Indie music has significantly impacted and innovated the entertainment industry over time. It began with innovators in the 1950s-1960s, grew with early adopters in the late 1960s-1970s, became mainstream with the early majority in the 1980s, and was nearly ubiquitous with the late majority by the 1990s. Today, indie influences have spread far beyond just music into other creative industries and subcultures. Indie music has demonstrated attributes of an innovation by having relative advantage over major labels, compatibility, trialability, and increasing observability over decades as it diffused through society.

1. Indie Music:
An Entertainment Industry
Innovation
Rebecca Horton
23 May 2012

2. Independence means not
having to answer to anyone,
really-that’s what it means in
my mind.
-Geoff Travis, founder and
director of Rough Trade
As cited in King, R. 2012 2

3. Why Study Indie?
• Modern relevance
• Broad-sweeping impact
• Rootedness in local, start-up
communities
3

4. BUT FIRST...
4

5. What is Innovation?
Simply put, an innovation is a lever of change
within a larger system.
Relying upon the foundations of systems theory
and actor-network theory this definition supports
the notion that ideas never exist in a vacuum, and
it is the combination of forces surrounding those
ideas that ultimately make them prosper or fail.
5

6. What is Technology?
Technology is not a thing, or an outcome; rather
it’s a “process of development.”
Based upon the work of Feenberg, A. 6

7. A BIT OF CONTEXT...
7

8. Indies Vs. Majors
Music labels with a small, Music labels that own their
devoted fan base that are own distribution channels.
not heavily focused on sales
but rather are focused on
the craft of music.
8

9. Power
Grip
Of the Majors
9

10. Untethered Indies 10

11. “As soon as a major label opens it wallet, all this
rebel independent stuff goes out the window.”
-Jim Nash, President, Wax Trax Records, 1990
As cited in Popular Music 11

12. INCREMENTAL BUT POWERFUL
12

13. Diffusion Timeline
Innovators Early Early Late Laggards
Adopters Majority Majority
Rogers, E. The Diffusion of Innovations 13

14. 1950s-1960s
INNOVATORS
14

15. 15

16. Late 1960s-1970s
EARLY ADOPTERS
16

17. 17

18. 1980s
EARLY MAJORITY
18

19. 19

20. 1990s
LATE MAJORITY
20

21. Redefinition! 21

22. 2000s
LAGGARDS
22

23. 221,188,824 views 23

24. Underground goes mainstream
1980s Today
24

25. “[W]e no longer live in a world of the Mainstream
and the Counterculture. We live in a world of
multiple mainstreams and countless counter-, sub-
and counter-sub-cultures.”
Walker, R. The Brand Underground. 25

26. ANALYSIS OF INNOVATION
26

27. 27

28. Innovation Attributes
Low High
Observability
Trialability
Complexity
Relative
Advantage
Compatability
Adapted from Rogers, E. Diffusion of Innovations. 28

29. CONCLUSION
29

30. Indie is the New Norm
But what does that mean for
the professional musician
who needs to make a living?
30

31. Indie is No longer Just about
Music...
Its tentacles have spread into
art, fashion, the DIY/maker
movement, and more
31

32. Bibliography
• Bower, J. & Christensen, C. Disruptive Technologies. Harvard Business
Review, 1995.
• “Billy Corgan Rants About ‘Posers’ at SXSW.” Rolling Stone, 2012.
• Feenberg, A. Critical Theory of Technology. 1991.
• King, R. How Soon is Now: The Madmen and Mavericks who made
Independent Music 1975-2005. Digital release, Faber and Faber, 2012.
• Nash, J., 1990. As cited in Popular Music.
• Oakes, K. Slanted and Enchanted. Holt Paperbacks, 2009.
• Rogers, E. Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, 2003, 5th ed.
• Walker, R. “The Brand Underground.” 30 Jul. 2006, New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/magazine/30brand.html?
pagewanted=2&_r=1
• “What Is Indie?” Movie Trailer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=5rLLqdnGwqQ

33. Image Sources
• sketch_biphop via flickr
• jkgroove via flickr,
• Dana Slaymaker, 1970 via Artstor
• Style.MTV.com
• The macinator via flickr
• Pitchfork Magazine
• Wildner via flickr
• Toniblay via flickr
• ListenMissy via flickr
• Shiftingpixel.com
• Youtube.com screenshot
• Vogue Magazine
• Jima via flickr
• Declann jewel via flickr

34. I think in the music business you have to
give up on making money…marketing is the
new money in music, if you can get the
right partners in the internet to work with
you and use their marketing power, that is
the new money. You’re not gonna make it
selling a CD more than likely.
-Billy Corgan
Corgan, B. Interview with Rolling Stone, 2012. 34