Supporting the artists that support us

Jaffe has a recap on the results from our Bum Rush the Charts experiment. Black Lab's 'Mine Again' didn't make it to #1 on iTunes, but it did squeak in the Top 100 at #99, and hit #11 for rock songs in the US. Damned impressive any way you look at it. And yes, 'Mine Again' will be featured in the next episode of Mind The Gap.

But this got me to thinking, what other major artists have podsafe music, and/or make their music available for free download? When I say 'major', I mean artists that now, or previously, were on a major label.

There's The Donnas, who call on their fans to catalog all their live appearances so they can be freely downloaded via TheDonnasMedia.com. The band even goes so far as to supply fans with custom CD inserts for concerts when they download the performances. I contacted Mark Leaphart who oversees TheDonnasMedia, and he said all the content on the site is podsafe, and even offered to do any necessary editing to the videos to make them work as well. The band is upfront about the fact that they are trying to sell more music, by giving it away.

Nettwerk makes all their artist's music podsafe IF the artist owns the distribution rights. So for artists such as The Barenaked Ladies that have moved to their own label, all the music they produce from now on is podsafe. And this is a big reason why BNL did this, to have control over how their music is distributed.

And it seems that Black Lab has made all their music from their latest independent release podsafe as well. Can anyone else think of any 'name' artists besides Black Lab, BNL, and The Donnas that are making their music podsafe or available for free download?

This was the whole idea behind Bum Rush The Charts, a group of podcasters got together and decided to start a movement around promoting Black Lab, because the band reached out to podcasters by making their music podsafe. I believe I read where they had been dumped by one of the majors themselves.

What other 'major' artists are out there that are embracing and empowering their fans that we should be recognizing?



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