I am looking to get the total number of indie musicians (bands
or solo artists) in the US and internationally as separate totals - i.e. size
of the market. I would need some supporting data (links to stats,
articles, etc.) where the #s are validated.

hi sir
please check on this links 
i think u gor what u want about indie bands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_music
http://www.indie-music.com/index.php
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kennethdrury/smallindie6.htm
http://indiehq.com/

thanx

check here too
http://www.countrywesternbands.com/
http://www.indiemusic.ca/home/Resources/

That would be hard to calculate. I am presuming you mean "indie" as in
not signed to a record label? Myspace (at the top of the heap of sites
for musicians) says it has 3 million bands and artists as of September
2006, but that is the total of unsigned and signed artists. You would
then need to deduct a number for the duplicate fan sites and multiple
profiles that are set up by some. Of the millions of regular profiles,
there are also a number of bands that signed up with a regular profile
and not the music profile and are struggling with how to it roll over.
And the numbers would not reflect USA musicians to international.

<a href="http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3426867&fSectionId=425&fSetId=251">MySpace's
unsigned hype</a>

In many music forums across the net, you run into a good many folks
that don?t care for Myspace and are complete DIY?rs and prefer their
own path.

There are a LOT of sites that offer indie profiles and boast a large
number of members. You could rummage this list of sites to perhaps get
an idea of the volume.

<a href="http://www.artistopia.com">artistopia.com</a> Artist Development
<a href="http://www.bandmix.com">bandmix.com</a>
<a href="http://www.bandspace.com">bandspace.com</a>
<a href="http://www.betarecords.com">betarecords.com</a>
<a href="http://www.broadjam.com">broadjam.com</a>
<a href="http://www.indie911.com">indie911.com</a>
<a href="http://www.indieonestop.com">indieonestop.com</a>
<a href="http://www.isound.com">isound.com</a>
<a href="http://www.myspace.com">myspace.com</a>
<a href="http://www.mp3.com">mp3.com</a>
<a href="http://www.mp3unsigned.com">mp3unsigned.com</a>
<a href="http://www.music.dmusic.com">music.dmusic.com</a>
<a href="http://www.purevolume.com">purevolume.com</a>
<a href="http://www.soundclick.com">soundclick.com</a>
<a href="http://www.talentmatch.com">talentmatch.com</a>
<a href="http://www.ubl.com">ubl.com</a>
<a href="http://www.unsignedbandweb.com">unsignedbandweb.com</a>
<a href="http://www.unsignedtalents.com">unsignedtalents.com</a>

At our site, <a href="http://www.artistopia.com">Artistopia</a> we
also see band breakups, profiles changed, readd another band later
with a new name, solo projects, etc. It's a very fluid number, but
with the ease of actually creating a CD of work and getting it online
and heard worldwide today, the total number of indie and unsigned
bands and artists is inclining...most definitely.