Now does this sound like jeopardy?

Hello Indies!

There has been a lot of talk in the music industry about illegal downloads and the impact they are having on the industry as a whole and, as a label owner and musician, I've been following it with what can only be called "rapt" interest. In many areas direct sales of recorded media seem to be in a slump, leading many people to worry about the future of the music business and, in the case of Gene Simmons of Kiss, to even declare that the music industry is "dead", and that it is all the fault of the fans.

So, imagine my "surprise?" when I started looking through the last weeks sales totals for acts such as Lil' Wayne and Coldplay. Last week Lil' Wayne broke a staggering One Million units, and after only six days on the US charts, Coldplay has already broke 720,000. The impressive part, for me anyway, is that both of these albums had been available for complete download prior to release, and both had been heavily pirated prior to release, yet both are selling phenomenally well in conventional (legal) channels.

Is this just a fluke? I don't know, but it does seem to me that by embracing the fact that their fans want access to as much of their material as they can get ahold of, and putting in the extra effort to provide it, they are still able to monetize the support of their fans.

It makes me think that the more you include your fans in the process, the more you make them part of the process, the more they emotionally invest in you. Emotional investment usually leads to financial investment, and all of a sudden you have found a way to innovate your marketing plan.

It really is an interesting time in the music industry.