Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of agahran

January 4th, 2009 – With many music stores shutting down, radio stations playing the same songs over and over, and targeted downloading, how do you find new music? While the internet has made it a lot easier to distribute music to those who want it, this makes it harder to find something new. It’s not an easy task finding a diamond in the toxic run-off from a coal mine.

While sites like Muxtape attempted to bring back the old sharing mentality of mix tapes, the RIAA was quick to shut that down. But really, how many of us use services like that to find new music?

If a person has always been into indie music, that person will work their hardest to find stuff that no one else has. Like the old saying goes: if you’re motivated, you can do anything. But how does the average person stumble across interesting independent music if the record companies are aggressively pushing the same music in mainstream media?

I like independent music, but I’m not one to go out there and seek it out. It has to be brought to my attention. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on Vimeo. Vimeo, for those who don’t know, is a video site for amateur film makers. Unlike Youtube, where everyone seems to be idiots, Vimeo is a supportive community for people who create videos. There are a lot of pretty stunning videos with great music on there. These films are turning me onto up and coming artists that I may have otherwise never heard of if not for the movies they were attached to. For example, I discovered the Octopus Project, and Voicst there, and wouldn’t have found them otherwise.

As videos become more and more important in our increasingly internet-centric lives, I think that this may be the way that independent music will trump major labels in getting ear-time with an audience. After all, indie film makers can’t afford to license the music of big name artists. They’re going to support people who are just like them and we, of course, should return the favour.