The Independent

  Unlike an X-Factor winner, the career of an indie artist tends to go down quite a different route; Independent artist don't tend to get a huge amount of exposure overnight, there exposure is built over a period of time and are exposed to a certain market through means such as the internet, radio and magazines like NME. Gigging also plays a large part in the life of an indie band. For example, here is a clip of Indie rock band Arctic Monkeys;

The Arctic Monkeys are one of the first bands to receive exposure through the internet, starting a new way of promotion and marketing, as well as selling records. They first released demo's of their tracks on CD's which were handed around to local fans; these were then file shared over the internet to various people.

What an Independent artist also gets that a major label artist doesn't, is more freedom in what they can produce, Which is what I believe helps move the music industry along, producing new ideas and subcultures, and giving the audience more choice in what they can listen to. They also get more time to get a definable image together, for example when an X - Factor singer releases there first single they won't have any material to come after that, by which time people have moved on and forgotten about them, whereas an Indie band might have a couple of years worth of material to keep feeding their audience once they are established.

   There is always some debate about the credibility of an X - Factor style artist, due to the fact that they seem to get famous on the back other people's work. With an Indie band however, although they tend to draw influence from similar things and their style is not completely fresh, there is still more credibility in their work as they put the idea into their own individual perspective, whilst applying to a target market. The Independent artist seems like it can be an alright career path to go down, as it can be long lasting, the Arctic Monkeys still going strong with touring etc. with the the release of another album probably appearing in the future.