Third Eye Blind had their time in the mainstream spotlight, but wanted to continue to make music. Embracing all the internet, music industry and technological resources that have been able to brand their name once again.

What do you do when you feel like your business has lost its identity?

Members of the band “Third Eye Blind” know that situation all too well. After years in the mainstream, they took back control of their brand by going independent.

Check out the video feature on MSNBC here.

Or could something even more sinister be going on…

Imeem users got an unpleasant surprise last week when they clicked on their favorite music site and found themselves redirected to MySpace. Seemingly overnight, the imeem API had been completely absorbed into MySpace Music. The social networking dinosaur bought the once-promising imeem platform for less than $1 million.

The Breaks

The first disappointment comes when you realize that MySpace has not transferred your imeem playlists over to their site. The redirect page contains a vague promise that they are “working to migrate your imeem playlist to MySpace Music. We’ll email you about that once we have more details.” Yeah. You do that, MySpace. You email me.

Everyone is tired of that same old phrase “you only get one chance to make a first impression”. It is repeated ad nauseum from business schools to beauty pageants and everywhere in between. As much as I would rather say to throw away the stuffy old phrases, parables and sayings, this is one that seems to grow more and more true every day. Especially in the music industry.

Of course it is important to make that strong initial impression, that is first and foremost. Second, having all the music, assisting materials, image, business elements and the presentation of these pieces in place is paramount and required. Third is knowing how to individually and specifically present to the person, company, or agency, and doing it the right way.

This last paragraph represents the gold standard that has been a requirement of the industry for years. The musicians that move forward are those that have all the elements in place. If they don’t, they might want to hold up on their forward motion and get those elements in order.

So why is it more important now?

Today marks the digital release of Rapture Ready I Gazed At The Body, the debut short-player from Brooklyn’s Midnight Masses. Released in partnership between Collect Records and Team Love, the EP features an assembly of tawny indie-soul and woozy, 60s-inspired pop music.

The witchy concoction has been said to resemble everything from Spiritualized to a version of The Doors fronted by Billie Holiday. No matter the disparate reference points, all music is sung and delivered by songwriter Autry Fulbright and his expansive troupe of collaborators. Bolstered by the ever-tasteful drumming of Miyuki Furtado, and the complimentary guitar dramatics of Eric Rogers and Destiny Montague, Masses has received an impressive list of praise in the months leading up to Rapture Ready’s release.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, major label lovechild Beyoncé Knowles expressed an interest in taking a different direction on her next album by “going indie,” despite the fact that – let’s face it – Beyoncé wouldn’t know what it’s like to be a struggling independent artist if she won an Oscar for playing the role in a hit movie. Which she didn’t. In Dreamgirls, she still played the star, and Jennifer Hudson played the underdog.

Of course, Beyoncé wasn’t suggesting the possibility of actually becoming an indie artist, she was just talking about working with indie artists like Of Montreal, who she heard about from her sister Solange, you know, the Knowles sister with the ‘underground sound.’

However, despite the brutal abuse inflicted on the word ‘indie’ by the very suggestion that Beyoncé could somehow “do” it, there is a slowly snowballing trend amongst major label artists to reject the bright lights and big payoffs in favor of producing their own music.

Irony 101: Record companies elbow out the vinyl LP in order to maximize profits through the sale of cheap-to-manufacture CDs, which ends up paving the way for a digital music revolution that, in effect, obliterates the music industry’s consumer stranglehold. And the icing on the cake? The resulting destabilization creates the perfect environment for the rebirth of the vinyl record, which in turn empowers the independent artist.

How Did All This Happen?

In 1988, after surviving the reel-to-reel, the 8-track, and cassette tape, the vinyl record was finally toppled and all but eradicated by the CD. Although there was no shortage of enthusiasm for the easy-to-play compact disc, the disappearance of vinyl was largely orchestrated by major label distributors, who stopped allowing retailers to return and swap unsold records (a practice common in everything from magazine and book to music and movie sales).

Left with little choice in the matter, retailers began to stock CDs, and labels stopped offering most titles on vinyl. It was a good move for corporate shareholders, as CDs were a fraction of the cost to manufacture, while still justifying the higher price tag of a new techy product.

Tired of getting all your music recs from the barely-indie but passionately hipper-than-thou Pitchfork? Check out the Buzz list of great indie music blogs. Each one is guaranteed to make you feel even more out-of-the-loop than ever, but they make up for it by introducing new music you’ve actually never heard of.

3hive – Collecting all the free mp3s out there into one place.

A Post Punk Tumblr – Oi! You! Get your punk history fix here.

Amber Waves of Twang – Fresh roots, alt-country, bluegrass, and other sounds that were indie before there was indie.

Apes for Indie – The rare and elusive indie country music blog.

Aquarium Drunkard – Does every Wilco song have a blog named after it? AD covers indie music in grand L.A. famous style.

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.”

The indie band is currently on tour across the country through April 17th. Check out www.dearandtheheadlights.com for more information about the tour.