Re: <OFF-TOPIC>

["Stephen Goodman" <sgoodman@earthlight.net>]

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
>
>