[ficbot]

I was reading a discussion on another board about music, and basically the question was 'how do you find great new music?' And a lot of the replies were 'I listen to indie music' or 'I listen to radio stations/podcasts/twitter feeds that play up and coming indie music.' It seems indie music is a well-respected way to discover new artists and uncover great hidden gems.

Contrast that to the attitude about indie publishing, which most people seem to think is amateurish, poorly edited and full of authors who only publish independently because they are not good enough to get a 'proper' contract with a 'real' publisher. Why do people not believe this about indie musicians? Surely there is just as much bad amateur music on the internet as there are bad amateur authors. Surely those who slog through the equally vast internet slush piles of amateur music and amateur authors will find just as many hidden gems. And yet, indie music has 'cred' and indie publishing does not. I wonder what's going on with that?