People like to talk a lot about the power of the Internet to democratize content distribution and bring an audience to unknown little bands, right before they rush off to download the latest Madonna album from Kazaa.
Fortunately there’s a few sites like Jamendo, which are really focused on distributing albums of new bands and getting them paid directly. It works like this: a band goes to Jamendo and uploads their album, releasing it under a Creative Commons license (a sensible alternative to copyrights). License terms can vary from “you can only use it for non-commercial purposes” to “feel free to do whatever you want, including remixing it, as long as you give me credit“. You and I, as music consumers, come to the site and download the albums via BitTorrent, and if we like it, we can make a donation.
It’s already helped me discover new sounds like Silence and cool ideas such as the virtual band t r y ^ d, but mostly, it’s great to have as an example of the promises of the Internet finally being fulfilled.