What I worry about is more and more people deciding not to work in the arts because they simply can’t live on it. I don’t know how I’m going to live another year making no money. It’s a real conundrum. Can you imagine a world without art?

Lots of indie labels are folding as well over file sharing as the major source of revenue in bands is in concert performances. Not that I know filmmaking, but I hope this article is more accurate about that side of the arts than music.

Unfortunately, it’s true. While most of the time, I don’t necessarily go to theaters to show my friends movies, it still takes a while and the question of if they actually do watch it or just ignore it. Music is easier to send around, thanks to other sites like YouTube or Playlist.com.

Although, I do have to agree with Mr.Moe. Coolness isn’t exactly a factor in this debate. It’s too much of a gray area to really effect either way. One person might believe that indie music is cooler than film, but it’s easily debated the other way by someone who thinks just the opposite. So, “coolness” is not a factor at all when it comes to why indie films are becoming less and less.

(1) Film makers need 2 hrs to win audiences over, Indie Bands need 3mins to make a fan. (2) Film making is a collaborating effort, takes time and can be expensive, Musicians can write s song by themselves in 15 mins and record for nothing. (3) One is projected, the other is Live (and is how most indie bands make their money)

Last, “Coolness” is Subjective and shouldn’t be part of this debate. What you think is cool, is corney to someone else. Besides how many bad songs get stuck in your head and become big hits.

My2cents

I should point out once again though that “the Drift” is not (in my book) an independent record…it was released by 4AD, whch form part of the Beggars Group.

It seems to me that a lot of people judge whether or not something is independent by the way it sounds. This is a bit like saying that “Cloverfield” is an independent film because it uses a shaky cam.

There are only four major record labels: Sony, Universal, EMI, and Warner. But does that make any label other than them an independent? In a sense they are, but that doesn’t mean that some of them aren’t pretty big, well established, with good contacts and networks.

For instance, to go back to the example of Animal Collective, they have performed on the David Letterman show. Now if I make a record tomorrow that is just as good as the Animal Collective one, do you think I’ll be able to ring up the David Letterman show, get them to listen to it, and then perform on the show? No…you need a bit of industry muscle to make that happen.

Before this article has any meaning, it needs to establish what exactly is being compared between music and film. If you want to find some genuine independently distributed music, go to cdbaby.com. The artists on there are all struggling to be heard, make no money…and I doubt you ever will have heard of any of them.