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Well, their website doesn't offer free Mp3's, but their music was once quite available on the late mp3.com (before the remake), and they've got a myspace page (yeah, it's myspace... but still) with music and videos etc. The cool thing, though, is that they send you a free (yes free, including shipping) disc if send a request through their website. I remember sending through the request last year and then forgetting about it, only to be very pleasantly surprised when a demo disk (I think it had somewhere between 5 and 7 songs, which is decent) arrived.

They're a good band, so I recommend checking them out on their website. Don't be cheap though, if you get the demo disc and really like it - try and hit a tour (if you're a European or in the area) or buy a CD.

It would seem that the music publishers/distributors, record companies, whatever you want to call them, are shafting the artists right royally and are just throwing their toys out of the pram because they can see their gravy train ride coming to an end!

From the other end of the argument comes Sellaband who have setup a method for indepent artists to reach a wide audience of believers who can choose to buy parts in the production of a CD in advance (others have done this before off their own bat, like Marillion, and I thing Dodgy did it too!). The difference here is that a bunch of music industry savvy people have gathered together to offer a real alternative. Sellaband also only tie the artist in for the first year after the CD is created, so rights to the music is returned to the artist and they can choose to stick with Sellaband or decide to move on elsewhere.

OK, I am a Sellaband Believer myself, and I have believed in a number of the artists, most of whom I don't know. Artists from around the world, one of which, Cubworld, has made the $50K and is in the process of making his first album!

Marillion allowed people to download (for a small fee, 'cause it was an expensive proposition) the separate tracks (and alternates), including unprocessed vocals, for their Anaraknophobia album back in 2000, and took the best remixes from the fans and released them as Remixomatosis a couple of years later.

...as Marillion had a successful project like this a few years ago which given the scope was much more ambitious: http://www.marillion.com/remix/index.htm

And there is always Plunderphonics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plunderphonics which does not exactly apply here, but does bear some mention in terms of principle motivations.

Marillion did the same thing to a whole album (Anoraknophobia) as a competition a few years back and released the best remixes as the CD Remixomatosis (and the nearly-best-remixes as a "free" fan club CD). Winners also got cash prices, and many of the remixes sound really, really excellent.

Marillion did the same thing to a whole album (Anoraknophobia) as a competition a few years back and released the best remixes as the CD Remixomatosis (and the nearly-best-remixes as a "free" fan club CD). Winners also got cash prices, and many of the remixes sound really, really excellent.

Indeed. Wish I could find my copies of that.

Also, in 2003, Marillion ran a competition to remix tracks from their album Anoraknophobia and the winning tracks ended up a CD, though you had to pay for the source material to enter it.

http://www.marillion.com/remix/index.htm

So given this, what to do? The answer is to make people pay in advance.

I'm not a fan of theirs, but Marillion's business model is interesting.. They're not exactly A-list, but seem to be doing OK for themselves, with their recordings & tours financed by their fans. And there's no making people pay. The fans want more product, and happily stump up the money for production. Subscribers get their copy of the new releases, plus subscriber-only extras. And, most useful of all to the band, a sense of ownership, so they won't blithely download the albums without paying. And the band can negotiate much better (fairer) contracts with distribution companies, once the die-hard subscriber fans have had their special edition CDs.

Marillion did this more than 3 years ago

It's an old epic (17min) Marillion song. Lifting heavily from Genesis and Rush.

What Marillion song is THAT lyric from?

And the model presented (in such a long winded way) is even proven to work! The band marillion has used the method described by crosbie to fund a tour and at least one new album. See this article for more details. I realize they're an exception for now, but couldn't more bands use this method to achieve success and bypass the RIAA?

I don't know if anyone here is familiar with the band Marillion, but they were able to cut out the record companies and self-finance their latest album with pre-order sales via their web site - proof if anyone needed it that the RIAA et. al. are not stricty necessary to artists' success. Here's the press release.

Marillion is releasing their next album with no help from any labels. They are supporting it with pre-sales to fans. They took a chance in trying this, and the fans came through and MArillion has the capitol to get working. Look here for the details.

If you don't want to buy a CD, then don't. From my perspective, some of my CDs have given me so much joy that (retrospectively) they're worth 10 times what I paid for them. Others I could happily live without. But that's a risk I take buying a CD. In the UK I'm paying up to £16 in the shops. If I don't want to take that risk then I wait for it to go on sale.

But I'm not being exploited. I think there are many many more people in the world being exploited than music fans, and music artists for that matter. They now have the means to make music and distribute themselves given the web (see the Marillion web site and their initiative for their next album.

On the subject of giving away software, I do that. But the stuff I give away has been stuff that I've built as a consequence of doing other work. I don't buy music that's been generated as an aside.

Why a single patron? Here is an example of a group with a big back catalog and established fan base, leveraging that fanbase as one big virtual patron to avoid having to sign another record deal. I guess we won't know whether it worked until December (I'm not a fan myself,) but it seems like an interesting experiment.

I came across an interesting idea last week at marillion.com. They're pre-selling their next album online to raise the money to record it that would normally be put up by a record label.

For those unfamiliar with them, Marillion is a progressive rock band from the UK. They've been around for a while (early 80's) so they've developed a fairly large fan base and can afford to do this. They still plan to sign a distribution contract so that the album will be available in stores, but by raising the money to do the recording themselves they will be able to own all of the rights to the music.

Seems like a good idea to me. I wonder if we might see more already successful bands going this route if it works. The only unfortunate thing is that it won't work for new bands who need to get their music out there to be heard.

You can order Marillion's new CD from the link above (I've ordered mine). It's a little expensive with the exchange from the UK, but if you order by July 31 you'll get your name in the liner notes. That sold me :)

I came across an interesting idea last week at marillion.com. They're pre-selling their next album online to raise the money to record it that would normally be put up by a record label.

For those unfamiliar with them, Marillion is a progressive rock band from the UK. They've been around for a while (early 80's) so they've developed a fairly large fan base and can afford to do this. They still plan to sign a distribution contract so that the album will be available in stores, but by raising the money to do the recording themselves they will be able to own all of the rights to the music.

Seems like a good idea to me. I wonder if we might see more already successful bands going this route if it works. The only unfortunate thing is that it won't work for new bands who need to get their music out there to be heard.

You can order Marillion's new CD from the link above (I've ordered mine). It's a little expensive with the exchange from the UK, but if you order by July 31 you'll get your name in the liner notes. That sold me :)