And the plot thickens ladies and gentleman! Radiohead with a direct to the public model, Nine Inch Nails with a similar but unannounced direction in the works, and now...the biggest and the baddest: Madonna. She has just signed a too-many-millions-deal with a company named Live Nation to distribute, market, handle tours, and even license her name for merchandise. All with no 'labels' involved. It's happening very, very quickly. A snowball effect if you will! Three cheers to putting the artist in control and labels in the history books. Who knows what's next? We are working hard to help artist who choose this direction, making sure they are placed first. Check the article at the link below.
TechCrunch Article
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I absolutely love the idea of artists being in control of their own work, and if a band like Radiohead or Oasis has figured out that their live shows are making them the real money, I'm glad they are now realizing that giving away their music is only helping them.
I often think about how many concerts I went to in college- experiences I had ONLY because I got free (thanks KaZaA) and cheap (thanks local used records store) music and was able to find bands that I would never have randomly paid for.
I will say, though, that the one thing that godo labels often do for a band is get their artists some good design work. Sometimes the indie scene is synonymous with bad cover design, poor quality printing (or image quality) and album layout, because musicians are concentrating on music, and not learning how to use Adobe Creative Suite. As it should be! I feel there has to be a middle ground, where artists control and own everything they produce, but still have the ability to get good artwork and design that they might not be able to pay for regularly.
Radiohead, as we know, can afford it- and does!
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