In our Musician’s Library features, we highlight books, articles and essays that can help musicians as they strive to earn a living from their music. Today, we feature some of our favorite recent online articles that you should consider adding to your library (virtual as that library may be)…

• Add the Counting Crows to the list of bands striking out on an independent path (and in our opinion, they are one act who could have done this several albums back and actually sold more albums than they were able to through their major label deal). In their words:
  

  …A lot of people think it’s a tough time to be a band, but we don’t feel that way. The internet opens a world of limitless possibility, where the only boundaries are the boundaries of your own imagination. We want a chance to push those boundaries back as far as we can…

  Amen.

  More details via hypebot, TechCrunch and the band’s official site.

• From The Phoenix New Times , beloved Alt-Country bible No Depression is back, but not as you were probably imagining it. The website continues with regular updates, but the real action is happening on the Ning site that the publishers have created, community.nodepression.com, where you will find not only everything that is on the more traditional site, but much, much more, including all the social goodness you would expect.  After exploring the community site that they have built for the last week or so, we’re sold–sign up and add me as a friend!
• Ian Heath has posted a brilliant article on how to hire the people who will work with you as a musician, whether it be a manager, publicist or accountant. If more musicians thought this way, more musicians would be earning a living from their music.
• If you have never heard of Ariel Publicity and Cyber PR, then you are truly missing out on an essential resource/service for independent musicians. Last week Ariel featured an excellent interview with Cory Dennis on how musicians should be using social media on her blog, as well as tips for getting involved. Check it out here or on the SXSW Ning site.