Organisations like the “Montreal Indie Music Network” are the lifeblood of independent music.  They are a concert Promotions Company actively involved in spreading valuable information about gigs going on in their area. Not only involved in promoting concerts, they regularly post information about up and coming artists on their facebook group as well. Like most people dedicated to indie music, they appreciate that some of the best music out there comes from unknown indie bands, as opposed to the “heavily-hyped and advertised major-label megabands”.  As we all know, Independent music does not have the same capital for huge marketing, advertising and promotion schemes as the major record labels, which makes networks like these all the more important. Where would the independent scene be without them?

Beginning as a face book group the network is in the process of creating a website called “Indie Montreal”. We spoke to the creator of the network, Jon Weisz, about the role of his network in today’s music environment. He observes that “95% of pop music fans are too complacent: they listen to whatever Television tells them to listen to without questioning the music’s quality or relevance”. Indeed. Jon understands more than anyone that labels simply don´t have the resources to market most of the great music out there, and that questions of risk often force them invest resources in artists appealing to the “lowest common denominator” (for more on this, see this article). Imagination, that crucial artistic ingredient “doesn’t make money for these companies, who often put millions of dollars into promoting a single artist”. With this in mind, his network

“provides a resource for people who fall within the 5%, who understand that music’s appeal is not cultural and dictated, it’s personal and discovered. Although a lot of popular music is good, I find that the best music is almost always found in indie niches that are not heavily marketed or publicized”.

We at Record Union couldnt agree more! Keep up the good work guys!

Tags: independent, independent vs mainstream, indie, Jon Weisz, montreal, montreal indie music network, networks, Promotion advice, Promotion Advice, record union

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Blogs and Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.