I started harvesting and presenting new releases at mp3com in 1999, producing a radio show.
Over the years, a campaign continued to shut down major free music sites, as one by one disappeared, and 2008 was the year that the last remaining big sites were all taken out at once by the record label cartel competition. It is that campaign started by Bronfman at the RIAA which led to mp3com being shut down, and music.download.com, and GarageBand.com and so many others as the covert war on independent artists has continued.
Indeed, a once thriving independent music industry has been reduced to a smattering of remaining sites like BandCamp.com and ArtistServer.com and the other originals which remain, and the once vibrant scene of music blogs and their like have faded as the glut of new media continued to grow.
I have studied closely the decline of the internet enabled open music industry as I have continued to produce my radio show of new releases which are free, and it has become harder to produce because the once very connected and gathered artist communities have largely been scattered into obscurity.
I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of media we have all become accustomed to, and the ease at which we access it, and thus, it’s decreased relative value in an ocean of excellent music that is so vast for any one person to hear it all, the process of recommending music became pointless, for there is just so much good music all around everyone that one need not even look for it, or be recommended.
Many still continue though, some because of the work they have put into their sites, others because they are artists themselves, documenting their scene, and others because they still have visitors they continue to contribute the time to produce blogs and podcasts and radio shows for.
I am still producing my live radio show at http://synerdata.net after 15 years now, and each quarter I review and harvest around 200 to 400 hot new free releases and mix them into a new show with artist URL’s to download the songs one would like, as a special service. I have often wondered how much longer I may continue, but the audience keeps coming, and so I continue to put in the time.
Another well-connected source of the best new music by the best artists can be found in the award winning podcast by Anji Bee at http://anjibee.com who keeps going strong.
