Indies Make Serious Commercial Gains

Indie labels are beating traditional recording companies. “The commercial explosion is no accident. Indie labels may have finally found a way to harness the Internet’s sizable community of tastemakers. These music labels are bringing bloggers who have a reputation for posting legal and illegal MP3 tracks into the fold by purposefully leaking albums ahead of the release. Much as iTunes created a palatable model of digital downloading, these labels increasingly rely on carefully controlled – and sometimes uncontrolled – leaks of MP3 files to publicize upcoming records.”