Grammy Winner Bypasses Recording Industry
from the how-it's-done... dept
One of the more popular "alternative" means for financing an album among musicians who want to avoid the recording industry is to finance the production of the album via dedicated fans. A few artists have been trying out this method, including the artist once again known as Prince. One of the Grammy winners from last night, Maria Schneider, apparently produced her album this way, getting fans to pay up for the initial production, and sending them the "limited" edition CDs when they came out. Other than that, the songs were available via downloads (the article doesn't indicate where or how, unfortunately). Either way, though, Schneider claims it's worked out better for her. The costs were paid upfront, and any additional profits aren't being shared with any label or distributor. Yet another example that there are business models that work in a world beyond the more obsolete traditional recording industry model.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
