picture by Rob Sheridan

Demonbaby blogger Rob Sheridan has written a great piece on the death and re-birth of the music industry, prompted by the closing of oink, which he and music fans everywhere are furious about. Sheridan lays out what fans can do to support their favorite artists without supporting the major labels or the RIAA. He suggests we:

1. Stop buying music from major labels. Period.

“The only way to force change is to hit the labels where it hurts - their profits. The major labels are like Terry Schiavo right now - they’re on life support, drooling in a coma, while white-haired guys in suits try and change the laws to keep them alive. But any rational person can see that it’s too late, and it’s time to pull out the feeding tube. In this case, the feeding tube is your money.”

2. Support artists directly.

“Here’s a little secret: Anything a band sells that does not have music on it is outside the reach of the record label, and monetarily supports the artist more than buying a CD ever would. T-shirts, posters, hats, keychains, stickers, etc. Send the band a letter telling them that you’re no longer going to be purchasing their music, but you will be listening to it, and you will be spreading the word and supporting them in other ways… If you like bands who are releasing music on open, non-RIAA indie labels, buy their albums!”

3. Get the message out.

“Get this message out to as many people as you can - spread the word on your blog or your MySpace, and more importantly, tell your friends at work, or your family members, people who might not be as tuned into the internet as you are.”

4. Get political.

“The fast-track to ending all this nonsense is changing intellectual property laws. The RIAA lobbies politicians to manipulate copyright laws for their own interests, so voters need to lobby politicians for the peoples’ interests.”

I’ll be talking more about how the new music industry can and is growing from the ashes of the old one on Tuesday in California at Business of Software 2007, because the cultural divide Rob talks about in this article, one of the main themes in my book, is something the software industry, and every other industry needs to understand, and they need to understand it quickly. Read the Demonbaby piece, it’s a good start.