Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
I dunno if ascerbism is a proper response to this... The MP3 market is in its infancy at this time, and anyone who works with or for a music company will tell you that They're scared to death of their own limited idea of what MP3 "is". Eventually they'll wake up though, and we'll all discover at some point that "free" will eventually mean "promotional", with the intention of being able to lure listeners into being purchasers. I don't think ANY artist/musician would be in love with the idea of never getting paid for the work they do, much less the art they produce. And I believe that the idea of all this being Free Forever is so Beyond Realistic (and I don't mean Radio Shack) that some folks are going to wake up more abruptly than others. However! MP3 as a format is a bit of a "future format", in that everyone (that is, people outside the music industry and T1/T3 lines) doesn't yet have the kind of high-speed access to make such downloads a constant habit. In the future no doubt this will change. But for now, I consider it a viable way of shaking up the Status Quo, in a positive way. Most methods to shake things up in the past have only offered the "shake", but not something to potentially replace music publishing/handling as we know it. MP3 might then be seen as the tip of a peninsula, whose breadth and width are ultimately unknown, especially since much of the established music industry has been looking at it from afar, as an adversary, instead of a viable medium for distribution. It's only recently that the "listeners-to-purchasers" stream has become other than an amateur path as far as they're concerned, but there's still no real commitment on their part - so there's still room for folks like us to push boundaries, and otherwise create and distribute our own art, agents, managers, and other aging cigar-chompers notwithstanding. I've posted two MP3's myself on the UBL system http://www.ubl.com - and have gotten a good deal of feedback, mostly on the level of "where's the CD?" - to the extent that, by the end of this year, I intend to release a CD finally. I recall comments by Francis Ford Coppola on this level, regarding video (which I'm also working on for web release!); and I still feel a bit warm inside when I think of him saying "...and one of these days, sometime soon, some little girl will pick up her father's camcorder... and blow this whole idea of 'professionalism' away once and for all..." While it might not exactly happen this way, most established folks in the music and film industry (that is those who've been there for longer than a few years, the ones in power per se) are beginning to think of it this way, which only fuels the fire in this regard. And that, too, is good for us, fellow loopers. Out of Chaos heroes are often seen from unexpected venues - but this makes them heroes/heroines no less. Subvert the Dominant Paradigm, YES. But be prepared to have something great to fill the void once you've done it. Stephen Goodman * It's the free Loop Of The Week! EarthLight Productions * http://www.earthlight.net/Studios.html * (Hear the NEW "Star Spangled Banner" here!) ----- Original Message ----- From: american qabalah <american@qabalah.com> To: <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 12:08 Subject: Re: <OFF-TOPIC> > If I were you I'd stick with free song downloads and selling the physical CDs. > Why would I want to pay money to download an audio file from your site when I > can get ten gazillion of them for free from MP3.com? "Because our songs are > better" isn't enough incentive for me. Bonus GIF downloads of >psychedelic > mushroom hunting maps in central texas? Maybe. > > Most of the band sites I come across give free one-minute-or-so samples >of > most of their songs, and maybe one or two full-length songs as freebies. > What's wrong with that? > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Anthony Mullen <anthony.mullen@KSCL.com> > To: <Loopers-Delight-d@annihilist.com>; <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com> > Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 7:46 AM > Subject: <OFF-TOPIC> > > > > Guys, > > > > Looking for advice on hosting downloads and managing sales of the > > independant label I'm in. > > > > The script is : > > - we are a label comprising of three artists > > - we don't want our own website clogged up with a sales pitch, money > > transaction, download hassle > > - we would like to sell physical CDs AND we would also like to make charged > > song downloads available > > - we don't want to pay for the hosting service (other than a %age of >the > > music cost) > > > > MP3.com seems to offer this - are there any hidden catches with us >being a > > label? > > > > Also - who else hosts music for free (or a moderate cost if need be) ? > > > > Hope you can help > > Anthony > >