July 4: 'Independents Day'

Calls reverberate now and again for listeners to boycott major labels, but we haven't seen much of the flip-side: encouraging bands to purchase music from independent bands and labels. Independent label associations in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States plan to declare their independence from the major labels on July 4.

"Independents Day 08 is the first event of its kind, bringing togetherthe best in music making and a global auction," said WIN presidentAlison Wenham. "It demonstrates the growing strength of the independentsector represented by the Worldwide Independent Network. We hope itraises lots of money and awareness for the charities, and for thesector to continue to push at the margins of creativity."

National indie label associations who are members of the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) including the Australian Association of Independent Music (AIR), the Association of Independent Music (AIM, of the UK), the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and similar organizations in New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, France, Japan and Italy, plan to observe the day with "the largest ever auction of independent and other music memorabilia," to be held for ten days via eBay. The rarities will come from the various labels on a territory-by-territory basis – some of the items will be announced as early as June 2.

In addition, each territory will release a music compilation toshowcase the best its labels have to offer, with the profits going tocharities including MusiCares, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Coalition Against Living Miserably,
independent artists and labels in poorer countries and local musicinitiatives that connect companies with schools and colleges.

The originator of the idea, Peter Gordon, president of Thirsty EarRecordings and vice-president of WIN, said the purpose of IndependentsDay is "to celebrate the joy, passion and individual freedom ofdiscovery" of the "many members of our community [who] toil inunheralded corners of the world, individual in pursuit yet united inthe unbridled enthusiasm to uncover new musical expressions."

The tracklistings for these comps will be announced starting on June 9 or so, and they'll be "heavily promoted" on Amazon, eMusic and MTV. The announcement mentionedthe following independent/independent-signed bands, so it stands to reason that some of them will appear:

Radiohead,
Paul McCartney, The Eagles, Nickelback, Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, ThomYorke, Nine Inch Nails, The White Stripes, The Shins, Plain White T's,
Tom Waits, Tim McGraw, Carla Bruni, Franz Ferdinand, Rascal Flatts,
Slipknot, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Editors, M.I.A., SufjanStevens, Fler, LeAnn Rimes, Tiësto, Taylor Swift, The Rasmus, JoseGonzalez, The Strokes, Basement Jaxx, Charlotte Gainsbourg, TheRaconteurs, Super Furry Animals, Pixies, Antony & The Johnsons,
Jarvis Cocker, Nitin Sawhney, Enter Shikari, Pigeon Detectives, The Go!
Team, Royksopp, Roots Manuva, Coldcut, Dave Clarke, Matthew Herbert,
Soulwax/2 Many DJs, Tiga, Laurent Garnier, Vitalic, The Prodigy andUnderworld.

According to a WIN spokesman, artists signed to indie labels received over 80 Grammy nominations this year, while their UK counterparts claimed the Mercury Music Prize four times in a row, from 2003 (Dizzee Rascal) to 2006 (Arctic Monkeys).

The announcement is part of an emerging trend: indie labels are starting to see thevalue of banding together to flex more muscle, essentially becoming a decentralized fifthmajor label with more negotiating power than those labels would have ontheir own.

The event was announced on Tuesday; more details are said to be forthcoming.