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Local bands creating music often have aspirations much higher than reality.
Grand visions of rocking the tour circuit, climbing the top sales album charts and filming videos destined for heavy rotation on MTV overshadow the more likely scenario of incurring debt after spending time in a studio recording a CD that only friends and family want to buy.
After realizing the magnitude of the various costs associated with recording and printing CDs, musicians Howie Howard and Cory Kibler decided it would be best to cut out the money factor as much as possible.
The result became Mr. Furious Records, an online-only label at www.mrfuriousrecords.com that shares the music of its artists free through a partnership with the Internet Archive.
So far, Mr. Furious has released 21 albums, both full-lengths and EPs, from musicians across multiple genres, including acoustic, metal, electronic and classical.
"The economics of working with the old system were stressful and overwhelming, and it was starting to make music not fun," said Howard, the label's curator. "We figured why not just offer the music for download on the Internet and cut out the money end, so that's what we did."
So far, all of the bands that have offered music through the site either include Howard and/or Kibler or are bands that feature close friends of either. Bands featured include Shacker, Robot, Creep Closer!, Katherine Lindhart and echoes.
Music files can be downloaded in either MP3 format or listened to online in a streaming format with a Flash media player. Of the label's 21 releases, 12 have been downloaded more than 1,000 times through the archive, with Shacker's "The Dimly Lit Room" garnering the most so far with more than 3,600 grabs. Listeners with an open ear can also catch a stream featuring one song from each of the label's releases.
Howard said most of the feedback he gets for the site comes in the form of people being linked to the site from external blog entries.
"Most of the reviews have come from Russia and Japan and only a few have been in English," Howard said. "I think it's cool to be able to have the physical product in hand because there's a personal connection, but then we wouldn't have people on the other side of the world listening to our music."
The site started as and continues to be a hobby for Howard, and Kibler said he considers himself a secondary partner who contributes as often as his help is requested.
Despite limiting the label's releases to friends thus far, Howard said he's open to the idea of promoting bands outside of his inner circle.
Kibler, a graduate philosophy student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said he was an advocate of the online-distribution model after spending money on local bands and not seeing a return on his repeated investments.
"Every band I've ever been in that pressed CDs and spent money on studio time ended up in the red," Kibler said. "Making money is not something that happens often with local bands."
Howard currently lives in Kansas City, Mo., and Kibler said when he can't find someone to record his music in Lincoln for a six-pack or a meal at a decent restaurant, he just packs up and visits his good buddy down in K.C.
"Howie has all the means necessary and he's a good engineer," Kibler said. "I'm happy that we took the stressful monetary aspect out of the loop.
"I mean, as a consumer, if you spend $10 for a local band CD and it's not very good, you're out $10. I'd rather people have the option of listening to the songs, and if they don't like them, they can just erase them from their hard drive."
jeremybuckely@dailynebraskan.com
