This might be too good to be true, but news came out that 2 of my favorite bands of all times are about to embrace the same paradigm Radiohead did this last Wednesday, October 10th. They’re about to go label-less and release their new albums on their own!! Although that doesn’t mean they’ll use the same pricing strategy as Radiohead did, it means they help keep the major labels… “ticked”! (this a family-safe blog :p)

Interesting enough, they’re all… European (british) bands…

I could go on and on about this issue, but I really have been thinking over this, and I don’t want to get all excited about something I don’t see happening in a broader sense… period. We all know Radiohead, Jamiroquai and Oasis have huuuge fan-bases and lots and lots (and lots!) of money, but *unfortunately* many bands rely on getting a major label contract to really start selling some music.

I say “unfortunately” because this is result of our generation’s way of consumption: we wait to be presented with something we’re told to like, it turns into a hype, it’s shown everywhere from commercial products to TV shows and… the hype dies out, and we wait for the next one!

Of course I’m not talking about myself. I’m very much into post-rock (that term alone is unknown to many!) and listen to amazing bands like God is an Astronaut, Sigur Rós, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, etc… and buy their albums, and try going to concerts when possible. But I’m part of a minority of music lovers, that uses amazing tools like Last.FM (I’d vote on them for best social/music website EVER!), to find artist unknown to the general public. But let’s face it: we’re not the ones filling stadiums and buying band-branded school gear, etc…

I’ll stop here! First, I’m loving this new paradigm of true music communication. After all, music is an art-form and for it to fulfill it’s main purpose is to be heard by as many people as possible, whether they buy it, rent it or borough it, but have the music speak to them. Second, that’s what I love about post-rock… and Radiohead!

The links on the bands names are for their Wikipedia page… It can help getting a background and some cool info on them. But I can’t stress this enough: Visit their websites and listen to some music samples… Heck, buy their albums!! Most of them, if not all, can be found on the iTunes Store. On a side note, God is an Astronaut sells their albums for $8, DRM-Free and in 320kbps… And yes, they’re one of my favorite bands, and they’ll be in Portugal next week for 3 concerts!!!!!!!!!!!!!

via Telegraph.co.uk