Switchfoot Leaves Sony/Columbia--becomes an INDIE ARTIST!

In Short! Switchfoot is now independent!

This is great. They're probably the most popular indie band this year. This in the wake of :
:
1. Selling bootlegs during concerts and encouraging file sharing of bootlegs
2. Publicly rebelling against DRM (copy protection) on their previous album
3. Giving away "Meant To Live" as a free MP3 download,
4. Blogging for TWO YEARS,
5. Video podcasting (you didn't know??)
6. Having a coloring contest for the "Oh Gravity" Album Cover
7. Doing a cowbell ringing contest for 'Oh Gravity"
8. Making a new "Stars" video that showed Jerome (who's pinoy) more prominently
9. Launching "Oh Gravity" --- a video sharing site for people succumbing to gravity.
10. Making a fan blog Switchfeed part of its official site. Hi Phil!
11. Singing Beyonce's Crazy in Love because of the "Bling!".
12. And Finally coming to the Philippines!

Also great news: 13 new songs are already IN THE WORKS- -W/c we will HOPEFULLY HEAR in MANILA! You have your tickets already? Great! If not, pick a StreetTeam member from the list on the right or go on to TicketWorld now!

Times are sure exciting for Switchfoot.

The rest of the internet noticed too:
Christianity Today
Blogcritics.
Breathcast

From the Official Site:

greetings everybody!

I've got some exciting news: after several years of trying to make things work over at Columbia we have officially severed our ties with sony to pursue making music independently. We are thankful for the incredible success that our partnership has produced over the years, yet within this ever changing business there can arise differences in vision and goals. These differences have now come to a point where we feel like parting ways would be best for us, and best for sony.

As a hands-on band, we feel so grateful for our newfound freedom. We are continually dreaming up ways to bridge the gap between the audience and the stage; this feels like an incredible step in that direction. A huge thank you to bob, amy, nicole and tim over at columbia who were there from the beginning. We would also like to thank our musical family here in the states and abroad for sticking with us through these columbia years. We couldn't have done it without you!
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We'll have more information for you as things shape up. In the meantime, here are several projects already in the works for the next year:

four jon foreman solo ep's
(tentatively titled fall, winter, spring, and summer)
the real sean jon
(a collaboration between jon foreman and sean watkins of nickel creek fame)
a new switchfoot record in '08
(the first 13 tracks were cut this week!)