With the recent news of GarageBand.com, the indie music store, discovery /review service and online community, discontinuing its services as of July 15th, 2010, after 10 years catering to artists and indie music fans alike.., I am left to ponder the fate of the music industry once again.

The latest news – worldwide sales of recorded music fell by another 10% in the last year, digital piracy is still on the rise; accounting for a 30 percent decline in global music sales from 2004 to 2009 and digital services are not enough to stem the tide of falling compact discs sales …

Wow! The industry is a mess and still, it continues to adhere to the same business model and practices it ushered in a century ago. Why? And why are they not dead yet?

Is it at least on its last leg?

Well, every morning when I get online or take time to listen to the radio, flick on television or flip open the pages of a newspaper, the same dinosaurs that are supposedly becoming extinct, are still  running rampant and eating everything in site.

Let me explain. I can’t get online without knowing what is going on with, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Beyonce or whoever else the flavor of the month is. The billboard top 10 still looks the same now as it did 10, 20 or 40 years ago; comprised of mostly major music artists’ right down the freakin line. These same (major) artists are still sipping on Pepsi; it’s just a different commercial. When an indie artist goes viral online, guess who gets first crack. It’s usually the biggest one in the room (music industry)… Even in today’s television market, signed artists from American Idol are usually the hottest ticket.

As more indie artists gravitate toward new web services in mass, I often wonder about the individualism of the independent artist movement and where it will eventually end up.

With new web services springing up to cater to the needs of artists by the day, it is becoming less practical for artists to spend money to update and maintain a personal web page. Nowadays with many budgets running tight, I can understand why many artists are cutting costs by signing up for a new web service instead.

To my dismay, the band | artist website is fast becoming an afterthought instead of the standard prerequisite. The ones I do find are often abandoned, rarely updated or left for dead in some obscure corner of the internet. Most just provide links to other popular web services on the net where they can be found as members.

So, why I am concerned? Web services that cater to Independent Artists should be great news!

For starters, here is a clipping form an article I read recently…

Digital music company eMusic is rumored to be up for sale, according to various reports, but that hasn’t stopped it from signing licensing deals with big music. This morning, eMusic announced that it come to an agreement with Warner Music Group and that it will soon begin selling tracks from WMG’s roster of artists to its U.S. users.

Independent Artist David Niari will be presenting new art from January 13 through February 28, 2010 at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. The Chicago artist will premiere two new pieces, “Fleeting Moments” and “A Season” during the Juried Art Exhibition.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago commemorates Black History Month with the Black Creativity program, which includes one of the country’s oldest African-American art exhibitions. Prominent artists from around the globe submit their work to the Juried Art Exhibition in the following categories: ceramics, drawings, mixed media, paintings, photography, print media, sculpture, textiles, and video.

Yesterday after a long and short 3 years, we launched the public beta version of GiGHiVE. During that time we had our good days and bad. I am also sure there are many more to come.  In the meantime, I always wanted to jot down some of my experiences, in the hopes that artists could learn from the triumphs and failures.

Introduction that started the movement.

Most indie artists I have come across or read about, are defined by many names;  singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, musician, designer, journalist.

What’s missing in the bios and the hype we mass produce on the internet media machine, are the alternative names we go by.  For starters, waiter/ waitress, janitors, babysitter, cable guy, construction worker, office assistant, mail-room clerk, cook and for some of us ( and by no means all of us),  it goes a little deeper when you throw in  descriptive names such as felon, alcoholic, bum, procrastinator or drug addict.

Hey!!!  Don’t shoot the messenger – and I am not equating the two.  It’s just the dark side behind independent music most fans don’t usually see. Over the years I began to see a pattern among artists and I am just painting a picture.  Look past the beautiful web site canvasses and you just might find an unfamiliar world peering back at you.

For those of you lucky enough to get to the next level, live out your passion, avoid the darkside and make a good living at it, I envy you. For the rest of us…

Inducted into the National Heritage Foundation Blues Hall of Fame. Mark Kerr is finally enjoying recognition for his brilliant and original style of Blues guitar playing and singing.

Mark’s radio podcast show entitled, “Mark Kerr’s Blues Nation” which features not only Mark’s music, but music from the very best Blues and Blues-Rock artists on the scene today. The show is hosted by Mark and airs weekly on Kansas City Online Radio, as well as on the Blues Nation page of this site. Mark’s show was inducted into the National Heritage Foundation Blues Hall of Fame as a “Great Blues Radio Show.

GH: What sparked your desire to host your own radio show?

MK: I viewed this media as an excellent marketing tool for my music.As well as getting a few of my blues friends some airplay.

Every now and them I check our sites back links to see who is linking to our pages.
Just recently, I came across a site called Topsy. After some research, I found out it’s a search engine powered by twitter users, tweets and retweets.

I was little thrown off at first, because usually when I see a custom url with our site’s name at the end of it, I think user profile or social network. At first glance, I am seeing this is really cool. But I got to thinking. In some form or another our content is being disseminated all over the internet without us knowing about it; this includes content from all creators, from writers on highly regarded blogs, to individual members on sites such as myspace.

As the web becomes more interactive and a forum for people to express themselves, what happens to that information once we hit the submit button. Do we really retain rights to content once it becomes part of the public domain?

Could I say for instance, pull an Associated Press move and aggressively go after anyone who borrows my headline, quote or tweet. I hear the arguments between the independent music artists and the industries RIAA all the time. It gets heated at times, so I know there is tension. But creative content is more than just music. As content creators, everything we publish from videos on youtube to tweets on twitter has creative content value, some more than others.

I recently read an article on the issues independent’s artist are having with the major labels carrying equity stake in Spotify. Ever since the story broke, the discussion has shifted towards artist compensation problems. It seems all artist are not equal and few would argue that the earnings they do receive are hefty.

It went on to explain that the problem isn’t unique to Spotify and the majors are still are a huge and critical supplier of content and blah, blah, blah…

Let me say this loud and clear. ALL ARTISTS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL AND THE MAJORS PLAYERS (LABELS) STILL HAVE THE UPPER HAND. Like it or not, majors labels still carry serious firepower when it comes to content. Their artist’s presence is still heavily favored on most of the popular networks. And as always, somewhere buried underneath them are the independents.

So what does mean for the to the independent artist, label, or anyone attempting to make money in this new environment of abundance and freemium models? Well, we can continue to discuss it, hate on the major labels while still playing by somebody else rules, or we can personally start changing the game.

Before you hop on the impossible bandwagon. Need I mention, the little search engine that sprung out of a garage a little more than 10 years ago. Game Changer!

It seems every other article I read someone is throwing the term nerd or geek around. The words are no longer taboo and are fast becoming the cool noun or new star adjective when you include the “y”. Now social media is “in”, so are the nerds and geeks, or for those of you who are more politically correct, the gurus and experts.

Nerd – is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests rather than engaging in more social or popular activities. Therefore, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and considered a loner by peers or will tend to associate with like-minded people.

What’s more popular than social media right now?

You can all but forget about Justin Timberlake bringing sexy back. With the dominance of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and cool new technologies being developed by the likes of Apple (iPhone) and Google (Wave), the internet is now abuzz with terms such as, apps, widgets, blog posts and tweets.

According to their popularity, the people associated with these terms are fast becoming new breed of rock stars (geeks) Forbes top 25.

With the emphasis now moving toward social media sites (blogs) internet brands and web personalities, will the next superstar be an internet darling of the geek variety?

We all know Michael Jackson was the greatest entertainer to ever grace the stage. There is no questioning the contributions, gifts and magic Jackson gave millions of fans around the world. Love him, or hate him, he captured the imagination and we stood at his attention.

Jackson, the “Music Icon”: We will always celebrate his life, art and music, but what about the man…the man behind the music, behind the celebrity, behind the mirror. When we talk about Michael, we typically fixate on the myth associated with the person. Coming from another perspective, minus the hype, I am a fan for more atypical reasons and because of them; have been a major influence on the person I have become today and hope to become in the future.

Let me explain… Here is a quote from Michael at a very unhappy period in his life, “Even at home, I’m lonely. I sit in my room sometimes and cry. It’s so hard to make friends … I sometimes walk around the neighborhood at night, just hoping to find someone to talk to. But I just end up coming home.”

So offstage we know he was just like us and had vulnerabilities to prove it.

But what made Michael Jackson, so unique? What did he do offstage that ensured that once on stage his video performances and live concerts were unparalleled?

Ever Since I started the independent artist | music journey on the web, I have been mining it for useful information and helpful resources on a daily basis to help guide me on my way. Need a great tip? Blogs are great pit stop. Want to learn form the pros? There is usually one at every at every other exit. Get lost and can’t find your way? Google it. It is a wonderful road map to take on any journey. Just be careful when you drive past page 10 of the search results. You just might lose your way… unless you’re specifically looking for back highway links to nowhere.

Anyway, what’s great about the wonderful world of the web (www) is much of the information on its pages is toll free. Blogs, Social networks Indie music, art, images, eBooks, videos tutorials, etc; many sites give away information freely, some on a daily basis. Most are great places to visit. I circle the best on my bookmark road map for regular return visits.

Unfortunately on every journey, it is very easy to take a wrong turn off the information highway. There are many spy-ware dead ends, spam road blocks, redirect road maps and viral potholes that can slow you down on your journey, or stop you dead in your tracks; or worse redirect you to the back highway links to nowhere. Take it from me, its no where you want to be when you have websites to visit and information to find.

For me… the magic in these moments will last a lifetime.
Gone. But you will never be forgotten. RIP Michael Jackson

Exposure in the independent artist industry, or any industry is the number one way to get discovered. “Beeing found” and spreading the word about who you are and the kinds of services you offer is most effectively done on the internet by making the most of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Gighive.com offers this service to the indie music industry.

SEO? What exactly does it do for indie artists?

Well consider these questions: How profitable would you be if your would-be customers or fans found your Web site near the top of search results for the keywords used in your particular craft or service? How much of that keyword traffic is currently going to your peers sites instead of yours?

When you consider the above, you can get a better understanding why companies big and small invest so much time, energy and resources securing SEO services. And yes, it can be very expensive, but when completed effectively, it is usually worth the investment.

It is a simple fact of life for the average indie artist. When promoting yourself on today’s competitive web environment, where many of your indie peers are clamoring for position, you need to have an established presence on the Web. Simply having a MySpace page, or even a dedicated website is not always enough. You need to know how to effectively promote yourself online, learn how to drive traffic to your site and “bee” willing to learn new tasks and find creative ways to “bee found.”

As I write this, Twitter and Facebook are dominating the blogosphere. Every other article I read seems to cover new developments each one is bringing to the social media stage. In the meantime on the other side of the world, MySpace is languishing in the freezing Atlantic Ocean taking on water while everyone and their mama is jumping ship from the former Titanic.

The last time I checked, Myspace was still the #1 Social Site in the United States. For now it occupies the #2 spot for videos and is by far the premier site for music and artists. From what I gather, it is bringing in cash while the aforementioned are still working on building solid revenue models.

Ok, ok…I’ll take some of the blame too. For the past year, I have been taking in all the chatter and pointing my fingers at MySpace along with everybody else. I put on my life jacket and jumped ship as well. Anyway, I couldn’t help, but overhear the small voices in the crowd, asking if any of the naysayers have been to Myspace lately. According to them, there have been many developments going on behind the scenes.

So yesterday, I logged on to Myspace to check things out and was I pleasantly surprised. My biggest complaint with the site; was having to navigate through the sea information, spam, videos, shiny lights, flashy fonts and dealing with awful profile loads times. Now it seems Myspace is bringing the user experience to the profile interface in much the same way Facebook has all along. So that means I don’t have to run out into the electric jungle as often.