More Musicians Discover That Online Is The Path To Fame

from the and-so-it-goes dept

Whenever we point to examples of musicians succeeding by embracing what the digital world enables, we always get some angry comments, often from folks claiming to be music industry insiders insisting that what we describe is really impossible -- especially for unknown artists. They say this despite repeated evidence this is untrue, including an increasing number of musicians who pulled off success stories. The response is always a search to find exceptions -- especially when it comes to live shows. One popular comment is that it's impossible for unknown musicians to ever get gigs. And, of course, there are some who still insist that you have to spend a ton of money to do a decent recording to get noticed.

This is, of course, ridiculous. The Wall Street Journal pops up with the story of Justin Vernon and his band Bon Iver. Vernon recorded a bunch of songs at his parents' hunting cabin in Wisconsin with a computer and some software, and put them on MySpace, where he was able to build up a huge following -- often by giving the music out for free. While he eventually went a more traditional route -- signing with a music label, his success suggests those criticisms are once again unfounded. This, of course, does not mean that every musician who records some songs on his computer will be a huge success, but those who say it's impossible are going to have to dig deeper, as it appears pretty much every day we hear of a few examples of musicians making all of this work despite the naysayers.
Hide this

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

Filed Under: bon iver, justin vernon, musicians, online


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2008 @ 1:17pm

    and the RIAA is the path to SHAME!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Tpa, 30 Dec 2008 @ 3:14pm

    Indie bands know this

    Indie bands know that Myspace and DiscoverOurBand.com are great places to pick up fans and get exposed. The Internet makes it easier for most indie bands I would guess.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Clay, 30 Dec 2008 @ 3:14pm

    "musician"

    Any "musician" that says it's impossible to get gigs is either a bad musician or doesn't want to put in the work that is required. I've had gigs flying at my face in a mediocre(at best) band making $400-500 a night almost any night of the week we wanted. A top notch polished band that isn't afraid to work hard(like most money making professions) could easily make a modest living in the music business. There are too many lazy bums that think that just because they can play a few chords on the guitar, people should be throwing $100 bills at their crotch.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    PaulT (profile), 31 Dec 2008 @ 3:02am

    Interestingly, Bon Iver's album "For Emma, Forever Ago" has been getting an incredible amount of hype in the independent music scene, especially on sites like eMusic. It's not my cup of tea, but a lot of people seem to love it.

    In other words - shock, horror! - quality bands are getting gigs and don't need a multi-million dollar marketing machine to get noticed enough to make a decent living. The attention given to Bon Iver has been for nothing other than people truly responding to the music. this is the lesson the RIAA need to recognise - good music sells, good bands will have no problem finding work.

    Not everyone deserves success, and nobody's going to get to be a millionaire with this model, but real musicians don't care as much about that as they do the music.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Dec 2008 @ 4:44am

    Re:

    nobody's going to get to be a millionaire with this model

    You seem pretty sure of that; why?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Mark Rosedale (profile), 5 Jan 2009 @ 3:45pm

    I love Bon Iver

    Bon Iver FTW. I really enjoy that group and their latest music vid has a nice home feeling to it (as apposed to the overblown pop music). Love it!

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.