This indie thing might turn out to be ok for artists that can muster the creativity to figure out how to (re)connect with their fans in new ways made possible mostly by the thing that some say killed the music industry, the Intehnets.
A few recent noteworthy triumphs:
Immortal Technique, who in this recent interview provides some background on what it takes to become financially independent. If he can drop ten large on a not-for-profit, he must be doing something right.
Sole & friends who decided not to continue being passive about the bootlegging of their product and in addition are coming up with interesting enhanced packages for their fans (#2 comes with one copy of 500 vinyl pressings of the Battlefields ep, count me in).
And lastly, as explained in the video above, Sir Dizl just launched DelTheFunkyHomosapien.com and to celebrate he released a new album that I just copped from the very artist friendly bandcamp.com (if you’re an artist, you need to learn about this site). The minimum for the album is $3.00, but if you drop $30.00 you get a set of limited edition Del “Funkman” Skull candy headphones and a personal phone convo with Del himself (a bit too stanish for me but I’m sure there’s interest out there).
It’s funny ’cause one day mp3 bootleggers (i.e. fans) might be seen as emancipators. By sharing music illicitly they contributed to the (creative) destruction of the traditional music industry business model while at the same time paving the road for the self-empowerment of independent musicians. Can we get a for he’s a jolly good bootlegger?
