Could this be the end of record labels?

Lately I've been listening to a lot of music on the Bandcamp website, and every time I use it I'm amazed at how simple the idea behind it is, but at the same time, how effective it is as a tool for musicians.

Artists taking control over their music isn't new - Fat Freddy's Drop managed to make it to number one on the New Zealand charts with their independently distributed first album.  I think where Bandcamp's strength lies is in the ease in which artists can get their music out there, and the usability for music fans looking for
music.

I have excellent news for the world. There's no such thing as grunge.

It's the 20th anniversary today of the release of Nirvana's Nevermind and that's got me thinking about the whole "grunge" phenomenon of the 90's.  I've already been into why Nevermind was such a defining album in the 90's so I won't rehash that here.  Head over here to read that post.

I think that the way Nirvana exploded took the music industry, particularly the marketing side of it, by surprise.  Nobody expected it to happen and the prevailing trend in music at the time was definitely pop.  Suddenly, here were these punk kids making a lot of noise, selling a lot of records, and someone needed to capitalize on it.