While music sites on Myspace have become ubiquitous there are many other interesting models for musicians who want a web presence and a way to distribute their music without dealing with large labels. Besides being a phenomenal trumpet player, Dave Douglas brings a visionary outlook of distributing live performances via his label greenleaf music. Douglas is performing for several days at the Jazz Standard in New York City and releasing each live set almost immediately in mp3 format for a small fee on the greenleaf website. He has also participated in live chats and keeps a blog. This model makes so much sense for live music with improvisation as a main component. Someone may want to purchase several versions of the same tune played on different nights to hear the different improvised sections.
What does this model mean for our students who want to create their own music? Should we be exposing them to models such as this that bypass the large record labels? Should we be helping our students understand how they can create their own versions of this model? Should we be purchasing live performances via the web in mp3 format for our students to listen to?