[doesnt_know]

The Music and Video game industries are already "fixed". The web is bursting with quality independent content that is either Free, free or priced well and delivered without DRM. The choice is already there, it's no ones fault but your own if the only content you care about is the stuff pushed by these toxic companies.

Your comment does seem to apply to the TV and Film industry though. An indie film equivalent of Bandcamp would be great. Bollocks to the current movement with their film festivals and limited screenings, at least make a fucking effort to be accessible.

[thirdsun]

Absolutely, in addition to independent artists and bands found on Bandcamp & Co. it's also very easy to buy DRM-free lossless music by signed and more popular artists. Boomkat, Qobuz, HDTracks, you name it. These days I really can't complain about quality music buying and streaming options.

With movies and TV on the other hand, you're right as well. It's a mess - even more so as a non-american. Even independent creators are doing it wrong: Tried buying the movie/documentary Teenage the other day - no download/buy option, instead screening in a handful of US cities. Good luck getting my money with that approach.

However there are also good examples like Computer Chess or Sleepwalk With Me, which let you buy a DRM-free download.

[kandu]

Isn't Vimeo On Demand (https://vimeo.com/ondemand) the indie film equivalent of Bandcamp?

[doesnt_know]

Yeah.. It's a step in the right direction but a little too close to the existing model for my tastes. Exposing independent films is great, but it's still shit if you aren't going to make an effort to move away from the "Hollywood model".

There are regional restrictions, just like every other streaming service. If you are already in a "blessed region", you already have access to all the other services.

There is still the concept of renting, which is just another way of saying "DRM". You can "rent", but by doing so you are limited to viewing it in the way they dictate and for only a limited time. What's worse, some films only give you this option.

For me, that's sort of missing the entire point.

[watwut]

Would you provide links? I would be interested in them.

[doesnt_know]

Is there something specific you would like me to link? I'm really not exaggerating when I say the web is overflowing with this content. I could link some of the "big" names, but for every one there are dozens or hundreds of similar sites. It's never-ending, especially since almost every indie artist/dev promotes other indies.

https://bandcamp.com/

http://www.jamendo.com/

https://soundcloud.com/

http://freemusicarchive.org/

http://itch.io/

http://www.gog.com/

https://www.humblebundle.com/

http://www.indieroyale.com/

https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page

[narrator]

Don't forget http://www.ektoplazm.com/ . Completely free music, mostly psytrance and dance, 100s of cds worth, you can't even buy it if you wanted. Lots of it is very good. The business model for artists seems to be to release free music and get yourself promoted enough that you get invited to DJ at electronic music festivals. The record sales are total peanuts so why even bother. The site crowdfunds redesigns and such but mostly people work on it because they really like the music.

[deveac]

Don't forget http://grooveshark.com

Don't even need to restrict yourself to indie. I've got a Spotify Premium account that my wife sometimes hijacks to listen to at her business. Since you can only listen on one mobile device at a time, I'll just hop on Grooveshark if she stole Spotify. I've never not been able to find what I was looking for on Spotify on Grooveshark, and often it has songs in the catalog that Spotify does not.

[mpyne]

Beyond the other links, alt-music is out there and can be very good. E.g. http://www.ocremix.org/ (which makes free remixes of video game music, often in ways that add a ton of musical value above and beyond the track being covered).