Streaming music online hasn't proven very successful for independent labels, which has sent many scampering to television networks in hopes of creating breakout hits.
The end of the dream of breaking a new act online came when digital music company Riffage.com folded last year. Riffage was the biggest -- and last -- of the high-profile businesses set up to stream videos and live concerts, following the earlier shutdowns of Spinrecords.com and Clubcastlive.com.
With few outlets left to promote and sell independent music on a mass scale online, cable networks stepped into the void left by the digital music crash. After several missteps, the Burly Bear college cable network recently signed a deal with the Turner Broadcasting System to syndicate its half-hour music show Half Baked.
Unlike digital music companies that tried to support bands with no major-label affiliation, the Burly Bear network is working with bands like Uncle Kracker and Tenacious D that have the backing of large corporations.
But the network struggles to walk the line between promoting breaking bands and shilling for the major record labels and losing credibility.
"Our mandate is to bring TBS a younger, hipper audience and not to suddenly make a TBS version of themselves," Ted Jessup, Burly Bear's director of programming, said. "We're very mindful of what happened with Farmclub, and that debacle is why we tried to make the new shows more intimate and not all things to all people."
The "sellout" tag is one that industry celebrities are very serious about avoiding. When former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield decided to host the Farmclub.com music television show that featured Universal Music Group acts, fans were taken aback. His loyalty to the independent music community was questioned.
At the College Media Journal music festival in New York City in October, Pinfield's story was repeatedly told as a cautionary tale for people trying to straddle the line between the major labels and underground credibility with music fans.
Of course, without advertising revenues coming in, many new music television shows might be facing a short life on air. In the current economic climate, even the most successful music television network is facing massive budget cutbacks.
On Monday, MTV Networks laid off 450 employees -- 9 percent of its workforce -- due to declining revenues. The firings were spread out across all the network's properties, which include music channels MTV and VH1, along with Nickelodeon and TNN.
MTV's parent company Viacom -- which owns CBS and the Paramount movie studio along with other media properties -- reported a net third-quarter loss of $190.4 million.
Despite the challenges of developing profitable programming around music in the United States, England's Association of Independent Music is sticking entirely to indie rock artists with its new show. AIM, a consortium of 550 independent record labels in England, is developing a television showcase for its bands set to air sometime next year.
No release date for the show has been set, but independent music traditionally does better overseas than in America, which gives the producers hope. In October, nearly a quarter of the top 40 singles were by independent musicians.
Still, AIM hasn't completely given up on the Internet as a source for music distribution. It's just that the group doesn't believe it's the best -- or only -- way.
"The idea is for this to be a new music television series that will be a cross-medium venture, including the use of the Internet," said Sam Shemtob, an AIM spokesman.
Promoting and selling independent music online was largely considered the key to riches several years ago, as the MP3 phenomenon swept across the Internet. Musicians suddenly had the capability of recording, encoding and uploading their music to fans anywhere in the world.
As more people went online however, the glut of music became so great that niche music was pushed off to the side. That sent businesses originally designed to help indie rockers get their music online scrambling for new revenue models.
Streaming software application developer Eveo nearly went under trying to create and promote indie rock videos. When the company launched, the plan was to create a network of independent filmmakers and musicians that could work together to make videos.
Executives realized that a lack of revenues would eventually bankrupt the company, said Kim Knoller, Eveo's vice president of music.
So, the company turned to developing a business application that corporations could use to develop internal streaming videos and e-cards. Having left music videos behind, Eveo turned a profit this year.
While a majority of businesses have left independent music, there are a few intrepid companies looking for new ways to attract eyeballs.
A group of seven friends in Los Angeles have stumbled on a tried-and-true form of promotion they hope will attract people to BlankTV.com: porn.
Alongside its 200 punk and hardcore videos, the site has videos from Teri Weigel and other adult film stars who have put out albums. So far, response to the site has been rather lukewarm, but that doesn't bother the co-founder Eddie Sunset.
"People are going to want to see this, even though there isn't too much that's over the top on the site," Sunset said.
AP contributed to this report.
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