Hot Topic: DIY

The topic of DIY seems to be on the tongues of many lately, and it’s not quite the same ‘do it yourself’ of your punk rock granddad’s age. We participated in a panel last week on this topic, and were impressed by some of the forward-thinking initiatives we heard put forth by young artists in attendance. Conversation of a modern DIY era was also spawned this week by discussions at the New Music Seminar that took place on Tuesday in New York.  While in the past a DIY mentality and approach was completely antithetical to the mainstream music business, the concepts and ideas being explored now are very much a part of a popular dialogue.  Recent developments in this arena include the formation of Polyphonic, a UK-based venture that models itself on a new concept of label-artist partnerships and profit sharing, which was featured yesterday in a New York Times article.  The fan-funded blueprint continues to push forward as well, with more new sites like Kickstarter.com that provide a platform for ideas and endeavors to find funding through pledges – endeavors such as recording an album or ep.  In fact April Smith, an artist who we’ve spotlighted in the past, is currently taking pledges to fund her new full-length and is more than halfway to her goal in just two weeks.  So while the jury is still out on many of the new “models”, the whirlwind of ideas and debate proceeds to energize innovation and creation in a space that was built upon those very things in the first place.

Checkout a couple recent interesting articles at Hypebot and Digital Music News for more on this topic.