June 21st, 2005

A winner at the recent Grammy© Awards, had the distinction of having never actually sold any copies of the album that won, in an actual store. All sales of 'Concert In The Garden', composed by, Maria Schneider, were sold as downloads, on the Internet.

According to the composer, the album cost $87,000 to produce, and those costs have already been recouped through sales.

This is yet another indicator that the Internet is becoming more mainstream and commonplace in terms of how music sales are generated.

Following a different Internet path, Janis Ian, who was a major musical force from the 70's, was one of the first singer-songwriters to start allowing fans, and prospective fans, to download her music on the Internet, free.

Her rationale was that by effectively giving her music away, she was increasing her fan base, which in turn increased the attendance at her personal appearances.

Record executives are of course less than enchanted with artists who effectively circumvent the normal process within the music industry, that historically gives the preponderance of the proceeds from music sales, to the record company- not the artist.

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