Independence is a pretty great thing; when it comes to music is can separate the artists who can enjoy the creative process and make the music they want, from those who have the stranglehold of profit and expected success holding them back from creating what they feel happy with.

“Indie” is no longer a simple statement of independence but it defines a sound and genre. Independent music is a great thing, I used to associate it with music no-one wanted to buy, created by obscure individuals for a narrow market but looking at the top 6 tracks of year that I chose, all the tracks are from either unsigned bands or bands signed to labels doing their own thing.

The lacks of independence harms a lot of bands, The Coral (on Sony BMG) had an album released with “Digital Rights Management (DRM)” and a “Rootkit” designed to allow unauthorised access to computers on which you try to play the album. DRM, best buddies with the major labels, stop you from listening the music you’ve paid for in a way you want.

There’s another trouble with bands signed to majors: their perception of mp3 blogs and anything that gives away music or is associated with illegal downloading. It’s pretty difficult to get permission to upload a track by a band like ‘The Grates’ (under the wing of Universal - one of the big five record labels) to an mp3 blog because the labels think they are losing out because people can pay for the download some else.

And so we come to the inevitable profit priority. Independent bands are more likely to give away their music, share what they have created, and get more money back as a result. It’s not profit thats evil, a profit will be made on something that’s successful enough. But as consumers you can decide who gets the money. See bands live, buy CDs at the merchandise tables, get a t-shirt and support independent music.

I can only advocate independent so much, but I want to wish all a Merry Indepedent Day (and a happy DRM-free year).

Almost every track on my January - June mix is by an independent enjoy. Enjoy it and if you’re in the U.S, I hope you have/had a great Independence Day. More new, independent music tomorrow. Good music is good music, but independent music is nicer.

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