As part of its MusicTuesdays, YouTube posted a brief plug for DFTBA Records, describing the year-old record label that supports musicians on YouTube. As you might expect, these musicians understand that sharing their music on YouTube is one of the best promotional channels on the internet. So it’s not exactly shocking that DFTBA officially encourages anyone to use its music (ok, not all of its music, but most of it) in the background of other original YouTube videos — which is similar to Moby’s gratis license for independent films.

It’s good to see that DFTBA Records is yet another example in the music industry of a business that has picked up on connecting with fans, and it even has a built-in reminder with its name (Don’t Forget to Be Awesome) to keep its audience happy. Perhaps Warner Music can learn something from these artists: instead of going after fans to punish them, it’s better to be awesome and grow a fanbase. Especially since it’s becoming clearer every day that musicians can connect with fans on their own, and some artists are beginning to wonder what traditional labels really have to offer.

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