In what may be the near future for indie record labels, Ohio's Merit Badge Records recently released a free compilation of regional bands.
The CD Sounds Like Columbus Vol. 1 is a compilation album featuring 19 tracks from "the best up and coming artists in the central ohio area. Totally free, we're giving it away as the first release from Merit Badge Records, as a sort of musical love letter to the city."
Merit Badge is apprently a brand new record label based in Columbus, OH.
"Our goal is to work with local and regional artists to develop, produce, distribute, and find audiences for all kinds of good music. We'll be focusing on digital releases via iTunes and other digital music retailers, with small runs of special edition CD's planned in the future."
The label stressed that the world of music is constantly evolving, and the results aren't always pretty.
"Paid downloads that only play on a certain program or device or on a small number of computers, unfair legal threats and less-than-inspiring music are all a reality these days. We think it can be done better," the label reported.
By handling most of the recording, production, artist promotion, and distribution itself and by focusing on digital releases, the label is hoping to eliminate most of the financial barriers that normally exist between artists and labels.
"This approach also lets us work much more closely with each act, allowing them to feel that the release of their music is something they have a strong role in, and not just an unpleasant process they have to eventually submit to," they said.
Honestly, it seems like a good path for new labels to follow. The only downside is that many media publications and radio stations still don't really dig getting links or burned CDs, favoring instead the nice packages.
Why is that that the people in charge of the music industry are always the LAST ones to get on board?
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