Blips
Maybe the panicked music industry execs were onto something in the early days of the mp3 era: they saw the future and it didn't include them.
In the name of "intellectual property rights" they tried very hard to stop the tsunami, and there's even a make-an-example case going on right now ("A US jury has ordered a 32-year-old woman to pay nearly two million dollars in damages for illegally downloading 24 songs over the Internet in a high-profile digital piracy case.").
Certain artists (Coldplay and Radiohead, for example) caught on quickly, and began offering downloads of their music for free - from their websites. (As long as you get lots of people to your site, there are still ways to monetize that activity.) Plus, even if you charge a nominal fee for pay-to-download from your site, you're going to end up making more money than if you go through normal channels.
But there's more.
Any number of websites allow users to "share" playlists - and discover new artists while they're at it.
Take Pandora for example. Pandora lets you enter the name of a song or artist you like, and it will search out others like that one for you (it searches on user tags and genres). In this way, you discover new artists who are likely to appeal to you as they have commonalities with an artist you already do enjoy.
We've talked about GarageBand before in this column, a site where listeners can create "stations" and become DJs; and where bands can post music to be discovered by DJs. And don't think it doesn't work - podcasters, for example, are very big on GarageBand and Podsafe Music, and by featuring a band on their podcast, get that band in front of the public. I listen to a podcast, hear a song I like, find the song, share it with friends... you get the picture.
Now here's another option: Blip.fm.
Sign up for Blip and become a DJ. Search out a song you like, and blip it. "A blip is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it. The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. Submitting a blip is also referred to as “blipping”, so from here on out, when you read “he blipped my favorite track” it means “he submitted a blip that had my favorite song attached”.
You can share music, embed it in your blog, and link your Twitter account to your blips.
I am a big fan of sharing music with people. If I find a song I like, I will usually direct friends to the YouTube version if there is one, or sometimes send an mp3 along. This is an even easier way to let people know about good music I've discovered - and I love it when they return the favor.
And what's really appealing in a anarchist sort of way is that all this happens on a grassroots level - no gatekeepers need apply. Musicians get heard, we discover and share music (and yes, I've taken to buying it via iTunes or right from the artists' sites), everybody is happy.
Everyone except that lonely music industry exec.
In the name of "intellectual property rights" they tried very hard to stop the tsunami, and there's even a make-an-example case going on right now ("A US jury has ordered a 32-year-old woman to pay nearly two million dollars in damages for illegally downloading 24 songs over the Internet in a high-profile digital piracy case.").
Certain artists (Coldplay and Radiohead, for example) caught on quickly, and began offering downloads of their music for free - from their websites. (As long as you get lots of people to your site, there are still ways to monetize that activity.) Plus, even if you charge a nominal fee for pay-to-download from your site, you're going to end up making more money than if you go through normal channels.
But there's more.
Any number of websites allow users to "share" playlists - and discover new artists while they're at it.
Take Pandora for example. Pandora lets you enter the name of a song or artist you like, and it will search out others like that one for you (it searches on user tags and genres). In this way, you discover new artists who are likely to appeal to you as they have commonalities with an artist you already do enjoy.
We've talked about GarageBand before in this column, a site where listeners can create "stations" and become DJs; and where bands can post music to be discovered by DJs. And don't think it doesn't work - podcasters, for example, are very big on GarageBand and Podsafe Music, and by featuring a band on their podcast, get that band in front of the public. I listen to a podcast, hear a song I like, find the song, share it with friends... you get the picture.
Now here's another option: Blip.fm.
Sign up for Blip and become a DJ. Search out a song you like, and blip it. "A blip is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it. The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. Submitting a blip is also referred to as “blipping”, so from here on out, when you read “he blipped my favorite track” it means “he submitted a blip that had my favorite song attached”.
You can share music, embed it in your blog, and link your Twitter account to your blips.
I am a big fan of sharing music with people. If I find a song I like, I will usually direct friends to the YouTube version if there is one, or sometimes send an mp3 along. This is an even easier way to let people know about good music I've discovered - and I love it when they return the favor.
And what's really appealing in a anarchist sort of way is that all this happens on a grassroots level - no gatekeepers need apply. Musicians get heard, we discover and share music (and yes, I've taken to buying it via iTunes or right from the artists' sites), everybody is happy.
Everyone except that lonely music industry exec.
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