Today, the world wide web provides unprecedented options for independent music to discover an audience. Unsigned bands and solo singers can now build up a fan base that may not only listen to their music, but invest in their MP3 downloads.
The Internet’s Grassroots Movement
It is indisputable that the Web has developed a paradigm shift from the way we live our lives. We’ve come to depend on the net for communications, information gathering, shopping, listening to rock online music, and much more.
For example, journalists are no longer associated with mainstream media outlets; they are researching, blogging, and breaking a number of the leading news stories of the day. Professionals no longer sit in their ivory towers and release papers in academic journals; your family members, neighbors, and co-workers are continually refining the compendium of expertise called Wikipedia.
Throw in MySpace, YouTube, and other social networking sites, and the top-down information structure is chucked out the window, substituted by a bottom-up, grassroots movement.
The Music Industry is Reeling
Nowhere is this revolution far more apparent than inside the music industry. The web hasn’t sent the industry rocking’ and Rollin’ – it sent it reeling. Napster, the originator of music sharing on the Internet, is now viewed as history, but the revolt lives on.
While iTunes is here to stay, some significant record labels continue to fight the opportunities that the world wide web offers, instead opting to spread music only by way of conventional sources.
How Indie Music Finds a Voice
Prior to the widespread use of the web, musicians and performers had to pound the pavement, play at rock music festivals send demos to music labels in addition to radio stations in the hope of breaking through to the big time. Today, however, independent music may take a page from Radiohead’s playbook, and speak instantly to prospective listeners and supporters.
The Music Aficionado’s Advantage
From the viewpoint of the music fan, independent music internet sites are a dream come true. Within the music mainstream, a tremendous amount of talent is overlooked by labels in favor of “packaged” acts which are perceived to be profit generators. Now, thanks to the internet, music fans from around the globe can hear and encounter songs that could possibly otherwise never have found an audience like kids rock music.