Peach Blossoms In The Land Of Indie

It is a lovely day here in the Ozarks. It’s getting green around here. I am seeing peach blossoms for the first time this morning.

I spent the early hours this morning working on a piece of music called “Sky King” by the Telecaster maestro, Danny Gatton. When people ask me “Who is the best guitarist you’ve heard?”, it always makes me uncomfortable. It’s like comparing chalk to cheese. Danny G, was a guitar beast and he would be on the short list. “Sky King” is a piece that probably sounds simple but takes a lot of technique to play well. Anyway, it’s a major step for me to tackle something like this. I am gaining facility and confidence in my hands. By the way, the band and I will be at The Bearded Clam in Kimberling City, MO on April 14th. If you are around stop by.

The record industry continues to swoon as C.D. sales are down considerably for the quarter. People are buying digital downloads and they are buying way more single songs than full albums. Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the business again being a singles world. Really, until the late sixties that was the focus of the industry, selling 45s.

It would be a great thing if an artist could concentrate on one song at a time and the take it to market. The playing field is not level though. As an independent artist I can not release a single to Napster, I-tunes and the like. At this point it is only practical to release a whole C.D. through a third party such as CDBaby. If I want to sell downloads directly through my own site and take credit card orders I have to go through a portal such as PayPal and cough up close to forty cents a track. Even though there is no cost of manufacturing, when you factor in production costs to do a song properly, you end up taking a bath.

The dirty secret is that most music people refer to as “indie” isn’t independent at all. These are usually artists on small labels with major label distribution so, it amounts to the same thing.

Two things need to happen to make the indie world happen in a competitive way. One, Napster and I-tunes need to open up the gates and let artists release songs as singles without a third party. Two, a viable credit card micro-purchase portal. These two things could be accomplished. Until they are, it is not a level playing field and, even worse, there is a lot of money that is not being made by the middlemen of the industry. Get it together music biz capitalists.

Google Map for The Bearded Clam