. Artists like Negativland have spoken out on freespeech censorship and copyright issues.
As an artist, my own bands are up on MP3.com fully downloadable and available for purchase if you are so inclined.
say what you will about MP3.com, i can still give away my music to people and you can still download it there.
It is becoming the realm of Indy lables and the old punk DIY ethic that is taking a stand against the RIAA and the recording industry. As an Artist and music lover, I am offended to see bills like This be presented. Support indy lables and bands by buying the cd from them directly - or go see their shows & buy a t-shirt. Most of the artists I know, made more money from their independently produced cds that they are selling than their major label counterparts. if you get bored check out my 2 projects The Winding path and Arriviste if you want to make a diffrence - support artists that are fighting to make a diffrence.
matt

That page offers a list of things you can do, like not supporting the labels or buying and returning the CDs, etc. If you're the amoral type, here's something else you can do with a "factory-damaged" CD:

Rip the CD, analog style or with a Mac or whatever, and put some or all of the tracks on your web site. Blatantly label them and submit the page to search engines. Put a note there saying something like "these tracks came from a copy-prevention enabled CD, so if you see any MP3's here, you're imagining things!"

Then when the lawyerbots come by, take it down, and reply to them apologizing profusely and saying how important you think copyright is and all that jazz. I think if the labels see all these tracks traded on the internet exactly the same as all the other CDs, they'll start knocking on the door of the CD-protection company asking, what the hell did we just pay you 50million$ for??

Of course, I prefer just avoiding the labels and their music completely. Here's my rule of thumb: if you think you could send an email to both the head of the label and the artist, and get a personal reply within a few days, that CD is probably not going to be crippled. In fact after getting the CD be sure to email both with your compliments. And some of the bigger indie labels have also taken a anti-anti-copying stand too, like Projekt.

well i can say with having the joys of calling into radio stations that they are affected by the good old payola. they won't play stuff they aren't paid for, i have bugged them to play electronic music and they claim there's "no market for them" however electronic bands, when they come around regularly sell out and even have lines around the corner waiting to buy extra tickets.

it will also explain why they do not play music from independant labels, they aren't being paid to play them. so no money to play them means no airplay for that label

there are several labels i chan thing of that this affects metropolis records , projekt records , gashed records , inception records none of them are part of the riaa, so i gladly buy their albums but the downfall of this is they get no air play due to a "lack of a market" even in the light of over sold shows.

frankly i hope the ftc and the crtc (the canadian version of the ftc for you non-canucks) actively looks into this because it really is detrimental to our independant record labels and artists who aren't on a big label and get the big push or should i say pay off to the radio station now?

Yes, the internet has made it easier for folks to get their music. Does this really help artists? I see how it could be a lot easier for an unknown band to get noticed, but how does it help them make money?

Here is an excellent essay/letter form sam Rosenthal, the owner of Projekt records (an independent label) on how napster helps unknown bands.

Projekt is one of my favourite labels. Most of their bands tend to be of the etereal/darkwave persusasion, but they're more recently signed bands have a little more mainstream sound. Mira, an incredible new band, is a classic example of a band whose success is largely due to MP3s. Also worth checking out are Love Spirals Downwards (is moving in the Drum and Bass direction, although their earlier stuff is closer to shoegazer...kinda a 4AD sound) and Black Tape for a Blue Girl (more traditional ethereal). If you're into that type of music, definitely check them out...even if you're not, they may be worth checking. They're classic examples of bands that would be huge if people actually preferred quality and originality in their music.

Projekt is one of my favourite labels. Most of their bands tend to be of the etereal/darkwave persusasion, but they're more recently signed bands have a little more mainstream sound. Mira, an incredible new band, is a classic example of a band whose success is largely due to MP3s. Also worth checking out are Love Spirals Downwards (is moving in the Drum and Bass direction, although their earlier stuff is closer to shoegazer...kinda a 4AD sound) and Black Tape for a Blue Girl (more traditional ethereal). If you're into that type of music, definitely check them out...even if you're not, they may be worth checking. They're classic examples of bands that would be huge if people actually preferred quality and originality in their music.

But know what pisses me off? That I go to the store, and look at the shelves for Black Tape for a Blue Girl, and instead, find an empty marker and 40 copies of Black Sabbath right next to it.

And the guy behind the counter says "We dont have the shelf room to have a copy of everything." Maybe thats because they only stock what the RIAA tells them should be "popular".