The independent music scene in the digital age
Internet represents a revolution in the music scene around the world. What advantages the digital age has brought to our artists?
Escrito por:
Escrito por:
Alessandra Oliveira
Alessandra Oliveira
Tempos Musicais
Tempos Musicais
Mallu Magalhães (Photo:Disclosure)
Mallu Magalhães (Photo:Disclosure)
We never heard so much about independent music as we do the 21st century. Up to ten, fifteen years ago, you had to wait for a radio channel to listen to your favorite music - or months to see that long-awaited music video. Today, with the technological frenzy that engulfed all classes, the world of the Internet provides an avalanche of possibilities of artistic expressions, vast terrain where we have chances to be seen and heard.
The answer to all this technological flexibility is the facility that we have today to pass information in a short space of time. The fight between piracy, legalized downloads and copyright seems to have no end. Musical portability reached its peak with the arrival of MP3.
According to the Brazilian Association of Independent Music (ABMI), 80% of the national music producition is made up from independent bands, representing a share of 25% (about 15 million) of the total sold in the country.
Most of these artists have used Internet as a fundamental tool in the dissemination of their work and, without the support of a record seal, give rise to other forms of dissemination, communication, and new media, reinforcing what once seemed so distant: interaction between the artist with its audience.
The "Indie" scene (Independent Music Movement) is the main point of support of this musical revolution. Cansei de ser Sexy (CSS), Autoramas and Mallu Magalhães, aside the Pernambuco's band Mombojó are some examples of musicians who have achieved national prominence for their work through the web and today use it to benefit their careers. Not forgetting the rock star Lobão, one of the first to break with a record seal and make his work free on the internet and even on newsstands.
Making use of MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, these artists make available to public virtually all of their songs, making the relationship between musician and fans extremely narrow. The public access, participate, states their opinion. Podcasting, or web radios came to replace the radio stack, and place on the hand of the listener the power to choose: he chooses his radio programming according to what he want
The digital music reached all levels of social strata. The PC became accessible and anyone can enjoy an MP3 player, whose price range is already similar to the old discman, and downloading music is no longer the privilege of just the upper middle class.
With all this, we are going through an era in which consumers and musician reach increasing cultural and artistic autonomy. Cultural by the public, who can choose what to listen and what to take, without having to buy a CD to listen to one song. Art by the musicians, because when faced with the independent music market, they become masters of their own projects and find themselves increasingly free of the bureaucratic system controller of the records.
The records, they face a major reversal of values. If they don't want to lose their place in market, they'll need to reinvent themselves and search for these artists that are proving successful on the Internet: a sign that the phenomenon of musical democratization arrived to stay and will benefit those willing to follow it.
