Hi. As you may know by now, LyMe is an independent, DIY band that makes music mainly for the love and the fun of it and to share it with people who like and appreciate it (you, hopefully!). Once the band started becoming topic of discussion among many, we were often faced with questions on whether is it worth it or not to continue doing things ourselves (DIY) and keep to a minimum our participation in the (stale, unchanging and narrow-minded) corporate recording industry.
"But why?!!" You ask...

To keep it really short, because major labels (that is, any of the five major music distributors -EMI, Sony, Polygram, BMG and Warner- and their hundreds of major labels, that is, any record label distributed/financed by them) anywhere in the world will:

a) Force the musicians to change the music they play in order to suit the market and meet their corporate goals/interests, thus compromising the band's integrity.
b) Arrange contract deals that enslave and exploit the artist, maximising profits for the label and minimising money for the musicians.

Joe Kidd couldnt have said it better, as you are about to read later on in his publication: "The fairest way is of course to go DIY, take control and keep it fair. Its also a more humane, personal, participatory way of making and distributing things you love and uphold. There's a certain high level of dignity and goodness in the act. Most of all, it abolishes the imaginary walls between the "producers" and the "consumers". In short,it's beautiful. A dream job for all concerned."

And this is but the tip of the iceberg.

In this section Im going to share some of the valuable knowledge that me and the rest of the guys have been learning for the past few years and thus try to make this all a little easier to understand to all you non-DIYers out there and, hopefully, to get you into it too!