From M/Cyclopedia of New Media
- The Internet and its promotional prospects offer artists an opportunity to receive a larger cut of the profits, due to greater control and lower production and distribution costs:
- That is potentially the biggest single advantage of the Internet: the ability to potentially reach millions of people, worldwide, easily and without having to shell out a huge amount of money (Hustwit, 1997:5).
- Even with the Internet and lower production and circulation expenses, indie artists without the backing of a label, still face the obstacle of getting their music heard and getting paid for their work.
- In the 21st Century of the Internet and peer-to-peer file-sharing, being an independent artist does not necessarily mean an artist will have to give away their music for free.
- Independent musicians can not only sell CDs, mp3 recordings and merchandise online through their website, but also receive revenue through new music distribution services such as Weed Files (http://www.weedfiles.com ) and online record stores.
- Weed Files offers one of the largest selections of independent music on the Internet and encourages legit downloading and respect for artist rights.
- Established in 2003, Weed Files is managed by Shared Media Licensing Incorporated, a company established in a bid to resolve illegal downloading issues, and aims to “turn music fans onto great new tunes [and] give independent artists the money they deserve� (http://www.weedfiles.com/faq ).
- It uses a new digital music file format called ‘Weed’, which is about the same size as an mp3 file, promising to soon revolutionise the music industry. With Weed files, listeners can download songs to their computer and listen to it up to three times. They can then choose to pay for the song and burn it to disc, transfer it to a player and share it with other fans or merely disregard the file. The artist receives half of sales and listeners receive a cut of sales of songs they share, encouraging the distribution of files.
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http://www.weedfiles.com/modules/DistributeWeed/images/weed_distribution.gif
Image and caption retrieved from Weed Files (http://www.weedfiles.com )
- http://weedfiles.com/modules/DistributeWeed/images/bullet_green.gif The artist always gets 50% of every sale
http://weedfiles.com/modules/DistributeWeed/images/bullet_blue.gif [Listeners] get 20% for passing around your files
http://weedfiles.com/modules/DistributeWeed/images/bullet_yellow.gif The [previous] person who shared the file with [the listener] gets 10%
http://weedfiles.com/modules/DistributeWeed/images/bullet_red.gif The person who shared the file with [the previous listener] gets 5%
http://weedfiles.com/modules/DistributeWeed/images/bullet_orange.gif Weed receives the final 15% for service and software maintenance costs.
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- Artists pay five US dollars per song annually to upload their music for download on the Weed Files site and extra features such as album art and full-length reviews are available for additional costs. The sale price of the song, usually between fifty-cents to one US dollar, is set by the artist.
- Weed Files is an ideal means of revenue for indie artists as only non-exclusive digital rights for songs are signed, which still leaves them with options to sign to a record label or sell the exclusive rights to the song.
- An artist’s chances of being offered a major record contract can also increase with success on WeedFiles.com:
- If you hit up a label and can verify 30,000 paid downloads, you are well on your way to inking a deal (http://www.weedfiles.com/faq )
- Not only can indie artists earn money from legal file-sharing through WeedFiles.com, but they can control music distribution and promotion through this do-it-yourself and pay-as-you-go service with minimal upfront fees.
- Weed has been introduced in Australia through OzMusicWeed (http://www.ozmusicweed.com ), run by North Queensland label Pandamonium Records. Accredited by the Weed’s US parent company, the site only accepts Australian music and ‘weedifies’ indie songs free of charge. In addition to similar features as the US service, OzMusicWeed also offers a gig guide listing and a discussion forum.
- Revenue for independent music can also be generated from online record stores such as CDRevolution (http://www.cdrevolution.com ) and CDBaby (http://www.cdbaby.net ), which not only sell indie music to a global market, but also promote artists by creating a webpage for them with soundclips and reviews. They also offer tips for musicians and links to various useful resources such as touring and promotion information.
- Often with a minimal one-off registration charge, artists can send their CDs to these online stores and receive around 75% of sale on a commissioned basis, without restrictive contracts and exclusivity.
- As with WeedFiles.com, the artist chooses the selling price of his/her CD on CDBaby and can receive cheques for sales up to once a week. CDBaby will even sell a band’s CD-R home recording “as long as it looks good�, opening the door for bands with even the most simple and limited resources (http://www.cdbaby.net.submit/ ).
- With a growing number of online services such as Weed Files and net-based record stores devoted to indie music, independent artists have the opportunity to earn revenue and make a living from their musical works, without being signed to a major label.
Christelle Tan 04:58, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)
RELATED TOPICS
LINKS
REFERENCES
- Hustwit, G. (1997). The Musicians Guide to the Internet: The Guide to Getting You (And Your Music Online), USA: Rockpress Publishing ISBN 0793566983<p>
Christelle Tan 05:16, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)
