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https://www.sellaband.com/ have been doing this for years already . great site !

e.g. http://www.sellaband.com/

It took Public Enemy about a month to get to the $60,000 mark on SellaBand. I think it would take a little longer to raise $60 million :-)

Looks exactly like the SellABand model, but for games.

Actually, I think it makes more sense for games than for music. Studio time may be expensive -- for that matter, so is making a living -- but compare that to the cost of feeding a team of programmers for a year.

Waiting to be modded down by people who know more about music than I do. (No sarcasm there -- this is just armchair speculation. Move along.)

A serious question, and not an attempt to troll: has anyone actually done it that way, successfully?

Sellaband implements a model that's similar, but not quite the same. On their store page, it looks like there have been 21 albums produced with their model so far.

What I like most about Sellaband is that it's a social, community-oriented site. It's not just a place to type in your credit card number (like Fundable), it's a place for fans to discover new music and artists to connect with their fans.

What I don't like is that they're only using fan funding to pay for album production costs (at a fixed price of $50k or $100k), rather than including profit. Artists are still expected to make their profit by selling copies (only one track per album is free). There's no room on Sellaband for an artist who has a guitar and a laptop, doesn't need to rent a studio, doesn't have 13 tracks in mind, but wants to make a couple hundred bucks by recording one or two songs.

My dream site would look a lot like Sellaband, except (1) the artist would choose his own price and project format, (2) the artist would have the option of doing his own production and keeping the money, (3) the finished tracks would all be released for free public download, and if the artist wants more money he can sell merchandise, request donations, or start a new project.

Still, even though the model is slightly different, I think the fact that they've gotten fans to fund album production to the tune of over a million dollars (plus whatever they've collected for artists that haven't yet met the goal) is strong evidence that an up-front funding model can work.

Why would they? There's not a single piece of evidence to suggest they would. Throughout history, only the rich have commissioned artists and writers to create works. [...] People don't pay to have cultural works created. They just don't. They never have.

Government endowments for the arts. Public radio and television. Netroots-funded political campaign ads. Sellaband.

Right... sort of like.. I don't know, maybe giving them a few bucks for their *current* work, to allow them to create the next one.

What makes you so sure there's going to be a next one? If their current work ends up being their last work, do I get a refund? How do I know I'm not just wasting money on a copy that I could've gotten elsewhere for free?

There are multiple alternatives here are some suggestions (and there are lots more than this out there).

If you just want to listen try http://last.fm/ for streaming music of artists that you like (if you scrobble it's easier to find artists that sound like artists you like as last.fm will make recommendations - you can also subscribe to a postcast and get free songs). For some free songs try the shop at http://www.sellaband.com/ (the non free songs are 50 cents each - there's usually 3 free songs per artist). Amie street can also be a cheap place to find indie or older mainstream music http://www.amiestreet.com/ (the more popular songs are more expensive but the less popular songs are cheap). I didn't like it so much but there's always we7 http://www.we7.com/ - it used to be ad supported (not sure about now) but after some amount of time you can download a set number of ad free songs per month.

As with all things YMMV compared to what I've liked and found useful. As with all of these sorts of sites registration is required. None have been particularly onerous with excessive emails and they usually have ways of opting out of getting email from them.

It is true that if a publisher doesn't feel that a developer held up his end of the bargain, that they do not pay the developer, but the employees there still do get paid. I assumed that you meant paying the publisher, or some combo of the publisher/developer; but instead it seems that you are saying we the people should become the publisher, that strikes me as a bit off.

I don't think the division between publisher and developer is relevant here; it seems like an artifact of the present business model anyway.

From the public's perspective, there's one "developer" entity (although that entity might be a company with many employees), where money goes in and software comes out. Customers pool their money together and use it to pay that entity to write some software.

If that entity decides that they actually want to be a "publisher", passing part of the money on to someone else who does the actual development, that's fine, but it doesn't change their obligation to the customers who provide the money. That is, once you accept customers' money and promise that they'll get something for it, you're obligated to either give them what they paid for or return their money. If you don't have the money anymore because you gave it to someone else, that's your problem; better hope you have a good lawyer.

Additionally, if there is a guarantee that people will get a product back or their money back, then what you're talking about is a nightmare of legal paperwork which nobody in their right mind would deal with. You'd have so many new investors coming in, old investors getting out etc. that you'd have to hire an entire department just to deal with that and it would eat up a large part of your budget.

Not really. First, there's no requirement to let people "get out" whenever they feel like it, so there goes half of the complexity. Second, it really isn't that complex anyway; plenty of organizations manage to deal with that many transactions (charities and political campaigns come to mind).

Third, and most importantly, developers wouldn't have to do it themselves. Just like publishers act as middlemen in the present model, separating developers from the work of shipping boxes to thousands of retailers, similar entities could act as middlemen in the model I've proposed, separating developers from the work of handling thousands of transactions.

For example, look at what Sellaband does (using a business model that's close, but not quite what I've proposed): they collect money from lots of people and use it to provide recording services for the bands who've signed up with them. They run a web site where bands and fans can connect, they handle the money and paperwork, and the bands only have to worry about writing and recording music.

Again, the middlemen would still have the same obligations to their customers as the developers would. If I pay for development, I don't care whether that money went through a middleman or not; I expect to either see that software made or get my money back. But middlemen would have an advantage in meeting those obligations, since they could handle many projects at once, and use part of one project's profit to cover another project's loss.

So, Sellagame (?) starts up and some group of game writers start up a profile and throw in some screen shots or whatever to encourage people to support them - to whatever budget they think they need. If it's like Sellaband then they don't get the money until it's all raised, then they write the game - so this isn't going to be much like popping down the shops to get a game 'cos yer bored on a Saturday afternoon! How long does a game take to write? You probably have to throw in some planning time too 'cos you wouldn't want to do too much before you got the budget in case no one supports you. Gotta be 6 months ... a year?

In Sellaband the punters are basically pre-buying an album for $10 and they do get a (small!) share of any sales (CD sales, download sales, & ad revenue on the site), etc, too. Is the games market sufficiently similar to the music market? I'd suggest that it isn't. Maybe games players would pay for a game before it's written? Would they? In sufficient numbers to make it work?

How?

The same way as the market for any other product or service. Some people have artistic ability and want money; other people have money and want new art produced. Information and money flows between consumer and producer, possibly through some network of middlemen (like the distributors and retailers who move physical albums), the work is done, and everyone moves on to the next project.

For one possibility, take a look at Sellaband, where fans contribute $10 at a time to fund album production (a $50,000 goal). With only a few changes -- let the bands name their own price and keep whatever they don't spend on production, for example -- that model could easily fund production in a copyright-free world.

I see what you're getting at, but I'm not sure how many artists will be happy to move to that sort of system.

Perhaps they wouldn't be. No one is ever very happy to have to change the way they do things.

Their happiness, however, must be weighed against the rights and freedoms of everyone else: copyright conflicts with free speech and private property rights, and in practice it has led to restrictions and added expense for electronics manufacturers, software developers, ISPs and site operators, etc. The people who are negatively affected by copyright would probably be happy to be free from that, don't you think?

I can't wait until we can start financing this stuff directly, no more need to involve fuckhead suits. Pull 10,000 geeks together on the net and we can back the damn project, $20 at a time.

The future of music is SellaBand (http://sellaband.com/) and others like them. DRM free music and for $10 I get a CD plus a piece of the action!

If the only two choices were "rely on the RIAA" or "hope a whole lot of established acts will rescue us, even though evidence suggests that at most a handful will try (any time soon, at least), and even though some bands actually side with the RIAA", then I would agree with you.

In reality, I find being spoon-fed by an artist you like is just as bad as being spoon-fed by the RIAA. The person to be deciding what music you should like is you.

The market is changing, and new ways to find music are emerging. Don't try to wish in a world where we replace sales charts with an old-boys network that rates bands based on who they know -- eventually the new boss will be the same as the old boss.

There are a number of sites creating a direct artist-and-fan marketplace right now, which has far more potential to revolutionize the music world than what NIN is doing. Again, don't get me wrong -- I like what NIN is doing. But for real impact... I've heard of many; the one I'm most familiar with is sellaband.

Not sure where you get "randonly plonk down a tenner and hope" from though. You get to hear a bunch of songs from the Artists - including anything they may have up on mySpace, or AmieStreet, or indeed STP, and a myriad of other such sites. Along with normal gigs around the place (I've been over to Amsterdam to see Sellaband acts, and many mainland Europeans have come over to London - people were over in Truth or Consequences for a festival a Weekend or so back + gigs in Boston, Sydney ... all over) some of the Artists regularly play/played internet gigs allowing the Believers and potential Believers to see and hear them play - indeed just last night at The Bedford in Balham, Dan Ward-Murphy and his excellent band did just that.

On top of that, if you change your mind, up to the $50K point, you can take your money out (all the money is held in ESCROW in Germany).

It's happening all over - about 18 months ago a new music site called Sellaband opened its doors to unsigned Artists around the world. The object is to pre-sell copies of your next album at $10 (US) a piece. Once you hit $50000 you are put into a top studio with top producers and for each $10 Part a Believer purchases they get one copy of the 5000 Limited Edition versions of the album. Regular editions are also made available for the Artist to sell at gigs etc, and now Amazon.co.uk have signed up to sell them, and even pre-order 100 copies by buying 100 Parts once each Artist reaches $30000.

The Believers then get a share of the advertising revenues, and sales of the regular CD, plus anything they can make on selling any spare Limited Edition CDs, the Artist gets a third, Sellaband gets a third and the 5000 Believers share the last third. It's not going to make you a millionaire but its sort of fun!

So far there are over 6000 Artists registered, with 17 having made the $50000, last night Kaitee Page became the latest, and 7 of them now have their albums available from the Sellaband shop where you can purchase the CDs or download the tracks - the first three tracks are free and the others are all on 50c (US) each

It's happening all over - about 18 months ago a new music site called Sellaband opened its doors to unsigned Artists around the world. The object is to pre-sell copies of your next album at $10 (US) a piece. Once you hit $50000 you are put into a top studio with top producers and for each $10 Part a Believer purchases they get one copy of the 5000 Limited Edition versions of the album. Regular editions are also made available for the Artist to sell at gigs etc, and now Amazon.co.uk have signed up to sell them, and even pre-order 100 copies by buying 100 Parts once each Artist reaches $30000.

The Believers then get a share of the advertising revenues, and sales of the regular CD, plus anything they can make on selling any spare Limited Edition CDs, the Artist gets a third, Sellaband gets a third and the 5000 Believers share the last third. It's not going to make you a millionaire but its sort of fun!

So far there are over 6000 Artists registered, with 17 having made the $50000, last night Kaitee Page became the latest, and 7 of them now have their albums available from the Sellaband shop where you can purchase the CDs or download the tracks - the first three tracks are free and the others are all on 50c (US) each

It's happening all over - about 18 months ago a new music site called Sellaband opened its doors to unsigned Artists around the world. The object is to pre-sell copies of your next album at $10 (US) a piece. Once you hit $50000 you are put into a top studio with top producers and for each $10 Part a Believer purchases they get one copy of the 5000 Limited Edition versions of the album. Regular editions are also made available for the Artist to sell at gigs etc, and now Amazon.co.uk have signed up to sell them, and even pre-order 100 copies by buying 100 Parts once each Artist reaches $30000.

The Believers then get a share of the advertising revenues, and sales of the regular CD, plus anything they can make on selling any spare Limited Edition CDs, the Artist gets a third, Sellaband gets a third and the 5000 Believers share the last third. It's not going to make you a millionaire but its sort of fun!

So far there are over 6000 Artists registered, with 17 having made the $50000, last night Kaitee Page became the latest, and 7 of them now have their albums available from the Sellaband shop where you can purchase the CDs or download the tracks - the first three tracks are free and the others are all on 50c (US) each

You might try this: http://www.sellaband.com/shop/ some of the songs are free (as in gratis - for the artists that do have songs there), none of the recordings were funded by record labels only by fans of the artists.

It's happening all over - about 18 months ago a new music site called Sellaband opened its doors to unsigned Artists around the world. The object is to pre-sell copies of your next album at $10 (US) a piece. Once you hit $50000 you are put into a top studio with top producers and for each $10 Part a Believer purchases they get one copy of the 5000 Limited Edition versions of the album. Regular editions are also made available for the Artist to sell at gigs etc, and now Amazon.co.uk have signed up to sell them, and even pre-order 100 copies by buying 100 Parts once each Artist reaches $30000.

The Believers then get a share of the advertising revenues, and sales of the regular CD, plus anything they can make on selling any spare Limited Edition CDs, the Artist gets a third, Sellaband gets a third and the 5000 Believers share the last third. It's not going to make you a millionaire but its sort of fun!

So far there are over 6000 Artists registered, with 17 having made the $50000, last night Kaitee Page became the latest, and 7 of them now have their albums available from the Sellaband shop where you can purchase the CDs or download the tracks - the first three tracks are free and the others are all on 50c (US) each

It's happening all over - about 18 months ago a new music site called Sellaband opened its doors to unsigned Artists around the world. The object is to pre-sell copies of your next album at $10 (US) a piece. Once you hit $50000 you are put into a top studio with top producers and for each $10 Part a Believer purchases they get one copy of the 5000 Limited Edition versions of the album. Regular editions are also made available for the Artist to sell at gigs etc, and now Amazon.co.uk have signed up to sell them, and even pre-order 100 copies by buying 100 Parts once each Artist reaches $30000.

The Believers then get a share of the advertising revenues, and sales of the regular CD, plus anything they can make on selling any spare Limited Edition CDs, the Artist gets a third, Sellaband gets a third and the 5000 Believers share the last third. It's not going to make you a millionaire but its sort of fun!

So far there are over 6000 Artists registered, with 17 having made the $50000, last night Kaitee Page became the latest, and 7 of them now have their albums available from the Sellaband shop where you can purchase the CDs or download the tracks - the first three tracks are free and the others are all on 50c (US) each

It's happening all over - about 18 months ago a new music site called Sellaband opened its doors to unsigned Artists around the world. The object is to pre-sell copies of your next album at $10 (US) a piece. Once you hit $50000 you are put into a top studio with top producers and for each $10 Part a Believer purchases they get one copy of the 5000 Limited Edition versions of the album. Regular editions are also made available for the Artist to sell at gigs etc, and now Amazon.co.uk have signed up to sell them, and even pre-order 100 copies by buying 100 Parts once each Artist reaches $30000.

The Believers then get a share of the advertising revenues, and sales of the regular CD, plus anything they can make on selling any spare Limited Edition CDs, the Artist gets a third, Sellaband gets a third and the 5000 Believers share the last third. It's not going to make you a millionaire but its sort of fun!

So far there are over 6000 Artists registered, with 17 having made the $50000, last night Kaitee Page became the latest, and 7 of them now have their albums available from the Sellaband shop where you can purchase the CDs or download the tracks - the first three tracks are free and the others are all on 50c (US) each

You've taken sec 1008 out of context. I doubt a PC can meet the definition (in sec. 1001) of a "digital audio recording device" (or in any event that it's acting in that capacity when being used to download a music file), nor that downloading a copy over a p2p network would qualify as "making [a] digital musical recording".

The point of sec 1008 is that I can record music off the radio, etc., for my own personal use. It is not intended to suggest that digital music files aren't subject to copy restrictions.

Even if you were right that the downloading party were legally in the clear, that would have nothing at all to do with the legal standing of the person who made the track available for download.

In any event, noncommercial copying is not automatically legal. Specific uses -- which tend to be non-commercial -- are legal under various exemptions, of which fair use is the most-often cited.

"Fair comment. But the point is that he's not a drug trafficker. He shouldn't be charged as one."

If you're saying that the offense of a p2p sharer should carry a lesser penalty than would the offense of a big-time boot-legger, I agree. I never said otherwise. What I said is, it's still copyright infringement.

In the one p2p case I'm aware of that went to a jury, the judgement was too high up the range of possible penalties IMO. That doesn't mean I don't think she was guilty, though.

"I'm a big Alice Cooper fan for example, have been forever. If he wanted to release a new album and wanted to make 1,000,000 from it, I'd pledge $5 to the cause. If 200,000 other like minded individuals around the globe came forward, the 1,000,000 bounty would be met and it would be released"

You should take a look at SellABand.

And yes, that's the sort of thing I'm talking about when I say the market has to change; but it's not quite that simple and, at least for now, copyright is still a necessary piece of the puzzle.

Reducing copyright term to reasonable levels and ensuring that penalties are proportional to offenses are both necessary in the immediate term; that's what I mean by "restore balance".

By contrast, removing the limited monopoly of copyright entirely -- such as by allowing free p2p sharing of tracks -- is a longer-term consideration that cannot simply be thrust on the market as it exists today.

Anyway, if you can produce something to a reasonable standard in your bedroom recording studio you may be able to find yourself a market, which may lead to bigger and better things. Look at what Sellaband are up to. Unsigned Artists register and put up three songs and try and attract Believers (don't panic about the religious overtones of the terminology - the company's Dutch!). A Believer can pre-buy your next CD for $10 (USD) and once $50000 (USD) is raised they company put you in a top studio with top producers, etc. 5000 Limited Edition (numbered) CDs are produced and each $10 Part recieves a copy of the Ltd Ed CD. Regular CDs are also cut and sold through the website, also now through Amazon UK, various bricks & mortar stores in Holland (still a new venture so still spreading their wings). There are also 3 songs for free download (DRM free high quality mp3), and the other songs from the album for download for 50 cents (US). Other stuff, including a Video that has had airplay on MTV Europe, available from the Artists as they see fit.

Revenue from sales of the regular CD, downloads, and Advertising from page hits is then split equally 1/3 to Sellaband, 1/3 to the Artist and 1/3 spread equally amongst the 5000 Believers - actually, so far there hasn't been an Artist with 5000 Believers as many buy way more than one Part each, as this gives you a bigger share of the Believer's third. You can also elect to only recieve some of the leCDs which saves postage (extra money for the Artist to record with) and Sellaband sells the leCDs giving you $11 back (10%) when they are sold. Each Believer has their own shop of Artists they have Parts in, and selling through your own shop gains you a little commission too.

Sellaband hands back the ownership of the recordings to the Artist after 1 year, with the CDs, etc, being sold through the site for 2 years - the Artists can elect to stay with Sellaband for further years, return for a second/subsequent CD, etc ...

So far, 12 Artists have made the $50K, with 3 albums out, and 1 single. There are over 6000 Artists on the site so far, each with 3 songs you can listen to from a huge variety of genres - some of which I like and some of which I don't!

If this works it could well be a real music revolution - "Music Industry 2.0" - where the listeners are the indicators of what is good enough to make the $50K and get into the studio.

Anyway, if you can produce something to a reasonable standard in your bedroom recording studio you may be able to find yourself a market, which may lead to bigger and better things. Look at what Sellaband are up to. Unsigned Artists register and put up three songs and try and attract Believers (don't panic about the religious overtones of the terminology - the company's Dutch!). A Believer can pre-buy your next CD for $10 (USD) and once $50000 (USD) is raised they company put you in a top studio with top producers, etc. 5000 Limited Edition (numbered) CDs are produced and each $10 Part recieves a copy of the Ltd Ed CD. Regular CDs are also cut and sold through the website, also now through Amazon UK, various bricks & mortar stores in Holland (still a new venture so still spreading their wings). There are also 3 songs for free download (DRM free high quality mp3), and the other songs from the album for download for 50 cents (US). Other stuff, including a Video that has had airplay on MTV Europe, available from the Artists as they see fit.

Revenue from sales of the regular CD, downloads, and Advertising from page hits is then split equally 1/3 to Sellaband, 1/3 to the Artist and 1/3 spread equally amongst the 5000 Believers - actually, so far there hasn't been an Artist with 5000 Believers as many buy way more than one Part each, as this gives you a bigger share of the Believer's third. You can also elect to only recieve some of the leCDs which saves postage (extra money for the Artist to record with) and Sellaband sells the leCDs giving you $11 back (10%) when they are sold. Each Believer has their own shop of Artists they have Parts in, and selling through your own shop gains you a little commission too.

Sellaband hands back the ownership of the recordings to the Artist after 1 year, with the CDs, etc, being sold through the site for 2 years - the Artists can elect to stay with Sellaband for further years, return for a second/subsequent CD, etc ...

So far, 12 Artists have made the $50K, with 3 albums out, and 1 single. There are over 6000 Artists on the site so far, each with 3 songs you can listen to from a huge variety of genres - some of which I like and some of which I don't!

If this works it could well be a real music revolution - "Music Industry 2.0" - where the listeners are the indicators of what is good enough to make the $50K and get into the studio.

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but SellaBand.com has a lot of free streaming music from good artists looking to 'make it.' Some music is downloadable as free samples. Other songs are downloadable for $.50 a song, or download a whole album for $1.00 to $3.50. DRM free! There are over 8000 artists on the site. You can make a playlist of what you like, so you can listen to your favorite SellaBand artists whenever you're online. Twelve (12) artists have raised a budget of $50,000 through the site to make/distribute/promote their album. While their may be some duds on the site, the artists pulling in the cash/support of fans are certainly a cut above the rest. http://www.sellaband.com/

The idea is pretty young, and they haven't produced that much music, yet. I think once/if the idea catches on it would be quite a blow to the RIAA. Personally, I think it's an awesome idea and was wondering what you folks thought.

The idea is pretty young, and they haven't produced that much music, yet. I think once/if the idea catches on it would be quite a blow to the RIAA. Personally, I think it's an awesome idea and was wondering what you folks thought.

Music will always be with us. The music industry is not identically equal to the large labels, it will take more than their stupidity to strip music from society.

There are lots of independant sources of music and ways for individual consumers to fund the creation of music on the internet (http://www.sellaband.com/ (more individial and friendly), http://www.slicethepie.com/ (more combative and competition like)) if you believe crowdsourcing is likely to produce music that people will want to hear.

If the big labels die the future is likely to hold (a vastly) greater (and bewildering) choice and less manufactured pop stars to distract everyone (with artists getting a greater cut of whatever the proceeds will be). That choice is actually already here but noone gets to see it because of the noise from the big labels and their marketing machine telling them what they should like.

There's free, and perhaps more importantly - DRM-free, music to be downloaded, although you do need to register to download. This has been a bit of a thorn for Sellaband because for every download they have to pay the local "music rights" company, so they don't want the same person downloading more than once!

As a "believer", you get a share of the sales and ad revenue generated by the free downloaders. You're not going to be able to give up work for a few years yet, but it should end up paying for your Ltd Edition CDs after the two years period is over.

The article didn't have a direct link to the Sellaband Shop, or more importantly, to my own Believer Shop where I get a extra commission on top of my 1/5000th or 1/3 share per Part I own in the Artist.

There's over 5000 artists on the site from countries all around the world singing if styles ranging from Heavy Rock to Jazz, so there should really be something for everyone.

And as you can see from my sig, one of my mates is on Sellaband and is currently just under $21000 - so nearly half way. He's playing in Brixton in a few weeks too, and I can't wait!

There's free, and perhaps more importantly - DRM-free, music to be downloaded, although you do need to register to download. This has been a bit of a thorn for Sellaband because for every download they have to pay the local "music rights" company, so they don't want the same person downloading more than once!

As a "believer", you get a share of the sales and ad revenue generated by the free downloaders. You're not going to be able to give up work for a few years yet, but it should end up paying for your Ltd Edition CDs after the two years period is over.

The article didn't have a direct link to the Sellaband Shop, or more importantly, to my own Believer Shop where I get a extra commission on top of my 1/5000th or 1/3 share per Part I own in the Artist.

There's over 5000 artists on the site from countries all around the world singing if styles ranging from Heavy Rock to Jazz, so there should really be something for everyone.

And as you can see from my sig, one of my mates is on Sellaband and is currently just under $21000 - so nearly half way. He's playing in Brixton in a few weeks too, and I can't wait!

There's free, and perhaps more importantly - DRM-free, music to be downloaded, although you do need to register to download. This has been a bit of a thorn for Sellaband because for every download they have to pay the local "music rights" company, so they don't want the same person downloading more than once!

As a "believer", you get a share of the sales and ad revenue generated by the free downloaders. You're not going to be able to give up work for a few years yet, but it should end up paying for your Ltd Edition CDs after the two years period is over.

The article didn't have a direct link to the Sellaband Shop, or more importantly, to my own Believer Shop where I get a extra commission on top of my 1/5000th or 1/3 share per Part I own in the Artist.

There's over 5000 artists on the site from countries all around the world singing if styles ranging from Heavy Rock to Jazz, so there should really be something for everyone.

And as you can see from my sig, one of my mates is on Sellaband and is currently just under $21000 - so nearly half way. He's playing in Brixton in a few weeks too, and I can't wait!

> And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think I'd like nothing more than the complete breakdown of the music industry so that you'd actually have to go out to bars to hear people play

Why would _you_ have to? There would always be a lot of those who are eager to try new stuff and tell the world of it. If you're none of these, no problem - you will know their opinion, and the opinion of the masses.. and given that you usually know what kind of music you like, something like http://last.fm/ would easily let you keep up with time.

The other good part is that most of the 'promotion' crap that involves sticking bad songs into our ears would be gone. Part of the problem with the today's music industry is that bands and performers being hyped are often outright sub par, because they somehow can afford 'promotion', and the better ones that are out there often just can't compete. This way, overall music quality available would improve as well.

That Radiohead decision along with things like http://www.sellaband.com/ are hopefully signs of the new musical industry. Die evil eMpTyV.

This is the problem the recording industry has got: The 'n'th pressing of some old album onto a new media ought to be cheaper than the original, as they haven't had to re-do anything, other than maybe shrink the album cover to fit a CD. What is the cover of The White Album anyway [googles] Hmmmm. OK. Can anyone guess?

So they accuse us of pirateering, and we accuse them of profiteering! It's a racket and they know it is. The whole screaming and shouting about pirate downloads et al is just a smoke screen in the hope we don't realise they've been shafting us for years!

As has often been said, they need to wake up and smell the coffee! Cheaper CDs in the shops - say £5 a CD - would likely mean people buying 3 CDs. Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap!

Or wander over to sellaband where you can help unsigned artists get into a top studio by pre-buying their next CD for $10 (10 US Dollars), and you get a (small) cut of sales, Ad revenue, and downloads. Might not amount to much, but if they're as good as you think they are, who knows!

Pop into my Sellaband Shop for some free downloads right now, or buy tracks for 50 US cents for DRM free quality mp3s.

This is the problem the recording industry has got: The 'n'th pressing of some old album onto a new media ought to be cheaper than the original, as they haven't had to re-do anything, other than maybe shrink the album cover to fit a CD. What is the cover of The White Album anyway [googles] Hmmmm. OK. Can anyone guess?

So they accuse us of pirateering, and we accuse them of profiteering! It's a racket and they know it is. The whole screaming and shouting about pirate downloads et al is just a smoke screen in the hope we don't realise they've been shafting us for years!

As has often been said, they need to wake up and smell the coffee! Cheaper CDs in the shops - say £5 a CD - would likely mean people buying 3 CDs. Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap!

Or wander over to sellaband where you can help unsigned artists get into a top studio by pre-buying their next CD for $10 (10 US Dollars), and you get a (small) cut of sales, Ad revenue, and downloads. Might not amount to much, but if they're as good as you think they are, who knows!

Pop into my Sellaband Shop for some free downloads right now, or buy tracks for 50 US cents for DRM free quality mp3s.

Two artists already have their CDs out
Nemesea :- Produced by, amongst others Tony Platt who worked on a lot of early ACDC
Cubworld :- Produced in the Bennet Studios in NYC by, amongst others, Kiyanu Kim
... and a bunch have theirs in production or nearly ready ... indeed Second Person's CD comes out next week.

Two artists already have their CDs out
Nemesea :- Produced by, amongst others Tony Platt who worked on a lot of early ACDC
Cubworld :- Produced in the Bennet Studios in NYC by, amongst others, Kiyanu Kim
... and a bunch have theirs in production or nearly ready ... indeed Second Person's CD comes out next week.

Two artists already have their CDs out
Nemesea :- Produced by, amongst others Tony Platt who worked on a lot of early ACDC
Cubworld :- Produced in the Bennet Studios in NYC by, amongst others, Kiyanu Kim
... and a bunch have theirs in production or nearly ready ... indeed Second Person's CD comes out next week.

Two artists already have their CDs out
Nemesea :- Produced by, amongst others Tony Platt who worked on a lot of early ACDC
Cubworld :- Produced in the Bennet Studios in NYC by, amongst others, Kiyanu Kim
... and a bunch have theirs in production or nearly ready ... indeed Second Person's CD comes out next week.

Two artists already have their CDs out
Nemesea :- Produced by, amongst others Tony Platt who worked on a lot of early ACDC
Cubworld :- Produced in the Bennet Studios in NYC by, amongst others, Kiyanu Kim
... and a bunch have theirs in production or nearly ready ... indeed Second Person's CD comes out next week.

Last August a bunch from Amsterdam started Sellaband and now there are 4500 or so Artists registered and 5 have hit the target and are recording and 2 more have their CD out.

The Artists come from all over the world, from all music genres, and as a Believer you get to have a listen and if you like what you hear you can buy a Part in the Artist for $10. If you change your mind you can take your ten bucks back until the target of $50000 is raised (5000 Parts) when the Artist gets put into a top recording studio to make their CD. The Believers get a Limited Edition copy of the CD (only 5000 printed) for each Part they own, and a share of the next year's revenue from sales of the ordinary CD, and from advertising revenue from downloads - the album tracks are available for download, 3 of them for free, and the rest at 50cents a piece for high quality, DRM free, music!

Not all of the music is to my taste, but it's still great to listen to new things!

I have "Parts" in one of the Artists who has completed his CD ... pop over and have a listen if you get the urge, and my tag below is another chap who's on his way to the $50K!

Last August a bunch from Amsterdam started Sellaband and now there are 4500 or so Artists registered and 5 have hit the target and are recording and 2 more have their CD out.

The Artists come from all over the world, from all music genres, and as a Believer you get to have a listen and if you like what you hear you can buy a Part in the Artist for $10. If you change your mind you can take your ten bucks back until the target of $50000 is raised (5000 Parts) when the Artist gets put into a top recording studio to make their CD. The Believers get a Limited Edition copy of the CD (only 5000 printed) for each Part they own, and a share of the next year's revenue from sales of the ordinary CD, and from advertising revenue from downloads - the album tracks are available for download, 3 of them for free, and the rest at 50cents a piece for high quality, DRM free, music!

Not all of the music is to my taste, but it's still great to listen to new things!

I have "Parts" in one of the Artists who has completed his CD ... pop over and have a listen if you get the urge, and my tag below is another chap who's on his way to the $50K!

Cheers

Cheers

Sellaband are trying to do just that, using CrowdSourcing to allow the buyers to decide who is making good music.

Believers visit the site and listen to the tracks provided by the Artists. If they like the Artists they can buy Parts in the Artist at $10 a go. The Believers can recover any money spent until the point the Artist reaches $50000 (it is held in escrow). Once the Artist reaches 5000 Parts ($50000) the money is used to hook them up with top producers and engineers in a top studio and a quality CD is produced.

The Believers then get a Limited Edition copy of the CD for each Part purchased.
The music so recorded is offered for free download from the site, and advertising revenue generated by the visitors is split a third to the Artist, a third to Sellaband, and a third split amongst the Believers.
A non-Ltd Edition copy of the CD is available for purchase from the website too, and the CD is also available for the Artist to purchase for them to sell at gigs etc. Monies from this is split the same way.

This arrangement runs for a year after the release of the CD. Once the year is up, ownership of the Master reverts to the Artist.

More info on the Ts and Cs can be found on the Sellaband site.

Four Artists have made the $50K so far :-
Nemesea
Cubworld
Second Person
Clemence

They are all currently recording, and it is expected that the first 3 Artists will be releasing their CDs in June or July.

As you might have seen from my sig, a friend of mine is an Artist on Sellaband. Dan Ward-Murphy recently topped $10000, so is well on his way!

Sellaband are trying to do just that, using CrowdSourcing to allow the buyers to decide who is making good music.

Believers visit the site and listen to the tracks provided by the Artists. If they like the Artists they can buy Parts in the Artist at $10 a go. The Believers can recover any money spent until the point the Artist reaches $50000 (it is held in escrow). Once the Artist reaches 5000 Parts ($50000) the money is used to hook them up with top producers and engineers in a top studio and a quality CD is produced.

The Believers then get a Limited Edition copy of the CD for each Part purchased.
The music so recorded is offered for free download from the site, and advertising revenue generated by the visitors is split a third to the Artist, a third to Sellaband, and a third split amongst the Believers.
A non-Ltd Edition copy of the CD is available for purchase from the website too, and the CD is also available for the Artist to purchase for them to sell at gigs etc. Monies from this is split the same way.

This arrangement runs for a year after the release of the CD. Once the year is up, ownership of the Master reverts to the Artist.

More info on the Ts and Cs can be found on the Sellaband site.

Four Artists have made the $50K so far :-
Nemesea
Cubworld
Second Person
Clemence

They are all currently recording, and it is expected that the first 3 Artists will be releasing their CDs in June or July.

As you might have seen from my sig, a friend of mine is an Artist on Sellaband. Dan Ward-Murphy recently topped $10000, so is well on his way!

Sellaband are trying to do just that, using CrowdSourcing to allow the buyers to decide who is making good music.

Believers visit the site and listen to the tracks provided by the Artists. If they like the Artists they can buy Parts in the Artist at $10 a go. The Believers can recover any money spent until the point the Artist reaches $50000 (it is held in escrow). Once the Artist reaches 5000 Parts ($50000) the money is used to hook them up with top producers and engineers in a top studio and a quality CD is produced.

The Believers then get a Limited Edition copy of the CD for each Part purchased.
The music so recorded is offered for free download from the site, and advertising revenue generated by the visitors is split a third to the Artist, a third to Sellaband, and a third split amongst the Believers.
A non-Ltd Edition copy of the CD is available for purchase from the website too, and the CD is also available for the Artist to purchase for them to sell at gigs etc. Monies from this is split the same way.

This arrangement runs for a year after the release of the CD. Once the year is up, ownership of the Master reverts to the Artist.

More info on the Ts and Cs can be found on the Sellaband site.

Four Artists have made the $50K so far :-
Nemesea
Cubworld
Second Person
Clemence

They are all currently recording, and it is expected that the first 3 Artists will be releasing their CDs in June or July.

As you might have seen from my sig, a friend of mine is an Artist on Sellaband. Dan Ward-Murphy recently topped $10000, so is well on his way!

Sellaband are trying to do just that, using CrowdSourcing to allow the buyers to decide who is making good music.

Believers visit the site and listen to the tracks provided by the Artists. If they like the Artists they can buy Parts in the Artist at $10 a go. The Believers can recover any money spent until the point the Artist reaches $50000 (it is held in escrow). Once the Artist reaches 5000 Parts ($50000) the money is used to hook them up with top producers and engineers in a top studio and a quality CD is produced.

The Believers then get a Limited Edition copy of the CD for each Part purchased.
The music so recorded is offered for free download from the site, and advertising revenue generated by the visitors is split a third to the Artist, a third to Sellaband, and a third split amongst the Believers.
A non-Ltd Edition copy of the CD is available for purchase from the website too, and the CD is also available for the Artist to purchase for them to sell at gigs etc. Monies from this is split the same way.

This arrangement runs for a year after the release of the CD. Once the year is up, ownership of the Master reverts to the Artist.

More info on the Ts and Cs can be found on the Sellaband site.

Four Artists have made the $50K so far :-
Nemesea
Cubworld
Second Person
Clemence

They are all currently recording, and it is expected that the first 3 Artists will be releasing their CDs in June or July.

As you might have seen from my sig, a friend of mine is an Artist on Sellaband. Dan Ward-Murphy recently topped $10000, so is well on his way!

Sellaband are trying to do just that, using CrowdSourcing to allow the buyers to decide who is making good music.

Believers visit the site and listen to the tracks provided by the Artists. If they like the Artists they can buy Parts in the Artist at $10 a go. The Believers can recover any money spent until the point the Artist reaches $50000 (it is held in escrow). Once the Artist reaches 5000 Parts ($50000) the money is used to hook them up with top producers and engineers in a top studio and a quality CD is produced.

The Believers then get a Limited Edition copy of the CD for each Part purchased.
The music so recorded is offered for free download from the site, and advertising revenue generated by the visitors is split a third to the Artist, a third to Sellaband, and a third split amongst the Believers.
A non-Ltd Edition copy of the CD is available for purchase from the website too, and the CD is also available for the Artist to purchase for them to sell at gigs etc. Monies from this is split the same way.

This arrangement runs for a year after the release of the CD. Once the year is up, ownership of the Master reverts to the Artist.

More info on the Ts and Cs can be found on the Sellaband site.

Four Artists have made the $50K so far :-
Nemesea
Cubworld
Second Person
Clemence

They are all currently recording, and it is expected that the first 3 Artists will be releasing their CDs in June or July.

As you might have seen from my sig, a friend of mine is an Artist on Sellaband. Dan Ward-Murphy recently topped $10000, so is well on his way!