Unbelieveable! (or ... the rise of the indie in the face of music's old guard)

It's been a while since I have written a rant or a rave. It's not that there haven't been rant- or rave-worthy topics -- there have -- but my pen and paper have been moving across a lot of corporate desks lately and zapping my inspiration.

Yesterday morning, however, I read the posts on a Porcupine Tree forum and was astounded by the new heights in bricks and mortar record company stupidity. This band has an ever-growing, loyal fan base worldwide who hangs on, album after album, for their collective and individual releases. Their newest release, The Incident, is to be released in Europe in early September and internationally two weeks later.

I believe the last time I blogged it was a rant on how stupid and misguided staggered releases are, especially for bands that are outside the mainstream. When you figure bands like this usually don't book radio interviews, Graham Norton, or David Letterman, why the delay? Virtually all promotions for this band are online - there is little to no need for special handling.

Porcupine Tree's label, Roadrunner, released the video of their new single, Time Flies, on their website Monday, only to have it pulled down within hours. Why? Speculation is that parent company Warner Brothers ordered the pull. The video was also launched on an alternate video site, but can only be viewed by computers in certain countries. A couple of enterprising people have tried to post it to youtube, only to have it either pulled or kept online with the sound disabled.

Out of curiosity I checked youtube this morning. Indeed, another person tried to post the music video and again it was disabled. This person also posted it to another web site, and of course it was disabled there as well. Warner Brothers or Roadrunner are spending their valuable time and energy to ensure that their artist's music is not being heard, nor the video that the band paid good money for is not being seen.

How much sense does this make? Porcupine Tree can use all the exposure and publicity they can get; it's not likely that they will list in the Billboard Top 40, thanks to all the general pop nonsense that is spoon-fed to the public. But curious eyes and ears do translate to record sales. And Roadrunner, upon signing the band a couple of years ago, has re-worked the band's record distribution system in an effort to increase the likelihood of charting.

And then I considered how my friend Prophetbeatz, an independent musician and producer, released his own new CD yesterday, using every bit of Internet bandwidth he could to create, promote and distribute it. His business model, akin to those employed by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails in the last couple of years when their record label contracts expired, goes to show that artists can create their own material, intelligently use the Internet to develop and promote material, maintain full artistic control, and not piss off fans in the process.

Prophetbeatz' entire CD, Live From the Gallows, is available for free download on his web site, www.prophetbeatz.com. His reasoning is that by giving people a chance to sample his material they will decide if they like it and buy future products.

"When the DVD is done and CD mastered I will release it for sale and those who like it will support it," he said recently. "People are tired of one hot song and bullshit albums. If they like the album they'll get a t-shirt or other merch available because they feel connected with you."

In addition to promoting his CD, merchandise, and clothing line online at his and other web sites such as Facebook and Myspace, Prophetbeatz also used the Internet to get a sample of the lead-in track for his CD. "Barf always brings in my albums, except for Ghost Stories, which was recorded when he was in boot camp. I give him the idea behind the album and he starts his grind, which in turn puts the battery in my pack. Within a few months we've got a fire; it's just always been the process."

This time around, Barf, stationed hundreds of miles from Prophetbeatz, wrote the poem, recorded a reading of it on his laptop, e-mailed the file, and Prophetbeatz took it from there.

"I worked with the file to make it sound more like he was right there with some reverb, compressor, and a little EQ."

The result is a very rich and fulfilling experience for this listener - stay tuned for a review.

Prophetbeatz is not doing anything different from many ambitious and forward-thinking artists. He has embraced all technologies available to him to create, promote, and make his material available to all, without any roadblocks to fans. The established record companies really need to wake up to the power of technology to keep the music alive, fresh, and what the people want to hear, without stupid limits or irrational control.

Or they just need to step aside altogether.