Back in 2002, music journalist Veronika Kalmar estimated a small record label could be started and operated for about three years with a little over $30,000 including release of three albums at a cost of maybe $6,000 each plus the usual overhead.

Today, just four years later, I think she may be off by just about the whole amount given the technical innovations available as a result of the digital revolution and some creative bootstrapping.

For this post, we'll pass over the many ways traditional overhead in any business can be reduced with the bootstrapping ethic since they are covered in great detail on a regular basis in this blog.

Instead, consider the ways in which the music production, manufacturing and marketing processes have been transformed by the ever evolving application of digital technology.

With a simple digital music recorder like this one a variety of acoustic music performances can be recorded, downloaded and burned via a writable disc drive.

The finished product can then be shipped to one of an emerging breed of on demand printers like Café.com or Lulu.com at no cost to the producer until after a CD is purchased.

Create a blog for the artist or release (one man band Brad Sucks has the idea), and voila, you're in business. (DJ's or musicians with access to digital recording equipment should be ahead of the game on this because they can easily create a digital music product)

We created IndieTune back in early July to be a hub for such an emerging community of micro labels but to date the effort has frankly failed to set the world on fire.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the expertise necessary to create such a vibrant new industry lies in disparate camps who so far have failed to interact much.

Sean Savage gives some notion of the cultural leaning of the average code monkey in this amusing explanation of the origin of his memorable domain name.

Sean's company PlaceSite.com is developing a unique brand of wireless local network currently in place in a handful of San Francisco area cafes (probably one of the few environments in which the worlds of computer geeks and musicians intersect)

Similarly musicians who have finally abandoned their precious analog production methods seem to often opt for the highest end (read "bells and whistles") digital recording equipment imaginable shunning the bootstrap approach as below their dignity.

Meanwhile those of us who believe in a music industry without million dollar record deals or indie's struggling to survive only to be swallowed up by vast conglomerates will persevere.

And those interested in reading more about how the mainstream music industry is working to build the bridge from the other side can proceed to the next post.