Record Labels. Landing one use to mean that you were a golden goose. Many artists are taking a note from Robin Hood's playbook, by giving the financial responsibility of producing music back to the people, and rejecting the totalitarian control over the creative aspects of producing music that record labels often bring.

Many mainstream artist, often inspired by the influence of hipster culture, are reclaiming their creative authority over their craft and using websites like www.artistsignal.com and www.kickstarter.com  to fund their CD production campaigns.

Over the past few decades, music has been produced using very expensive equipment in very expensive studios, meaning that a deep pocketed entity had to provide sponsorship. These record labels often do more than write a check; they exercise complete control over the creative process.

Artist John Mark McMillan explains the pressure and demands of the industry by stating on his blog, "The business that is created to support a vision begins to drive the vision itself. This is when things start to feel plastic and disingenuous. This is when things start to suck. This is when I checked out."

Artists have been fed-up with the control, pressures, and demands of record labels for years. Now, for the first time, its possible to self produce, and publicize, thanks to advances in technology that allow home recording to be a feasible solution to producing music, and the wild fire growth of social media. In today's market, being a social media maverick has as much to do with success, or more, than signing over your name and your life to a record label. Now, moving to a big music city in hopes that you get to play in the right bar, at the right time, is no longer the best strategy. Generating a home-grown following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and blogging spheres, then harnessing that following to fund a CD project, is now a feasible path to success.

McMillan recently pitched an idea to his fans using www.kickstarter.com. He would offer a series of incentives, from a signed CD to a dinner with him and his wife, for his fans to be a part of the next CD by making financial pledges. Within 3 days, his entire campaign was funded.

McMillan's Kickstarter campaign page reads, "We are momentarily not tied down to a specific record company. We've tossed around countless options looking ahead, but none seem as exciting as the possibility of doing this album with the people that we exist to serve. Instead of borrowing money from a corporation to fund this next project, we think it would be far more exciting if you guys would be our record label..."

We can expect this trend to continue, with indie artist and mainstream artists alike taking a second look at their, at times oppressive, relationship with many major record labels. Fans are stepping in the driver seat, along with the artists themselves.