• The New York Times, Thursday, September 29, 2011 10 AM

Scion, which has focused on music over the years with its Scion A/V project, has backed indie bands to make recordings and videos since the Toyota division's inception. It has put on hundreds of concerts around the country. One recent show at L.A.'s Roxy cost about $10,000. It supports heavy metal and garage-rock bands, as well as obscure dance subgenres like dubstep and moombahton (a style loosely related to reggaetón).

"My goal is for Scion to stand out as a corporation that gets behind the music community -- not the entire music community -- and for the brand to represent the feeling that everybody gets something," says Jeri Yoshizu, Scion's manager of sales promotions. "Scion gets something out of it, the kids get something out of it, the artists get something out of it. It's not just one way."

This month, Scion A/V released music by the Los Angeles D.J. and producer Dâm-Funk, and the Singapore grindcore band Wormrot. The company paid all recording costs and is giving the music away to fans, and the acts retain ownership of their music. On Wednesday and Thursday, Scion will host its second "Music(less) Music Conference" in Hollywood, with about 70 panelists, including Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and the producers Prince Paul and Mark Ronson.

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