More and more bands seem to be ditching traditional record company deals to go their own way.
Bands such as Fairport Convention and The Levellers run their own annual festival and even smaller events such as our local Truck Festival (also run by a local band) have developed strong reputations.
And bands are increasingly using the internet to provide a platform for their music and selling directly to their fans, cutting out the various middle men along the way.
Radiohead hit the headlines recently for giving away their new album as a download, asking fans to pay what they wanted. They apparantly averraged 'only' £2 per album in return, although as has been pointed out this is actually MORE than most bands will get for selling an album through a recording contract.
One band that has consistently blazed a trail of innovation is one of my favorites - Marillion.
Having ended their relationship with EMI after their 80s glory days the band went through a succession of contracts with smaller labels before deciding to go it alone.
They steadily built up an email list and website, set up their own studio and record company (initially releasing 'official bootlegs' and the like) and employed their own manager (the indefatigable Lucy Jordache).
They established their own 'Marillion weekends' - the first of which was at Brean Sands Holiday Park in Somerset. They are holding two next year - one in Holland and one in Canada.
For 2001's Anoraknophobia they asked fans to pay upfront for a special edition of the album. 12,000 of us did so and in the process provided the band with an 'advance' that allowed them the artistic freedom to do what they wanted with the album without any record company execs breating down their throat.
They repeated the excercise with 2004's Marbles and this time 18,000 of us paid up front for what turned out to be a classic.
As the Beeb have reported they are trying even more new ideas for the new album.
They are distributing their own advance bootleg of the new album in an attempt to beat the file sharers. It's free, but not as good quality, and encourages you to buy the real thing.
They've once again asked fans to buy in advance, and we've done so in our thousands.
And they've set up a competition to ask fans to produce their own videos for the track 'Whatever Is Wrong With You' with two £5,000 prizes for the most viewed and the band's own favorite.
This is my favorite so far:
There's a short video about all this here.
