Molly Neuman on the Evolution of Independent Music From the ’90s to Now: ‘It Was a High-Risk Business’

Releasing music has never been easier.

What is now completed with basically the click of a button via an online distribution service like DistroKid, CD Baby or TuneCore was once a laborious process of trying to convince local stores to stock your records on their shelves one by one.

“It was a high-risk business,” Molly Neuman , president of CD Baby, explains.

In the early 1990s, as a college student, Neuman formed the now-legendary Riot Grrrl outfit Bratmobile with her friends and navigated the difficulties of making music without major label resources.

Simply making a record back then was challenging enough with all the studio and manufacturing costs — let alone getting stores on board to carry it nationwide.

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“In many cases the records were returned.” On the latest episode of Billboard On the Record, Neuman joins the show to talk about the evolution of the independent music industry and how the challenges facing artists have shifted since her band got its start in Olympia, Wash., more than three decades ago.

To watch the episode, check out the YouTube video below or click here for more viewing and listening options.

An edited and condensed excerpt of the conversation can also be found below.

I want to start at the beginning of your career, when you were starting Bratmobile.

What did it mean to be an independent artist in practice in the early 1990s? What did you have to do to get those records out there? We were interested in playing music as friends, with our friends, and going to shows.

The easiest way to go to a show was to play one.

It was really more about community, being inspired by our peers and people we admired, and wanting to do what we saw them doing.

Because we were women, we were also motivated by the fact that we didn’t see as many women onstage or putting on shows, even though we knew they were there.