“HAL” of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

“There’s something really refreshing about stumbling across a great band that’s trembling on the cusp without any sort of press campaign or other built-in mythology– you actually get to hear the music with your own ears. While a lot of bands view the promotional apparatus as a necessary evil, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah prove that it’s still possible for a band to get heard, given enough talent and perseverance, without a PR agency or a label. Indie rock has received a much-needed kick in the pants, and we have the rare chance to decide what a band sounds like of our own accord before any agency cooks up and disseminates an opinion for us. Damn, maybe this is how it’s supposed to work!” -Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album review on pitchforkmedia.com1

Rather than embracing the new opportunities the Internet provided them, major labels spent the early 2000s suing listeners who used file sharing programs like Napster. Fortunately for listeners, artists took a more creative approach. By the time 2005 rolled around, blogs, online review sites, and profile sites like Myspace were making it easy for musicians to reach a global audience in the big, interlinked community. For years, the Internet was developing into a hype machine, whereby a fan could read a music review, click to the band’s Web site to hear a song and click to iTunes to buy that song within minutes. So it was only a matter of time before an up and coming band would ride the Internet surfing wave to see just how far it would take them. In 2005, Brooklyn based band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (CYHSY) did exactly that.

Rather than waiting for a label, CYHSY saw the opportunity that new media could provide, opting to self release their debut eponymous album. Things went according to plan at first, until the band began to build so much buzz that it couldn’t keep up with orders for its album.2 In mere months, CYHSY went from not having played a single live show, to selling tens of thousands of albums. How did this happen? Hype.

Given its link friendly nature, the Internet has become a way for people all around the world to spread their thoughts like wildfire, and CYHSY simply got the right people’s thoughts to be “this is a good band.” It didn’t take long for word on CYHSY to reach the offices of Pitchfork, a renowned online independent music review site. Pitchfork itself commented on CYHSY’s Web presence as “burning up the Internet like a vintage Lohan nip slip3.” And the abnormally high (9.0 out of 10) rating Pitchfork gave the album didn’t do anything to slow down word of mouth.

As the album continued to pick up steam, CYHSY were considered the new free agent in town, who could pretty much sign with any label they wanted. But as time passed and album sales continued to grow, CYHSY remained an independent act.

“We recently made a decision not to sign with a major label, because we were doing very fine on our own. I was concerned with how major labels are doing things these days – the romance isn’t quite there anymore.4 Alec Ounsworth, Guitarist and Lead Singer,Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Yet even the band members themselves acknowledged that it is hard work being self sufficient. As in the early going, CYHSY reportedly had to spend one dollar to make every single copy of the album they hoped to sell according to billboard.com. And as they were still up and coming, they didn’t have a lot of extra money on hand. It was true the Internet made the band big quickly, but a main criticism of the Internet is that it is temporary. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah lead singer and guitarist Alec Ounsworth performing at Higher Ground in South Burlignton, Vt on April 11, 2006. Photo by Ryan LowellSo would the fame it produces be temporary as well? Not for CYHSY. The band went against the grain, self releasing its second album, Some Loud Thunder, in 2007 two years after the group’s initial success. For all those who doubt the stay power of a band who made it big nearly entirely on Internet hype alone, it  is worth noting that the album’s  first single, “Satan Said Dance,” was named one of Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Songs of 2007.”5

CYHSY is not an exception current music trends. The band is an example of the diverse community of Web sites, artists, bloggers and music consumers who are all utilizing each other to achieve a situation where everyone benefits. A particularly strong advocator of this sentiment is Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com.

Pandora is an online streaming radio station but as Westergren acknowledges, no one else is “crazy enough” to be doing what they’re doing. What they are doing is running a Web site whereby users can type in the names of bands they like, and Pandora will instantly stream full songs of similar artists the user might enjoy for free. It sounds simple from a user’s perspective, but its creation is actually quite innovative. The site runs on a program Westergren created called the Music Genome Project.

“[The Music Genome Project] was my idea, it came from my own experiences as a musician trying to make a living, experiencing the challenges of being an independent musician and thinking, “how can I make it easy for indie musicians to find their audience? If the right people could hear them, a lot more people could make a living.” -Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora

Rather than putting Pandora’s own financial standing above everything else, Westergren created a site tailored toward not only promoting new and unknown artists, but also allowing its listeners to discover new music they might not otherwise find out about. And unlike the days of illegal downloading, Pandora is a completely legal service. The site has two versions- a subscription version whereby users pay a small fee, and a free version that contains advertising from sponsors. The site also makes profits by linking itself to iTunes and Amazon, who pay Pandora commission for every referred sale. Due to unique characteristics and its cooperation with other online music media, Westergren says the site has acquired several million unique users and gives the most sales referrals of any site to iTunes and Amazon.

Much of the success of Pandora can be attributed to the fact that it constantly takes efforts to remain in collaboration with the Internet music scene. Pandora is constantly adding new artists to the Music Genome Project, and paying attention to the feedback of its users. The site isn’t an end all be all way for a band to get famous, but it is playing a significant role in the interwoven community of the independent music Internet scene.

“We get a lot of anecdotal feedback from bands who have a lot of people showing up at their shows, or have seen a big rise in iTunes sales. I Can’t say we’ve broken  a band, but we help. We want to create a rising tide that lifts all boats and helps all musicians.” Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora

Written by Jon Stewart with Brittany Hutton & Ryan Lowell