[EDITOR'S NOTE: Normally we don't post unsolicited pieces, but when reader Jason Newman sent us his take on the new Amazon "Go Indie" project, we thought it was pretty funny, and worth passing along. Enjoy! Take it away, Jason...]
Amazon recently partnered with 30 record labels to release 700 albums, 150 of which will be sold for $9.99. As Universal Music Group will tell you between tears, lowering the price of a CD doesn’t necessarily mean higher sales, but it’s still a smart move on Amazon’s part to expose certain albums to people who liked “that weird music on the Garden State soundtrack.”
But wait!
Digging a little deeper, something didn’t sit well. You have your Shins, your Pavements, and your Interpols, sure. But the list contains some unusual choices as to what constitutes “indie” these days.
Kris Kristofferson – This Old Road
What’s he doing here? Kristofferson was born in 1854, at a time when “independent music” meant a man in Kentucky playing a fiddle alone on a hill.
Ministry of Sound – The Annual 2007
Various Artists – Ultra Dance 07
Armin van Buuren – State of Trance 2006
To indie rock fans, State of Trance 2006 might as well be State of Jugband 2006 or State of Ragtime 2006. And Ministry of Sound? Can you still be an “indie” label while running numerous clubs around the world, hosting international TV and radio shows and having your label head worth nearly $200 million? According to Amazon, hey, sure, why not?
Ace Frehley – Greatest Hits Live
As you may or may not know, Ace Frehley is the guitarist for KISS.
Rough Guide – Bhangra Dance, Latin Arabia, Bollywood
Don’t you hate getting all excited to check out some up-and-coming buzz band, only to be constantly bothered at the show by people deciding which Latin restaurant or Bhangra club they want to hit up afterwards?
Various Artists – Indiana Jones Trilogy
Despite the obvious indie cred that songs like “The Mine Car Chase,” “The Ark Trek,” and “Indy’s First Adventure” have garnered over the years (Sorry, Sufjan, all those titles are copyrighted), this selection was undoubtedly made by a Chinese robot scanning through all of Amazon’s titles and putting in anything containing the word “Indi.”
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Thanks, Jason! We checked out the list, and it is truly bizarre. What’s your favorite oddity?
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Music from the Star Wars Saga? Definitely not indie. Unless classical music is suddenly the new indie music.
From Amazon: “3. Bask in your new indie cred.”
Barf.
Why does it always have to be “Indie” or “Mainstream”, why can’t it all just be music?
oh it’s not such a bad list
finally my Dr.Who soundtrack gets the credit it deserves
This may be the most unintenionally hilarious thing I’ve encountered since “BloodRayne”.
FUCK THIS.
all this does is hurt “brick and mortar” indie stores. where is the sense of community with the labels and their (traditionally) primary outlets?
this is just another case of joe blow at x-record label (i’m looking at you, merge, matador and sub pop) wanting more sales, regardless of how it affects the small business owner.
i wonder (though i doubt i need to) whether or not dischord is participating. that’s a model to look up to, record labels.
Congrats Jason on getting posted.
Why Mainstream v. Indie…
Because the idea (not always incorrect) is that the transition from indie to commercial means the a move from individuality to homogeneousness. That for success there’s the need to scrub off every little bump and blemish of uniqueness to create a palatable product that will have mass appeal.
But credibility is just getting someone’s approval, be it thrift store hipsters in the city or everyone and their mother in the midwest watching American Idol.
But everyone knows that. It’s just what camp you identify with that makes you have any stake in the conversation.
Delbert McClinton,John Hiatt,Richard Thompson,Alejandro Escovedo,et al. Sounds like NPRs official fanboy list.
I am flabbergasted by the soundtracks — are the rights to John Williams’ music owned by some small label in Kenosha, WA or something? I have not checked, but I’m guessing Paramount or Fox (in some form) would own a rather large stake in that.
And the indie aesthetic chastises no-talent plagiarists who liberally borrow bits of Wagner and Shostakovich to create route and mindless ear candy that’s popular because — um — it’s familiar! It’s homage!
God, I hate John Williams.
For the record, the indie aesthetic celebrates no-talent plagiarists who liberally borrow bits of Joy Division and My Bloody Valentine. Which doesn’t bug me at all, actually. It’s kind of an odd situation.
All of the John Williams-related albums are from Silva Screen Records, and ALL are re-recordings, NOT the original soundtracks. I guess they count these Silva releases as indie because they’re not distributed by one of the majors.
“All of the John Williams-related albums are from Silva Screen Records, and ALL are re-recordings, NOT the original soundtracks. I guess they count these Silva releases as indie because they’re not distributed by one of the majors.”
Exactly. These are all from independent labels, not bankrolled by the Big 4, and are all sufficiently worthy of being on an ‘indie’ list under that logic.
The thing we’re grappling with is our understanding of ‘indie’ as genre, not business categorization. It’s like understanding ‘terrorism’ is a tactic, not a definable enemy and therefore you can never truly win a war on terrorism. It’s like waging a war against economic undermining.
Sorry to get all political, but the ‘indie’ genre classification has always pissed me off in that respect. Got loud guitars? You’re rock. Got bwanky guitars? You’re funk. Got whiny guitars? You’re country. You come from a long lineage you may not particularly like and your corporate status can’t change it. Just suck in the flava.
Yeah, I said flava. What of it, knave?
DwD
erbody knows ace frehley taught r.stevie moore evarah ting he knows. i mean r.stevie moore taught ace and kass everything they know i mean r.stevie, ace and kuss really aren’t that much alike.
wow, sir stephen and tom waits, esq. sat down for this — musta got a load a books for it
Uhm, France is the center of all indie music, of course. thank you for including “French Cafe” A CD i’ve only seen in the baby section of FAO Schwartz
I agree with mr. Peeved. This is just further proof of labels not giving a shit about real record stores. Especially indie stores. As a buyer at a indie shop, I can’t help but take it personally. It feels like an attack on my job.
Turns out your policy of not posting unsolicited pieces was right all along!
I’m sorry, but they don’t come any indier than Kris Kristofferson. Hell, listen to the new Wooden Wand album and you’ll hear Outlaw country influences throughout.
everything indie sucks now:
http://valleywag.com/tech/i-hate-it-here/everything-indie-sucks-now-261719.php
I don’t mind having the Rough Guides on there, but yeah, this whole venture’s fairly ridiculous. Not sure if anyone remembers, but at the height of their popularity, Creed was on Windup Records, which I think was run out of some frat boy’s garage. ‘Sabout as indie as it gets.
On the other hand, it does help to give exposure to bands that some people might not know about, so in that way, it might help out, say, a Nellie McKay or a Jose Gonzalez, which is cool. However, I can totally see where you guys are coming from in terms of it biting the hand of indie record shops. :-\
That Ace Frehley line was hilarious, tho.
I think they mean indie friendly , e.g. non-RIAA
in case anyone was wondering, Kristofferson is on there because Rocky Votolato made a list of his favourite driving music and included it.
Also included the ever indie Lynard Skynard
Ace Frehley *WAS* the guitarist of KISS.
How is lowering the price of hard-to-find music really going to help sales? People are going to buy the album if they can’t find it online (as is the case with many obscurish indie bands) no matter what. So wouldn’t it make more sense to lower the price of the top 40 albums so people would be more inclined to purchase said albums when they might not otherwise have done so?
All this setup is doing is screwing over the independent artists and record labels who now have to take a smaller cut that was already small to begin with.
Props to Stereogum for posting my article. For an expanded version, check out:
http://amazongoindie.blogspot.com
I have no beef at all with Kris Kristoferson making the list. The album they are referring to is on an indie label and is pretty damn great. Or do you have to sound like Arcade Fire or The Shins to be “indie?” It’s not called the “Go Indie ROCK Project,” correct? Quityerbitchin’.
the record companies have enough to worry about with their slipping sales and outmoded business models to worry too much about how your favorite super hip brick and mortar record shop is faring. hell, tower’s closed and virgin megastores are dropping like flies and they were the big boys. just about all that’s left besides your big retailers like wal mart, best buy, etc. are the mom and pops. some are bound to close, some have enough of a loyal customer base to weather the storm. the cd is going the way of vinyl pretty soon like it or not. the artifacts of music will be of value to a small minority of music geeks like us who go out of our way to acquire them. most people will be getting their music digitally and only a handful of specialized shops will be left to cater to the vinyl and cd buyer. (i still buy both)
and i love me some dischord and have always admired their ethics, but they’re a bad example seeing as they’ve been undercutting retailers for years with their cheap mail order prices…
Just FYI, I saw DJ Rekha spinning Bhangra at an MIA show a few summers back. Also, I think pitchfork has reviewed a few Rough Guides, so it’s easy to see how the suits got confused.
sorry creepy, you’re wrong.
first – this isn’t about downloads vs. physical mediums, this is about unfair pricing advantages given to preditory big box and online stores.
the problem with this is that the labels are directly undercuting physical stores. i’d have no problem with this model if it were equal, by slashing wholesale prices across the board – but it’s not. they are propping loss leaders at big chains (ie. best buy) and at online stores at the expense of the smaller mom and pop’s. that is wrong.
as for your take on dischord…that’s a little flawed, as well. they aren’t undercutting retailers, they merely sell their products at a lower cost and make less of a margin than other labels. this doesn’t affect the bottom line for retailers, as their margin stays at the 33% markup. in comparison; if a retailer tries to compete with the discounts given at amazon or best buy, that will directly cut into that markup and profit margin.
that’s why this is a shitty practice.
im just pissed that i had to look at a picture of that ugly motherfucker from mates of state on the clickthrough.
You leave Whistler alone!
The expanded version is hysterical!
You know what, though? Fuck a brick-and-mortar indie store. I went into one (near the college campus, even) last Thursday. I wanted the new Wilco, the new Elliott Smith, and that Seefeel re-ish of Quique. Not terribly hard-to-find stuff, I’d think, except for the Seefeel. They were sold out of New Moon until next week, only had the dvd edish of Sky Blue Sky, and nobody in the store had even fucking heard of Seefeel. They could import it, but it’d cost me $30 and I’d have to wait a week and a half. So, until these stores can actually deliver what they promise (knowledgeable staff), and can even keep fairly popular stuff in stock, I’m gonna get that shit from Amazon.
no one gives a shit, matt. this isn’t about you or seefeel or whatever. go crawl back in your hole, douchebag.
i don’t normally get into this whole internet argument bullshit-
and i sure as fuck hate/secretly love the “as a graphic designer” bullshit-
my name is steve. i am director of sales and marketing at an independent record label.
you know how marketing and sales work within independent record labels, right? you seem to be bummed because the indie labels won’t be making as much and the poor store might not sell as much because of their jacked up prices. did you read their contract? do you know if it’s a supply-side discounted price? i mean- labels make money either way. perhaps less, perhaps more. none of us saw the contract (fact of the matter- there was a contract). physical stores have to charge more for many reasons. amazon doesn’t have to struggle to keep their rent paid. they can offer lower prices. mom and pop can’t? too bad. they have to mark up the cd they bought from the label’s distributor for five+ bucks a pop.
bottom of the line- labels owns physical cds. they sell them to retailers. the retailers do what they want- most of the time it’s not without the consent with the label. there are exceptions to every rule. labels aren’t undercutting major retailers. i personally don’t care that some kid in new york might not have his favorite record store around forever. it’s sad, sure- but that’s the ever-firm stomp of american commerce.
steve,
when you pick commerce over community, you’re a douche. i’d love to know which label you work for…please let do tell!
Slam a cock, “a.”
I love how good-hearted and understanding all you indie too-cool douchebags seem to be! Nice work!
Ace Frehley is currently #10 on my weekly Last.fm tally.
I played “New York Groove” once. Yay.
All of the mentioned recordings are on independent labels.
Amazon is promoting “indie” as in independent labels. Ever gone
to emusic, Jason Newman? You douchebag.
Deep breath, Michael. The post is meant to entertain. I think everyone here understands the difference between “Indie” as a genre and “Indie” as in independent labels.
I heard that those evil big box retailers and Amazon hate mom and pop stores.
Oh, and black people. They hate black people too.
No mystery here kids…they partnered with LABELS who are indie, not BANDS who are indie. If Kris Kristofferson or Ace Frehley put out an album on an indie label, then guess what, it gets put in the mix. Same goes for the soundtracks, which are often put out on independent labels. The whole premise of this article is torn apart by 2 seconds of rational thought. Sheesh.
“J,” he says that two posts above yours.
check out http://www.christinehagan.com! releasing debut album this summer!
Kris K also has a new cd “16 Biggest Hits” out last month. sonymusicstore to see the song list