What's the latest with INDISTR?

Hey everybody - just wanted to give all the users, both artists and their fans, a quick update on where things are at with INDISTR. The service has been around for about 1 1/2 years and has been quite the learning experience for all involved. We started with a very simple focus and plan - letting independent artist sell their music directly to the public easily and get compensated instantly with no contracts. As many of you know, the music industry is in a very 'interesting' place right now - we've referred to it here as 'the swamp'. I can honestly say I'm surprised that from 2 years ago, if not more, until now - very little has changed in how music is being distributed and artists are being compensated. Artists, fans, the business and even the labels themselves have been predicting the downfall of the classic 'record label' model that we know today. It was assumed that the idea of artist controlled, or independent, distribution would be the natural next move. While we've seen some great examples of this with Trent Reznor, Radiohead, and others - it doesn't seem to have taken hold in the far-reaching manner that we had expected.

We still firmly believe that ultimately the artist should be in control and should make the most money from their art in the supply chain of its distribution. Unfortunately its been difficult for us, and many if not all of our competitors, to find a foot-hold with the artists and their buying public. INDISTR has always been privately funded and operated with a pretty low overhead - we kept things as simple as we could - but there are expenses and set budgets for funding. We're very, very happy to say that we facilitated quite a few artists making money from their work a reality. It was a thrill and an honor to be a part of that and we want to thank those artists that used our service. But the sales have yet to reach what we consider acceptable to justify continuing forward with funding to support new feature development and sales/marketing staff (which was just 1 person). INDISTR will be up and active as a web service but as of this month we'll be scaling back on spending and letting the site run itself.

I can't say this is the way we saw INDISTR heading - the risk in starting it was either success or failure. Instead we've landed in the 'swamp' of the music industry where a lot of our other competitors and similar businesses have landed as well.

Again, the site will continue to be up and active and we'll do our best to help with any support issues or questions you might have.

Thanks again to the artists and users that have support the service in the past year or so - we genuinely appreciate it.

- Benjamin, Founder

INDISTR 10!! Interview with Wild Years!!!

So I came across Wild Years from Ann Arbor, MI, while thumbing through the internet, and the sound really impressed me. I wouldn't be surprised if big things happen to this band in the near future. I contacted Alex for an interview, and here's what he had to say.




1.Let’s start from the beginning, when and where did it all start? And with who?
Wild Years started last summer. It was originally an outlet for music that I felt didn’t really fit with my other band, LS Banjo.

2.If you had to describe your sound in one sentence, what would you say?
It’s like if Andrew Bird became the songwriter for the Flaming Lips but instead of Wayne Coyne, M. Ward led the band. But, not quite as good.

3.Name 3 artists that have inspired you as musicians.
I take a lot from different artists but really only Wilco has inspired me per se.

4.What do you see in the future for music, with all of the outlets available for exposure, along with the current Internet craze?
I really think this is a great time for music. With the internet I feel like an unprecedented amount of new artists are able to get their music out for people to hear. And the great thing is that it doesn’t look like the music scenes are getting saturated; people just keep coming out with awesome new stuff. The future of music is definitely digital.

5.What can we expect to see from Wild Years in the next year? Any big plans?
Well, Wild Years is still very much in its infancy right now. Within the next year, I want to finish putting together a live band and just play a lot of shows.


6.What has Wild Years been listening to lately?
I’ve been really digging the new Dr. Dog record, Fate and the new Nomo, Ghost Rock. I also just got out of my Talking Heads phase, listening to Naked, and all that stuff.

7.Your thoughts on independent music and if it’s possible to be successful through these means of distribution?
Success is a very subjective thing, but I definitely think it’s possible to get a good amount of hype just from Myspace and stuff like that. The independent music scene is getting huge. It’s more in parallel now with popular music, rather than being underground.

8.If we can’t find you playing a gig or practicing music, where might we expect to find you? Probably, somewhere outside. Running, biking, swimming, that kind of stuff.

9.How many shows do you play a year? What’s the atmosphere typically like?
I’ve only done a few shows with Wild Years, but I’m hoping to play a couple dozen this year. When playing, I really try to bring the life to music that it sometimes loses when recorded, but the atmosphere is really left up to the crowd.

10.Lastly, your thoughts on INDISTR.COM?
It looks like a terrific site. A good way to stay independent and still get your music out there.

This seems up our alley!

I just finished a 7 day tour with some friends that play in a band you may have heard of called Mustard Plug. We started last Sunday and played 4 shows in Florida, 1 in Georgia, 1 in South Carolina, and 1 in Norfolk, Virginia. Mustard Plug was touring with Less Than Jake, who happened to just release an album TODAY on their OWN independent label, called Sleep It Off. The name of the album is GNV FLA. I saw this video and realized this is right up Indistr's alley. Seems like Indistr would be great for Less Than Jake, don't you?

Congrats to Joshua Wentz for being chosen as this months Ultimate Ears "Artists to Watch"

Joshua Wentz, residing in Chicago, has been chosen as this months "Artists to Watch" by Utimate Ears. Check out this, and congrats again Josh, we love your music over here at Indistr and wish you continued success.

Indistr is on tour with the Montana Boys, who happen to be touring with The Breeders!

Hello my fellow music fans, sorry for the delay on posts. I've been on the road for a week now, touring with the Montana Boys and The Breeders. It's been fantastic so far, and I can't say enough good things about the shows and cities we've traveled thus far.
We've (Montana Boys) played Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, as well as Detroit this far with The Breeders, and we're about to play Cleveland in a couple of hours here at the lovely House of Blues.





The responses I've been getting from the merch table about Indistr have been great, and people really seem to like the banner that Indistr made for the stage.

Also, please let me know if you're in any of the following cities and would like to come to a show, we have tickets to give out, and it's too great of a show to miss.

June 4th: Northampton, MA
June 5th: Boston, MA
June 7th: New Haven, CT
June 8th: Philadelphia, PA
June 10th: New York, NY
June 11th: Washington DC

I'd like to hear your thoughts!!!

So, as you may recall (I remember briefly seeing ads for it), Pennywise released a free album through MySpace records and Textango (a pay by text messaging company) in the month of March titled "Reason to Believe". The album was released for a little over a month, with no option to pay for any format of it online. This was a free download only. What did you have to do to get the album for free? Just add Textango as a MySpace friend, and you'd be reached on instructions on how to get your free copy.




The reason I'm making the post, is because the numbers are in, and the album certainly reached new heights of Pennywise fans. I remember listening to Pennywise's release "Unknown Road" in 1994, thinking to myself, why is this band not bigger than what they are? The whole pop-punk generation of early 90's artists on Fat-Wreckchords never reached super-stardom. Why? Was it because they didn't want to reach the heights of MTV? Or was it simply that their approach was too underground to reach that market?

Over 500,000 downloads have come through, and they haven't even released the video for the single, The Western World. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this album release and see what you think. Will Pennywise now be a larger band 20 years after they were formed? Either way, this band deserves everything they've put into the last 2 decades as a band.

May's Ulitmate Ears chosen winner is...............

It's been a couple weeks since I've made a post. I thought I'd give some detailed insight to this months winner chosen by Ultimate Ears to be featured on "Artists To Watch". I can't blame UE for choosing them, especially after Tribal Seeds released their newest self titled album on Indistr 1 month before it was available for physical distribution. Congrats guys, and keep up the hard work in sunny San Diego.

Just to let everyone know......

Indistr has partnered with Ultimate Ears. This partnership is here to benefit the artists involved with Indistr. We are very proud to have partnered with the best earphone company in the world.

How it works:
1. Ultimate Ears picks an Indistr artist at random once a month to be put on their "artist to watch" page. (Hint: You have a much larger chance to win if you are actively utilizing the tools we provide such as our embed player or links on Myspace, etc.)
2. UE then notifies us, and tells us which artist has been chosen that month.
3. We contact the artist to tell them they've been chosen and receive the proper information we need from them to provide UE.
4. UE sends the artist 1 FREE set of Super fi. 5 pro in-ear monitors. After the first set is sent to the artist, they are offered a discount code for any other products for 40% off retail price. Learn more about the Super fi. 5 pro here



We started this partnership this month (April), and the first artist chosen was Elijah Emanuel

Congrats to Elijah, and I'll be making a post next week based on the artist that is chosen for May. Best of luck!!!

New Jaws Attacks Release!! Death & Taxes: Volume One

The long awaited release of Jaws Attacks full-length album, Death & Taxes: Volume One is now available for purchase here at Indistr.com We're excited to have this release available through Indistr, being that frontman Carter Benson (formerly of the Mad Caddies) has a great vision on innovating the whole music consumption experience, plus we dig his music.

13 songs for $10, it's a steal if you ask me.

We're sponsoring a Contest!

I just want to inform everyone that we're sponsoring a contest through a site called Kompoz. Kompoz is a great site for people looking to make music with other people located in far away places. Titled as an "Online Music Collaboration" site, we really dig what they're doing for artists, so who better to sponsor a contest for. The contest is being endorsed by Glen Phillips, and we'll be giving away some schwag for the winners. Some other prizes include a guitar, a Stealthplug USB audio interface, along with some other prizes. The contest starts today, April 2nd, and ends on May 30th. Best of luck to all of you!

Ticket purchase = free download = Dave Matthews

Just days after I post about Elvis Costello being innovative in getting people to purchase his music, Dave Matthews jumps to it, with a new concept (not that new, Prince has done this in the past) of giving away his new album digitally for free with the purchase of a ticket to any of his concerts.

I personally feel that Dave Matthews fans are Dave Matthews fans, and their going to buy a concert ticket regardless, however I think this is a pretty cool bonus for the cult following of fans that Mr. Matthews has, and I'm sure they will much appreciate it.

Will this make him sell more tickets? Probably not, but what's the loss when you're selling out venues of 30,000 + capacities and selling thousands of t-shirts every night for $25.

Congrats to Dave Matthews for thinking outside of the box.

Trivia:
What will Best Buy do with all of the CD aisles they have in their stores in the near future? More washers/dryers? Vinyl?

Vinyl + Digital? Will it work?

So I know this is 4 days late, but I want to write about it, and also get some feedback to see what everyone thinks. As we all know by now, or most of us, Elvis Costello is giving the CD a no-go for his upcoming release "Momofuku", which releases next month, April 22nd.



Instead of the traditional ways of releasing a CD, Costello is releasing the album in the form of vinyl, and with that vinyl purchase you receive a digital download password of some sort. Should this work? I don't know, however I'm very curious to see how this plays out, especially since he's going to be on tour opening for The Police to promote this new album.

Again, it's an innovative way to keep selling music. I know I'll be buying one of these records, hopefully he'll look all goofy like he did 30 years ago with those pop bottle glasses on, dancing like the other Elvis. It will go perfect over the fireplace.

Trent Reznor Part 2!

So, it's been a little over 3 weeks, and the reports are in, Trent Reznor made 1.6 million dollars in 7 days through his genius idea of selling the new NIN album in 5 different formats, one of them even being free!!

I've been having conversations lately with artists about this release, trying to hear what their thoughts are and what they think about it. Being that we we're at SXSW this past week (more to come about that), we got some really interesting reactions from artists, independent labels, etc. The majority of artists reactions were that Trent Reznor has spent millions of major label dollars to get NIN to the size it is today, and without having the infratstructure of a fanbase that size, it's not so easy to have sales the way he has. I agree 100% with those reactions, however I also feel if your music is grabbing the attention of people, then those listeners become fans, the minute you build a fanbase is when those fans (not all) will want to support you. Bottom line, Trent Reznor got really creative with this latest release and I applaud him for that.



To all of the artists reading this, it's all about innovation. One of our favorite artists on the site, Jaws Attacks, who is lead by frontman Carter Benson (former Mad Caddies), released a album through Indistr.com last spring for an exclusive amount of time, offering free admission to his shows in California for anyone who showed up with their Indistr receipt from the purchase of the album. I can't publicly share the amount of albums he sold, however it was more than you'd expect. The creative ways of getting fans to consume your music and purchase it, are endless. Get Creative! Stay Creative! You're artists!

How does Indistr work?

So when we saw our friend, Josh Finck's previous video work, we knew we wanted him to break-down the Indistr process to the general public. I asked him if he'd mind making a "stripped down" version of how Indistr works, and he said, "no problem". Here's the end result, which we ended up using last month at the local WYCE 88.1 FM Jammie Awards. Thanks Josh! Off to SXSW!

How to make $750,000 overnight! Trent Reznor's a genius!

Ok, so I'm a bit late on this, actually I'M not a bit late on it, just this post is a bit late. I've been wired to my computer over this release for the last 2 weeks. Trent Reznor has done it again, after the digital-only release of the Saul Williams album, "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust", Trent Reznor has come swinging at the forefront of the music industry releasing a new NIN album. Saul's album was released a few months ago with 2 options for the fans, they can either download it for free, or they can download it for $5, which is a higher quality MP3 file. After a few weeks, Saul had sold 28,322 copies for $5. That's $141,610, which is not bad for a donate-able $5 MP3.



I'm not even a NIN fan, but I respect them, and more importantly, I respect what Trent Reznor is currently up-to in the music industry. So with this new NIN album,"ghosts", the fans can purchase it five different ways, they can download it for free (they only receive the first 5 tracks), or pay $5 for a full-length, high-quality MP3 download, or pay $10 for a double-disk set, or pay $75 for a deluxe-edition package (comes with a DVD, Blu-ray, hard cover slipcase, etc), or if you were really early, you could've bought the $300 Ultra-deluxe limited addition package, which is now sold out, but came autographed with a bunch of goodies.

The thing that strikes my attention and interest to this release is because it's stirring up the industry, the labels, the fans, the critics, which I think is great, because it's new to everybody. It's just like when Radiohead freaked everyone out last fall.

However, I think the best part about the release of "ghosts" is that Trent Reznor does a very fair job of releasing this album by leaving multiple options to the fans in the way they'd like to purchase/not-purchase it. Why not? It's 2008, the music industry is still not figured out, and Trent Reznor is (in my opinion) the leader at current innovation to the music industry. I think more artists need to start taking notes from him, especially artists that have left major labels.

Hey Trent, how about you let your fans decide how much your music is worth on the next album by giving them a "Name Your Own Price" option? There is a site that offers it for independent artists already, it's called INDISTR!

Name Your Own Price!!

It's Official!!

So, after numerous hours of hard work, along with the INDISTR team plucking away at ways to stay on top of innovation in digital distribution, we are please to launch the "Name Your Own Price" feature on the site.

The launch of this new feature leaves INDISTR artists with more opportunity to connect with new fans, launch albums more often, all while leaving the control of consumption 100% in the fans hands. Artists can continue to upload music and bundle into albums as they have in the past on INDISTR, but now they'll have a new option when setting the price they want to charge for the album: letting the public decide. Their fans and supporters can name the price they'd like to pay for the album right on the artist's page and then checkout as they normally would. Fans and supporters are even shown the exact amount the artist will make from their purchase. The trend of giving the consumer more say in the value of music is becoming more and more popular in the music industry - now we’re giving that option to the users, both artists and supporters, on INDISTR.com.

If you're wondering what an album may look like with this feature, here's a couple examples:

      

As many have noticed lately, many artists, including Radiohead, Saul Williams, etc. have been releasing albums in non-traditional ways, and here at INDISTR, we thought it's only fair to give our artists and fans more freedom when selling and buying independent music.

We hope you enjoy the use of this feature, and as always, we love hearing your feedback and thoughts.

Enjoy!

2008 Jammies now available for download!

The 2008 Jammie awards! A quick wrap-up and performance free for
download!

Even if you've never heard of our lovely little-big city of Grand
Rapids, we'd like to let you know we've got quite the bourgeoning
independent music scene...or maybe I should just say music scene in
general and not limit it to just independent. To prove that point,
we've got the annual Jammie Awards here in town thrown by our favorite
non-profit public radio WYCE 88.1. This year, despite the crazy-out-
of-no-where blizzard we had, was pretty awesome - 18
bands/artists showcased their talent, the beer flowed, the crowd loved
it, and I can't think of a better place to throw it than the recently
renovated Wealthy Theatre here in town. You name the genre, and we
had it. Seriously good stuff.

We were fortunate enough to have sponsored the event this year and part
of that sponsorship was being able to host for download each of the
artists live performances which can be found below...for free.
Some, but not all, of these artists use INDISTR as well, so if you find
something you like be sure to search around the site a bit to find
their full albums available for sale.

Enough typing...let's enjoy some music:

Bless You Boys

Blue Moon Blues Band

Breathe Owl Breathe

Brian Vander Ark

Cedar Rock Basement

Ensemble Al-Asdeka

Four Finger Five

Jesse MacIntosh

Karisa Wilson (1)

Karisa Wilson (2)

La Famiglia

Lux Land

Nobodys Darlin

Ralston Bowles

The Icicles

The Lynn Thompson Band

The Red Sea Pedestrians

Tinkers Tea

Truckstop Cobras

Depending on the browser you use - you can either click these tracks
directly or you may need to 'right-click' and then save.

Please hold tight for your free 2008 WYCE Jammies download!!

We should have this free download up in the next couple of days, and for all of you Grand Rapids locals, we'll be sure to have WYCE (88.1) make on-air announcements about this.

INDISTR 10! Interview with Derek "Dminor" Young!

Derek "Dminor" Young resides in sunny California and has a portfolio of beat-making which includes work for clients such as:
Othello, Supastition, Styles of Beyond, Lovespirals, Muneshine, Emilio "Raks One" Rojas, MF Grimm, Louis Logic, and many more. Dminor also runs www.waxreform.com out of Los Angeles, CA. Be on the lookout for some great production from him in 2008.





1.Let’s start from the beginning, when and where did it all start? And with who?
I started my professional recording career at 7 years of age. I used to do local talent shows and an agent saw me perform and immediately got me a gig with companies like Disney, Warner Bros., and others.

2.If you had to describe your sound in one sentence, what would you say?
I love Hip-Hop and Soul music. This is the byproduct of that.

3.Name 3 artists that have inspired you as a musician.
Stevie Wonder, J Dilla, Marvin Gaye

4.What do you see in the future for music, with all of the outlets available for exposure, along with the current Internet craze?
Music will be free. People have become so accustomed to downloading music illegally that there will have to be a complete change of business or change in the way people listen to music before consumers will start paying for it again. In the meantime, artists trying to catch a break should focus on songwriting. It’s easier to get a royalty check if you wrote that hit song.

5.What can we expect to see from DMinor in 2008? Any big plans?
Hopefully the completion of my full length, Supreme Goodie. Additionally, my production team, Wax Reform, will be releasing a digital EP. Production from Illmind, M-Phazes and Presto, vocals from myself, Muneshine, and Emilio Rojas.

6.What has DMinor been listening to lately?
I’ve been spending far too much time picking apart J Dilla’s “Donuts”. He was obviously a huge source of inspiration for me as a producer and I really study how he’s made records over the years. Now that he’s gone, I feel a bit like a student without a teacher.

7.Your thoughts on independent music and if it’s possible to be successful through these means of distribution?
Independent music is where it’s at! I think there will always be people who want to experience the unwrapping of a CD, the reading of liner notes, and the sharing of music with their peers. Especially if they found a new artist that none of their friends have ever heard of.

The real question is how do you personally measure success? Are you successful if you sell 1000 CDs? 100 CDs? 10 CDs?

It’s a question that each of us need to ask ourselves. I think artists can make decent money, and live off their music. But it only lasts for so long.

The biggest problem that indie artists have is that they are unable to promote themselves outside of their area. So while you may be big in Los Angeles, no one knows your name in Nevada or Arizona.

8.If we can’t find you playing a gig or practicing music, where might we expect to find you?
I’ve featured on other peoples songs more than anything else this past year. So you can find me doing that while you wait for my new joint. A few notables, “Silhouette” by Othello, “Imagine That” by Muneshine (prod. by Pete Rock).

9.How many shows do you play a year? What’s the atmosphere typically like?
Zero. I hate doing shows, with a passion. My perfectionist complex really kicks in when I perform live. There’s too many variables, too many things that could go wrong, so I try to not do gigs anywhere.

The last show I did was in London at the Tin Room…it was a tough crowd. I just got the impression that they weren’t feeling me, but then realized that UK audiences hold their applause until the end of your set. Ha!

10.Lastly, your thoughts on INDISTR.COM?
I think it’s a great spot for people to get some recognition for their craft. I’m glad you guys dig what I do. It’s important for artists to feel appreciated, and you’ve done that.

Please be sure to come see us at SXSW

We will be providing beer and snacks for anybody who is interested. Oh yeah, and we'll be playing music from INDISTR artists at our booth, so please be sure to hit us up if there is something you'd like for us to play while we're out there!!