The music biz in a Pearl Jam

MSNBC has a story from June 5, that I'm surprised I haven't heard about until now. Perl Jam has decided to leave Sony. Now this in itself isn't really big news, bands change labels all of the time. However, in this case, the band has decided that the don't need a label any more. They are going to pursue an internet distribution scheme instead. The article states that Perl Jam has made close to $100 Million for their label over the last few years, and unlike most bands has probably recouped their up-front loans from the label. If Perl Jam is able to make this work, I think this will be an extremely important event in the history of the music industry. You can find the bands web site here. Here is a quote from the article:

THIS IS ONE institution leaving another, the most popular and important American rock band of the ’90s voluntarily rejecting the grandest label heritage — the longtime home of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Santana, Miles Davis and Tony Bennett — because the band may no long require the services of a major label. If Pearl Jam — now touring the United States to wildly enthusiastic crowds — is able to create a successful business model mobilizing its fans via the Internet and engaging in such “crazy” stunts as releasing live double albums of every show it performs, this could be the beginning of a stampede away from the lumbering dinosaurs that the major labels have become.