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Plucking musical gems from the web
London, Nov 15: Unsigned, underground bands love the Internet. But how can fans filter out the cacophony of awful music there to find the elusive, undiscovered geniuses?
London, Nov 15: Unsigned, underground bands love the Internet. But how can fans filter out the cacophony of awful music there to find the elusive, undiscovered geniuses?
One thing is certain: There's an awfully large haystack to dig through. Any band with a Web page can distribute its music, and sites like IUMA (http://www.iuma.com), MP3.com (http://www.MP3.com) and Garageband.com (http://www.garageband.com) offer up tens of thousands of songs.
The problem is that most of the music is, frankly, awful. Unlike bands signed to record labels, there are few filtering mechanisms to screen the good from the bad.
The number of traditional channels for aspiring artists to sell their wares is shrinking. Five traditional record companies control 75 percent of the global market, and there are talks under way that could shrink that number to three.
For music fans disillusioned by the industry's aggressive campaign to sue illegal downloaders and by its dearth of interesting new sounds, there may never be a better time to take the musical path less traveled.
Somewhere in a dusty, undiscovered corner of the Internet is the next big thing, whether it's the video game electronica of 8-Bit Construction Set (http://www.beigerecords.com/products/beg-004.html) or the bizarrely exuberant music of the late Wesley Willis. Bureau Report
One thing is certain: There's an awfully large haystack to dig through. Any band with a Web page can distribute its music, and sites like IUMA (http://www.iuma.com), MP3.com (http://www.MP3.com) and Garageband.com (http://www.garageband.com) offer up tens of thousands of songs.
The problem is that most of the music is, frankly, awful. Unlike bands signed to record labels, there are few filtering mechanisms to screen the good from the bad.
The number of traditional channels for aspiring artists to sell their wares is shrinking. Five traditional record companies control 75 percent of the global market, and there are talks under way that could shrink that number to three.
For music fans disillusioned by the industry's aggressive campaign to sue illegal downloaders and by its dearth of interesting new sounds, there may never be a better time to take the musical path less traveled.
Somewhere in a dusty, undiscovered corner of the Internet is the next big thing, whether it's the video game electronica of 8-Bit Construction Set (http://www.beigerecords.com/products/beg-004.html) or the bizarrely exuberant music of the late Wesley Willis. Bureau Report