Portia Sabin: I think labels are caught in a cultural bind: No one really wants to know what a label does; it’s like the sausage factory. Even long-established bands have a hard time talking about what labels do.
…
Mac McCaughan: I don’t know. I think that bands are into labels because bands — at least most of the ones we all work with — are music fans. Music fans, like baseball fans, also have a sense of history and an interest in the trajectory of things, not just the current moment. So, when we toured in New Zealand for the first time, I was as excited about meeting the people at Flying Nun as anything.
Chris Swanson: I agree. Music fans want as much information no matter how esoteric it may seem to a casual fan.
Portia Sabin: I agree that bands are into labels; I’m talking about people understanding what labels do. I think there’s a semi-willful lack of understanding.
Chris Swanson: Now that labels don’t run studios as much as they used to, it definitely is more abstract what our role is.

A great roundtable discussion about the future of indie labels–featuring our friend Chris Swanson, as well as Jagjaguwar’s Darius Van Arman–over at Carrie Brownstein’s Monitor Mix blog.  There’s tons more great stuff–including lots more from Merge’s McCaughan and Matador’s Gerard Cosloy–where this brief bit came from.

“People choose what they pass along to other people. The content matters. If something is viral or memetic, it’s caught or coded into DNA, not chosen. “Viral” and “meme” are broadcast ideas, where the all-powerful content producer forces the weak consumers to enjoy and propagate something.”

and making crucial distinctions between modes of media engagement. As above, boldness is my addition:

“Companies exist in a world that’s all about money, but fans typically participate in gift economies. When companies try to “monetize” fans…they run into problems because fans don’t operate that way.”

Word. But then she compares F.O.E. to what was discussed at the conference for professional organization MIDEM, the disconnect becomes crystal clear:

“With a very few exceptions I heard very few people at MIDEM asking the question ‘how can we provide value to our audience?’ Instead I heard them asking ‘how can we get money from our audience?’”

Blerg. Baym tries to set them straight, though, with her own presentation, which she posts in full at her blog. Reblogging her own blurb below, because it’s so OTM:

Of course, the flip side to fans’ empowerment is what seems a lot like disempowerment to those who’ve been able to control music production, distribution and coverage. It’s natural to respond to this with fear. The threats are real. Those in industry may want to stop fans from: Criticizing them, spreading their music, using their name, bootlegging their shows, discussing their private lives, writing fantasies about them, spreading misinformation.

But getting control back is not an option. That genie is not going back in the bottle. The power struggle and the tensions it raises will continue for the foreseeable future.

The relationship between fans and artists is less and less like a business relationship in which artists and industry set the terms and audiences either buy or don’t, and more and more like a social relationship in which bands and fans have to negotiate terms together.

They are independent, they have their own goals, and they will do things you don’t like. They can also help you.