Independent versus indentured creators

What kind of deals should creators be striking with publishers, record labels and other intermediaries in an environment where their work is increasingly distributed digitally? What does it really mean to be 'independent' or 'unsigned' in terms of the licences you agree for your work to be copied?

I thought Andrew Dubber made a good distinction at the MusicTank debate here in London a couple of days ago, when he reacted strongly against the use of the term 'unsigned'. As he pointed out, if, as an artist or band, you sign up to the terms for having a profile page on MySpace, Bebo or Facebook, then you have literally 'signed' a licence agreement for the songs you upload there — and you can't strictly call yourself unsigned any more.

Instead Andrew suggest a distinction between the creators who license their work on a non-exclusive basis to multiple intermediaries — these he calls 'independent' — and those who sign over more exclusive rights in return for an upfront advance that they then have to earn back — these he calls 'indentured'. I think this is a useful way of thinking about the choices open to creators.

To give a concrete example of how it applies, Andrew is himself 'independent' in that he is self-publishing his own (free and very useful) e-book 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online — and he reported (I think) 75,000 downloads to date. By contrast, I am 'indentured' because I took an advance from the publisher of my book in return for granting them an exclusive licence to publish it. (I chose this route for several reasons, one being that I don't think I have the publishing skills that Andrew has exhibited.)

At this point you may detect a slightly cheesy bit of mutual back-scratching, and I guess I have to plead guilty (though this wasn't a conspiracy and Andrew wasn't in on it), because he has also been kind enough to give my book a plug over on his blog. (And, as you can see, while he had a camera on hand to take a slightly frightening close up of me, I've had to make do with Andrew's regular publicity photo.)