Doing a research on netlabels. Share your thoughts. Discuss.

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 11:09 pm

luke wails.

i make art which i get very little money from

i have a real world job that allows me the freedom to make art that i get very little money from

i agree with everybody

Dr. Zoiberg · Post by **Dr. Zoiberg** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:15 am

What about a label like Foundsound and it's free digital version, Unfoundsound?

dm · Post by dm » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:25 am

tomperson, if you are interested in researching net labels you might get something out of this. its an academic research paper dedicated to the trend in free net-released music, and its very good.
http://www.c3.hu/~bram/Netlabels_and_Open_Content.pdf

Anubis · Post by **Anubis** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:20 am

I represent a netlabel featuring artists that normally give their music away for free, Occassionally, when we make a commercial compilation, we give the money from sales away to charity- no profitting.

Emissary · Post by **Emissary** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:35 am

Anubis wrote:I represent a netlabel featuring artists that normally give their music away for free, Occassionally, when we make a commercial compilation, we give the money from sales away to charity- no profitting.

I like that

not a bad idea

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:46 am

mosca wrote:luke wails.

i make art which i get very little money from

i have a real world job that allows me the freedom to make art that i get very little money from

i agree with everybody

Indeed, most of us have to go through the 8 hour thing in order to pay the bills and satisfy the pandemic gearlust that affects electronic music community.

At least we can do what we want without some rep of a *big* record company telling us that "livin la vida loca" is the best next thing, hehehehe.

Congrats for your track featured on DJ Mag compilation!

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:47 am

dm wrote:tomperson, if you are interested in researching net labels you might get something out of this. its an academic research paper dedicated to the trend in free net-released music, and its very good.
http://www.c3.hu/~bram/Netlabels_and_Open_Content.pdf

Thanks a lot, exactly the kind of material i was looking for!

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:52 am

Anubis wrote:I represent a netlabel featuring artists that normally give their music away for free, Occassionally, when we make a commercial compilation, we give the money from sales away to charity- no profitting.

Incredible spirit.

Do we all agree then that making money out of records is something we don't expect / we are not actively looking for? Do we agree then that *if* money comes, it will be from live gigs? How are you dealing with economical issues?

krank · Post by **krank** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:35 pm

I feel there's just something missing in this discussion of CC and free net labels. I've tried to voice it before it this thread, but will make this last try:

On one hand we have serious artists with the need to make a living like everyone else.

On the other hand we have a growing concept of not paying for music.

Do you see a problem here? Don't you see that the more popular CC becomes - no matter how idealistically 'right' it is - the harder it will be to get people to pay for music?

Don't tell me that anyone becomes a better artist from having to work some more or less meaningless dayjob (this, in my opinion, includes soundscoring commercials).

Do you believe we should rely on government subsidies? Even if that was possible, would it increase the quality of artistic output?

Do you believe we should try and make a living from playing live? What about those whose material simply CAN NOT be played live?

Okay, you say - so those who prefer the old copyright method of distribution will still have the freedom to do so. But people are getting used to getting stuff for FREE at the click of a mouse. Copyrighted music will be increasingly stigmatised, seen as materialistic and outdated. 'Dude - you think I should PAY to listen to your music? Like, come on, man!'.

We'll be segregated into hobbyists and commercialists.

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:58 pm

Yea, I make my living from music, so giving it away isn't an option for me. Besides, why should I need to give away someting that I've spent a lot of time creating? Unless it's in the interest of promotion. I disagree that the culture of not paying for music is that strong as a lot of people are starting to buy their music on the net.

krank · Post by **krank** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:05 pm

jahnlay wrote:I disagree that the culture of not paying for music is that strong as a lot of people are starting to buy their music on the net.

A lot of people are starting to buy their music on the net INSTEAD of traditional media (CDs, vinyl). The total revenue from music sales is down.

The CC/free net label culture is not that strong yet, but fast increasing.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:01 pm

Well, that's probably the weaker part of this scheme, how to make a living out of music, otherwise, there won't be professional musicians, and that would surely affect the quality of the stuff that goes out there. Most papers on netlabels correctly state that for niche electronic music, making a living out of selling limited (1000/1500) releases is anyway impossible, so that shouldn't make a change for electronic musicians. This question I guess is more adequate when it comes to mainstream music (rock, pop, whatever)...Anyway, it's up to the community of artists to come with a solution.

But let's be realistic. The netlabel/creative commons movement will only grow in the years to come, so having a negative attitude (such as the way music industry reacted to p2p and such in the 90s) towards it don't seem like a constructive approach to the problem.

What do you think?

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:16 pm

Okay, you say - so those who prefer the old copyright method of distribution will still have the freedom to do so. But people are getting used to getting stuff for FREE at the click of a mouse. Copyrighted music will be increasingly stigmatised, seen as materialistic and outdated. 'Dude - you think I should PAY to listen to your music? Like, come on, man!'.

ok, what i'm getting from this is - no it wont

what it will do is stop people having to fork out £15.00 for a cd with 2 great tracks and 10 shit fillers.

i dont buy that many CD's anymore for the plain simple reason that there's nothing out there that i want to buy. Boards of Canada was the last cd i bought and that was months ago. All of my music needs get taken care of from net labels (like my own) that give away all of our music for free. I chose to give my art away for free, you may not. doesn't mean to say yours is better than mine just because you charge money for it.

pipe dream, but what i'd like to see happening is the facility to pay the artist directly for their music. pay pal BoC £10.00 direct for an album, no middle man, no artist getting screwed by label.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:57 pm

mosca wrote: pipe dream, but what i'd like to see happening is the facility to pay the artist directly for their music. pay pal BoC £10.00 direct for an album, no middle man, no artist getting screwed by label.

I think this whole issue goes way deeper than we think. Internet has changed the model that we are used to. In the real/analog world we exchange money for goods. Everything has a price. On the internet, we see a growing number of services given away for free. Would you even imagine making phone calls for free? Nope. Yet, free email is taken for granted nowadays. Would you even imagine a lawyer doing some work for you for free? Nope. Yet, you have enormous communities developing ENTIRE operating systems and application for nothing.

THIS IS A MAJOR SHIFT. We are starting to use services, download music, and lots of other activities without being asked anything in exchange. I don't think this has happened before in human history.

And the idea of paypal...I think it's great. Many artists do that. People is willing to give you money for support if the product is good i think, but that's just a hunch, not anything that can be backed up with real data.

What's your netlabel, mosca?

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 8:26 pm

retropublik.com