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I found this site the other day: www.traxinspace.com. It has modules only. Some are remixes of old C64 tunes.

Since I am not a music industry guru, I sit back and wonder why more independent music isn't free on the Internet.

I sit back and wonder how you managed not to discover MP3.com, Trax in Space, and other similar sites that showcase independent music.

Are most like my musician friends from high school - just waiting to make millions when they are discovered by a big recording label?

I believe that the people in the music business solely for the money do not deserve to be in the music business. Very few artists make millions of US dollars; Courney Love did the math on a typical recording contract and found that the majority of royalties that appear to go back to the artist actually go toward "recoupable" expenses.

(My largest barrier to composing music is coming up with an original melodic hook so I don't get sued. Any hints?)

Actually such recommendation systems allready exist, but they are called 'datamining' and e-commerce. It's allready implemented at amazon.com where certain top-authors or top-buyers can suggest a list of 10 books for a certain genre. There are dozens of other sites on the net, typically all about buying and selling and commercial activity, so here are a few non-commercial ones you might want to check out, which were all created with enthusiasm and volunteers, not cash: ojuice.org, which is a fully customizeable database containing 'member information' of a specific underground culture movement. The movement in question, the demoscene, is not important in my point here. What is important is that these kind of member websites allow you to search the most respected people and query their tastes and preferences in the demoscene. Maybe that's not as instant single-click-away as Jamie has put it, but it's practically the same. Here's another example, or try this one, both examples based on "home and hobby electronic musicians" preferences.

I could easily give a dozen more, my point is that "cool" is inherently related to subcultures, rahter than 'big pictures'. The very fact that cool exists, means that you are different and have specific cultural 'features' people envy you for. Hence, cool doesn't work for 'big picture 20$ websites'.. it only works for small obscure and underground submovements you are not very likely to ever discover on your own.

But, as this article makes fairly clear, studio-quality productions are now within easy reach of anyone with a PC and a modicum of talent (some would say even the talent is optional). If you want cool new music from the best trackers or the best independent musicians make sure you keep those watching over your rights financially healthy.

Troll version: screw the RIAA/MPAA/Disney/Time Warner bunnies and join the EFF today!

Remember The Hornet Archive? It was a place where module music makers (remember those formats?) could post their music online. There was no profit made for the musicians, but it was a chance to be widely heard for free. Users of the Hornet Archive could either get the music online, or purchase CD-ROMs full of the songs, all without the registration mumbo-jumbo that too many modern sites have.

The closest thing I can think of to the Hornet Archive is Trax in Space. They also are a source of module music. Unfortunately, they have also gone the way of MP3.com and require registration.

We need a site that simply lets users upload and download their music, with a quick check done to make sure the works are original. It's as simple as that.

I would petition ibiblio or a similar site with lots of mirrors to do the task, but such a system with MP3s requires lots of bandwidth. I wish the Internet was back to the good old days again where everyone didn't want to know everything about you.

The article was indeed drivel as another poster pointed out. But all the scary legal compromising going on IS something to be concerned about. Fortunately, there are things we can do with existing technology to preserve our rights...

Software. Use open source. If you need Win32, don't upgrade beyond Win 98.

Hardware. Never buy RDRAM-based motherboards.

Music. Buycott the MPAA but start looking into new indie groups too. Try MOD music. Rip your CD's at home into OGG, not MP3. Share your OGGs via Gnutella. Never buy an Audio CDR - always use data CDrs.

Movies. Watch 'em in the theater and buy DVD's as you see fit. The MPAA has a lock on this one, we don't have much legal opportunity to fight back (ideas anyone?)

Privacy. Use PGP.

Vote! email and write your congressman - get informed about what the DMCA and the UCITA and the other threats are. Slashdot's YRO section is easily one of the best references. Support the EFF. get informed - and help inform.

However one format that no-one's mentioned yet are the grand old tracking systems that originally started life on the Amiga. The latest formats (XM, IT) are astonishingly complex and you can do things in them that you've got no hope of with MIDI; and because each file is self-contained, complete with samples, the sound is completely platform independent. More software than you might think supports them thanks to the amazing Mikmod player library (XMMS and WinAmp will both play nearly all tracker files invisibly to the user). There's some decent music out there, too... alas, I don't have the bandwidth to export my monster MOD file collection, but people like Acumen, Warder and Rapture. Try Rapture's Aurora Borealis as a quick and rather impressive demonstration of what you can do with the format.

And there's lots of tracking software for Linux, too.

The point of trackers is that one can compose high quality music without owning expensive studio equipment, aside from possibly owning a modest keyboard. While MIDIs certainly will sound better with better equipment, trackers are created with the modest budget in mind. While the tracking scene is predominantly trance and newage, some artists have shown that trackers are suited for other types of music, as well. If anyone who is interested or misinformed about what tracking can or cannot do, a good place to start would be Trax in Space, a large archive of "tracked" music.