The Independent Manifesto

The Worldwide Independent Music Industry Network (WIN) is a global forum for the professional independent music industry. They recently launched The Independent Music Manifesto for independent artists, take a look here:

The Independent Manifesto:

1. We, the independents, will work to grow the value of music and the music business. We want equal market access and parity of terms with Universal, Warner and Sony, and will work with them in areas where we have a common goal. We will work to ensure that all companies in our sector are best equipped to maximize the value of their rights.

2. We support creators' freedom to decide how their music may be used commercially, and we will encourage individual artists and labels to speak out directly against unauthorized uses of music as well as commercial uses of music that stifle that freedom. We support creators' right to earn a living from their work, which should be respected as a basic human right. 

3. We support independent music labels that treat their artists as partners and who work with them on reasonable commercial terms, noting that labels are investors who deserve a fair return alongside their artists. 

4. We promote transparency in the digital music market; artists and companies are entitled to clarity on commercial terms. 

5. We oppose further consolidation in the recorded music, publishing and radio sectors since this is bad for independent music companies, their artists and fans, as it reduces market access and consumer choice. 

6. We support initiatives which confront market abuse, and which aim to adapt competition laws to promote independent market access and foster collective responses by independents to potentially anti-competitive conduct by large operators. 

7. We recognize that all independent music businesses contribute to local culture, diversity, jobs and export opportunities, and multiply the economic success of related industries. We will ask governments to promote and support the independent music sector in securing access to finance and tax credits, and to local and international markets. 

8. We hold that collecting society revenues must be allocated and distributed accurately and transparently. This includes distribution of unclaimed money that logically belongs to the independents. We will push for the independent sector to be formally represented in the governance of collecting societies, with trade associations being eligible for board seats. 

9. We support the creation of a worldwide track-level sound recording rights database, subject to neutral governance and ownership, to ensure accurate distribution of rights revenues to their rightful owners. 

10. The independents will, as always, actively encourage and support new commercial opportunities for music, and will continue to support and develop new, legitimate business structures and partnerships.

Australian Independent Music Awards

The 5th Annual Jagermeister Independent Music Awards are to be held at The Forum Theatre, Melbourne on Friday October 1st, 2010, featuring live performances from British India, Cloud Control, The Amity Affliction, M-Phazes, Sally Seltmann and Joe Chindamo. Doors open at 8:00pm; tickets are $29+BookingFees and available now via Ticketmaster.

Its interesting to read the interview with Space Invadas which is currently on their website where the social norms of file sharing are discussed:

What's the biggest challenge you face as an independent musician?

The age of torrent downloads, which kinda makes it hard to make music full time if no one buys it. So I've felt the last two years it has really made it more difficult. They [torrents] are really socially acceptable now.

Unlike most major label artists that never really recouped from music sales unless there was a huge volume of sales, it seems the independent labels are hurting because they are only releasing for a small number of artists and traditionally those musicians would have seen some of that income.

Independents v Majors

I was interested to read a recent TechDirt article about a post from the MusicThinkTank in which it is stated that of the 227 artists that sold over 10,000 albums last year, 14 of these were independents, 107 were signed to independent labels and 106 were signed to major labels. I note that this blog emphasises that less than 1% were completely independent, however I was more interested in the break down between independent labels and major record labels.

One of the hardest statistics to find for my research has been a break down of sales according to record labels/independents. There is one wikipedia page which provides some outdated statistical information (and which for a post graduate student is not considered to be a reliable enough source) but there is nothing else that I have come across so far that details the overall sales attributable to each record label.

The changing dynamics of the digital music environment appear to be assisting in some regards to even out the sales of artists signed to independent labels rather than the traditional major label favoritism of the far more centralised, physical distribution system. However this is often difficult to determine given that individual companies do not always detail their profit and loss statements in terms of actual track sales (the RIAA and other inter/national organisations around the globe do provide holistic statistics but not on a label by label basis).

I have long wondered whether independent labels were increasingly able to gain greater exposure and attract the commercial engagement of listeners in the digital environment. While it is a development that many would suggest to be a natural consequence of a far more open architecture, lower costs and social norms of reciprocity and altruism, nonetheless it is very difficult to see these changes flow on to mass media exposure. Furthermore, the cacophony of information on the internet makes it very difficult to gain an idea about what new artists are having an impact or not. Indeed the only real physical representation of the success of these artists from an external point of view can often be their concerts and yet unless you are there yourself it is nearly impossible to know if anyone else is or not.

It would be great to have a more detailed source of information on the progress of independent artists and labels so as to know whether or not the changes to the music industry were assisting them or not. On the basis of this very simple and largely unreferenced statistic, it appears as though this is possible, however it is very difficult to find a reliable source for this type of information. If you know where I can get a report that shows the break down of this information please let me know.

More Information
TechDirt, Finding The Long Tail In Music (25 January 2010)
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100124/1752357883.shtml> at 31 January 2010