I'm sure many of you are aware of the "Derek Webb Controversy" for lack of a better term. In my opinion the most astounding thing about the whole issue is the all the internet (twitter, etc...) chatter about it. The abundance of broad assumptions on the part of fans and other commenters on the basis of a very limited amount of legit info (basically two very cryptic e-mails and some twitter posts) has been the most shocking to me. How about you?
Anyway, I'm just curious about your take on this issue and the idea of record labels in general. Feel free to post comments on this page or @dtmmedia on Twitter.
It's not that record labels are inherently evil, but I do feel like for niche artists such as Derek Webb who doesn't appeal to a mass audience (their loss in my opinion) could go on making music without the assistance of a record label. Derek is a perfect example, having given his Mockingbird album away for free and founding Noisetrade, where people can tell their friends about artists in exchange for downloads or pay what they feel is appropriate. It's not that record labels don't help promote and distribute music/artists, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that artists can be successful without them thanks to forms of digital distribution (iTunes/Amazon/Lala to name a few) and just the word of mouth (or tweet) regarding artists people enjoy and care about. I have no idea whether or not Derek is really unable to release his album but honestly I've become more excited about this than a lot of other new albums I've heard about recently.
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