Oh, untold hoards of loving readers, I guess this is sort of like goodbye. After five years of life in the sticky, smoky trenches of music journalism, I’m hanging up my hat and paddling my canoe in the direction of uncharted waters. Enough banal metaphor usage for you? Ya, for me, too.

I know that I don’t have to worry about you once I’m gone, loving readers. The webosphere is so full of smart, eloquent folks writing about music that I know you won’t suffer from any shortage of information or half-baked ranting. I am, on the other hand, a bit concerned about what’s going to happen to the music industry once my back is turned.

State of the Tune-ion

Things are looking a bit shaky these days. While I’ve enjoyed guiding you through the collapse of the major label-dominated music industry, the glittering digital phoenix that has risen from its ashes isn’t exactly everything it’s promised to be.

While professional-grade recording equipment has become accessible to all, it’s also created a production scene ripe for manipulation by middlemen who promise much to aspiring artists, but deliver little.

While the Internet offers unprecedented levels of access to promotional tools and global fan bases, it also creates a fertile breeding ground for mediocrity, and for a new kind of anonymity, bred not by obscurity, but by dearth of access.

A few weeks ago, Prince made headlines by claiming that,

“The internet is completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else.”

Not surprisingly, the famously eccentric / multi-platinum songwriter got pretty seriously mocked for his statement, particularly for going on to compare the internet to MTV as something that was once hip but is now outdated.

And it’s easy to laugh these comments off as the petulant wailing of an industry dinosaur, but what if we worked from the assumption that Prince is not a nut, and took a closer look at what he’s actually saying.

Is The Internet Over For Musicians?

Prince made these comments in relation to the release of his new album, 20Ten, which is not being released digitally. In fact, the only way the album is available is through the purchase of various European newspapers, which come with a copy of the CD (included in the price of the paper).

This strategy begs the question: is Prince doing this purely to spite the internet, or is he doing it because experience has taught him that he will gain greater attention, distribution – and potentially, profits – via these newspaper deals than he would online?

Some musicians are independent whether they like it or not. They can try to conform, try to get on board with a label and produce pretty, marketable pop tracks, but in the end they find it impossible, and system collapse is inevitable. The tragedy of this whole scenario is that it can actually destroy talented people, compromise creativity, and confuse artistic instincts. Case in point: the strange and corrupted career of Liz Phair.

Phair is making headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. She released her new album, Funstyle, on the 4th of July, and if you thought she’d been getting mixed reviews as of late, the word on Funstyle is anything but. Pitchfork called it “horrible on every conceivable level.” MusicRadar called it “bizarro.” And LATimesBlog generously suggests that you shouldn’t overlook it, even if it is terrible.

Rough.

The album, Phair’s sixth, was released exclusively online, because according to her, she lost both label and manager for it. In response to reviews of Funstyle, the homepage of her website reads:

How To Like It.

You were never supposed to hear these songs. These songs lost me my management, my record deal and a lot of nights of sleep.

Yes, I rapped one of them. I’m as surprised as you are. But here is the thing you need to know about these songs and the ones coming next: These are all me. Love them, or hate them, but don’t mistake them for anything other than an entirely personal, un-tethered-from-the-machine, free for all view of the world, refracted through my own crazy lens.

The Protégé Podcast will be releasing a mix tape featuring the hottest indie artists titled “Gossiping Heifers Indie Exposure”.

The mix tape will be distributed as a free download to be distributed to the public and music industry professionals.

The preferred genre of the mix tape will be urban format (R&B, Jazz, Reggae and Hip Hop) with comedy commentary with the hosts of the Protégé Podcast in between the music tracks.

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.

Funny story. Remember waaaaaay back in 2001 when downloading music was still kind of new and weird, and it took hours to download one song from Napster or LimeWire?

Back then, Kazaa was another notable peer-to-peer music sharing network, kings of the dial-up connection, they were. That is, until they and all the other disruptive technology people got the pants sued off them by the music industry – a.k.a. Sony, EMI, UMG, and Warner.

Kazaa’s founders, Janus Friis, and Niklas Zennstrom, settled the case for $100 million just as they sold their next startup – Skype – for $3 billion. Kind of makes the music industry people and their settlement seems kind of puny, doesn’t it?

The Next Big Thing?

Fast-forward to today, and we find Friis and Zennstrom behind Rdio, a new music service that let’s you pay a monthly membership to stream like on Spotify, download like on iTunes, and share playlists, like Last.fm. Friis and Zennstrom are banking on the calculation that people are just about ready to start paying monthly subscriptions for online media, and that the memberships will start to roll in. Of course, up to this point, a similar approach has not worked for Rhapsody.

One of the biggest weapons in the Rdio arsenal is a complete set of deals with Friis and Zennstrom’s old friends, the music industry. All four major labels have struck deals with the new company for access to their entire music catalogs.

After sixteen years with Geffen Records, Weezer has decided to leave the label. They are determined to write songs and promote CD’s on their own.

The band is planning to release B-side tracks for their fans as their first project.

What does this mean for the indie movement?

Indie bands can follow a solid business model if Weezer can be successful with their move. They are planning to do things on their own, according to an interview by bassist Scott Shriner by Billboard Magazine.

We have covered stories about bands like Third Eye Blind and Counting Crows taking the independent route. These bands could have signed with major labels, but took a new approach to the music industry.

We have covered stories about bands like Third Eye Blind and Counting Crows taking the independent route. These bands could have signed with major labels, but took a new approach to the music industry. OK Go is also making their own path by creating their own label called Paracadute.

OK Go’s move gave a swift kick to the current industry model. Tour dates have been set up which will help bring in funds for the band. Paracadute and OK Go will manage the band’s distribution and promotion.

How much of an impact will a move like this have?

The Quiet Revolution is an internet project that features talented singer/songwriters singing songs written and composed by Tal More, a 31 year-old Israeli songwriter.

“TQR attempts to focus on the things I believe music should be about- original lyrics, strong melody & sincere delivery,” said More. “Production is kept at a bare minimum as I feel it tends to steal focus from the more important aspects of music and sometimes disguises uninspired substance.”

More’s approach to music is largely inspired by Elliott Smith’s low-fi recordings, which he consider a sort of musical bible that demonstrates how meaningful & truthful music should sound.

James Pew gives us the scoop on Studio 2.0.

At GigHive, we’re always interested in those folks out there who are taking an active roll in building alternatives to the mainstream music industry. In Toronto, James Pew is an musician/technician well worth watching. Over the last decade, Pew has created Euphonic Sound, a vibrant and diverse community of artists who are currently hard at work building models for the future of the music industry. And psst, guess what? It’s totally indie.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak to Pew about what he does and why he does it. Here’s what he had to say:

GH: Clearly, you’re a busy guy. You run Euphonic Sound Studio in Toronto, you’ve got the Broken Window label, you run the Studio Manifesto blog, you’re involved with Origin Audio Electronics, and you’re a musician. How did this whole indie empire get started?

JP: Roughly ten years ago I researched recording studios in the GTA that I could potentially record some of my music at. At this point I had already been through an audio engineering course at Humber College and had done hundreds of demo recordings on 4 and 8-track – all of which sounded awful, hence the need for a professional studio with qualified engineers. The best price I found for a pro studio was $900 per day back then.

Releases Dear Lover at Indie Music Stores

The indie artist talks about his latest release Dear Lover, the music industry and performs the title track. Ryan has released his album at a indie music store near you. Check out the list of stores here.

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.

Indie on Air! & Music in Action w/ host “Classic”

The Voice of Independent Music featuring industry professionals & great indie music.
Indie on Air! broadcasts live every Friday 12:30pm CST from Chicago via the BlogTalkRadio platform
Music in Action broadcasts live every other Wednesday 2:00pm CST from Chicago via the BlogTalkRadio platform
Both shows are available 24/7 as an archive immediately following the live broadcasts.

Q) Tell us a little bit about your Internet radio show. What inspired you to start it?