http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/technology/internet/22music.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=%20brad%20stone&st=cse

For those indie artists committed to bypassing a major label deal and doing their recording and marketing, Polyphonic is worth looking into. Formed by  music industry trio Adam Driscoll (Mama Group co-CEO), Terry McBride (Nettwerk CEO) and Brian Message (ATC & Courtyard), City Fund is the $20 million angel behind Polyphonic to help artists fund and further their careers.

The cool thing is, for a 50%-50% share in the profits (none have been consummated yet), indie artists can retain ownership of their master recording copyrights while Polyphonic gets the right to revenues from use of those copyrights during the contract term plus 10-years as well as a percentage of merch, touring rev, licensing and branding sponsorships. Polyphonic’s venture capital formula enables them to cover the bigger costs of recording and marketing an album with the currently favorable revenue stream from “live” sales channels. The ownership trio is leaning towards artists who have gone down the major label route, decided to go indie and have the potential to produce an ROI.

For me, the trend away from the major music labels (Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI, Universal Music) to indie-pendent music entrepreneurship is part of the growing recognition of SMB’s (small-to-medium-size businesses of all types) ability not only to restore confidence in an ethical capitalist model but to rejuvenate an economy from the grass roots up. As indie artists become more and more recognized as investment-worthy business enterprises, we’ll see more venture capitalists emerge like Marc Geiger’s not-yet-formally-announced Self Serve. On another level, the majors are bending their backs to attract indie artists by replacing  their “360 (we get a piece of everything) deals” with compromises around things like control and ownership of the masters in exchange for artists assuming more of the risk. The least common denominator is that indie artists are calling more and more of their own shots as businesspersons and being respected for it…and I’m digging it.