As one who enjoys reviewing giving detailed reviews at garageband.com from time to time, I agree that there is a mystique that comes from the packaging of music beyond the garageband or soundclick model. Those sites are great, and in particular a useful way to store music. Yet I can tell you that the impact of our netlabel is far more than any soundclick or garageband.com impact, and the same goes, of course, for ccmixter.

Tastemakers, aggregators, spreaders of the word–this is what hums off everybody’s lips in the discussion of musical independence, rather like a kazoo on the 4th of July.

Yet the new tastemakers elude easy corporate marketing schemes. When I get an interview, review or mention on a weblog or website, then
no money is made. It’s going to require new ways for labels to market to exploit these resources, as “paid bloggerdom” seems to me a non-starter for them.

I do think, though, that a web publication could arise which effectively markets itself as an ad resource while maintaining its credibility. Such a publication could help small label/DIY artists break out, the way some weblogs and myspace does already. It’s a cross-pollination, I suspect–like the old saw that 1 lawyer in a small town starves, two earn a living.