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Yea, gotta work on the title, but Sir Mix-a-lot has some tracks out under a license like this:

http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/10/2042228.shtm l?tid=126&tid=141&tid=187&tid=188

Looks like the service shut down though:

http://weedshare.com/

There is probably only one DRM based online music service that can come close to claiming that DRM enabled its innovation:

http://www.weedshare.com/

I think that new data formats will completely revamp the CD while eliminating the CD audio format as a standard.

It's been like 25 years since CD audio came into existence. It's a pretty dated technology.

New companies like Shared Media Licensing http://www.weedshare.com/ are letting artists continue using CDs but changing the distribution channel. Instead of CD Audio, we've got a new distribution format based around computers and the Internet that allow consumers to preview music at a minimum of cost. They can then pick and choose which songs they which to purchase without being forced to pay for an entire album.

This might not seem like much to people who have high speed access and can download the files directly from the artists websites, but as a promotional tool and for consumers still on dialup, this could be a Godsend for artists.

You can check out the technology in action on my webpage. http://www.newdor.com/

Music and art have existed for quite a long time, and for the most part there was always someone with a lot of money behind the scenes to fund it lest it not exist.

There are alternative distribution methods and organizations out there other than the RIAA, such as Weed Share and Mindawn, one of my personal favorites for offering both lossy and lossless files and no DRM based on the trust to their custmers. Both are great for the independant artist both in terms of the services they offer and compensation artists get from them. While a noble ideal, I fear that there will always be people that just don't give a fuck and want something for nothing and screw anyone else, because no matter how inexpensive or easy you make it to get your music, they only want it for free.

DRM is a tool. There are positive and negative ways it can be used.

An open source, truly cross-platform DRM standard is desperately needed for content distribution to grow out of the current decidedly adolescent phase.

Content producers deserve to be paid, consumers deserve to get something for their payment that is more than they can get by downloading a file illegally.

There are many examples of DRM used to restrict what you do with your media after you download it...share it, and it won't work anywhere else. However, with a little unconventional thinking, there are other ways of using DRM that give the consumer rights they never had before.

Weed files are such an example. Just as the GPL gives the consumer rights they never had before, leveraging the restrictions of copyright law, Weed files use DRM restrictions to give the consumer the right to share and be rewarded financially for sharing. See http://weedshare.com/ for details.

Weed files make the expense of buying music into an investment. When you buy a song at iTunes, you cannot resell it, or get anything back for it. With Weed files, the cost is the same, but you now have a capital asset that you can give away, everyone who gets it can listen to it 3 times, and if they buy it, the artist gets 50%, and you get 20%.

This can't happen without DRM. Selling unrestricted MP3s is being done, but they you are depending on the good graces of the consumer to not distribute it, and if they do, the consumer and the artist get no compensation from it.

This open source initiative by Sun deserves support. The current Apple/Microsoft feud is intolerable for the industry. Ogg (For example) + DRM wold be a powerful combination. Otherwise, Microsoft is the only game in town for a DRM with a published API, and Apple trying to dominate with its unpublished API.

Affiliation: I own http://weedtracks.com/ which distributes Weed files, including over 75.000 songs from http://cdbaby.com/'s digital distribution program, and http://sharenewyork.com/ where anyone can share Weed files legally on the web.

Why not just broadcast from the biggest server matrixes in the country? And play only content you can buy directly from whatever Internet Media company is selling it using DRM models to ensure that everyone pays their fair share will encouraging people to both share and trade their music for profit for themselves? http://www.weedshare.com/

WeedShare is my current favorite way to find new music.

I think it's actually a brilliant way to distribute and promote music. You get three free plays of each track you download. If you decide to purchase it, you can put it on three PCs, burn it, put it on a portable device and even share it with someone else as long as it remains in the original file format.

I just looked at their site and now it looks like they will give you $5 to buy music with for creating a free account. As far as I know, they've never had a sub fee. You just buy the tracks.

Pricing is totally up to the artist. I've seen tracks as low as a qaurter, but most are right around a buck.

Now for the "different" part. The artist always gets 50% of the track price. 15% goes to Weed and the balance is split up among the people who distributed the file. This is fucking brilliant, you can actually make some money by sharing someone else's music.

Check it out here.

BTW- if you're an artist, they tell you how to get your music in their system. Sweet.

WeedShare is my current favorite way to find new music.

I think it's actually a brilliant way to distribute and promote music. You get three free plays of each track you download. If you decide to purchase it, you can put it on three PCs, burn it, put it on a portable device and even share it with someone else as long as it remains in the original file format.

I just looked at their site and now it looks like they will give you $5 to buy music with for creating a free account. As far as I know, they've never had a sub fee. You just buy the tracks.

Pricing is totally up to the artist. I've seen tracks as low as a qaurter, but most are right around a buck.

Now for the "different" part. The artist always gets 50% of the track price. 15% goes to Weed and the balance is split up among the people who distributed the file. This is fucking brilliant, you can actually make some money by sharing someone else's music.

Check it out here.

BTW- if you're an artist, they tell you how to get your music in their system. Sweet.

WeedShare is my current favorite way to find new music.

I think it's actually a brilliant way to distribute and promote music. You get three free plays of each track you download. If you decide to purchase it, you can put it on three PCs, burn it, put it on a portable device and even share it with someone else as long as it remains in the original file format.

I just looked at their site and now it looks like they will give you $5 to buy music with for creating a free account. As far as I know, they've never had a sub fee. You just buy the tracks.

Pricing is totally up to the artist. I've seen tracks as low as a qaurter, but most are right around a buck.

Now for the "different" part. The artist always gets 50% of the track price. 15% goes to Weed and the balance is split up among the people who distributed the file. This is fucking brilliant, you can actually make some money by sharing someone else's music.

Check it out here.

BTW- if you're an artist, they tell you how to get your music in their system. Sweet.

---Isn't this exactly what we asked for?---

Pretty much, and under the law, it's a reasonable approach. But in the long run, it's a futile one, and a foolish one.

First, the massive quantity of US lawsuits has caused no slowdown in p2p filesharing. So it's not an effective means of stopping copyright infringement.

Next, it's bad PR, and is turning off more and more consumers and artists from doing business with the major label cartels. It's also interesting that they continue to settle out of court, rather than letting any case go through. I think there's some fear on the RIAA and their equivalents' parts that a court case would 1) reinforce fair use rights and 2) set a precedent for the value of a song.

Most importantly, rather than seeing this as something that must be stomped out and trying to turn back the clock, a smarter approach is to find a way to profit from this obvious consumer demand. The same thing happened with the VCR, and now the MPAA makes more money from video sales and rentals than from box office receipts.

My opinion is they need to set up a system similar to this one. It takes advantage of the massive power of p2p, yet protects copyright and actively encourages users to only deal in legit files by giving them a financial incentive.

You get to listen to the file a couple times. If you like it, you can pay a small fee for the song to be permanently unlocked and put it onto whatever medium you want it on, burn it to a CD, throw it on your iPod, whatever.

The best part of it is that it encourages people to share the music. Send the weeded file to your friends, they can preview it just like you did. If they like it, they can unlock it by paying a small fee. The catcher is that part of that small fee goes towards the artist directly and another part goes back to the person who referred the weed file to the friend.

This solves a number of issues, such as how to generate marketing for your songs, and lowers the cost in buying your music since by actually purchasing it, you have the potential to make a little bit yourself as well. Seems like win-win pretty much all around.

EQ magazine ran a little column in their current issue that bascially outlines all of this. They included the following links to check out:

• http://stores.ebay.com/Weedshare
• http://weedshare.com/

Personally, I find the idea intriguing, will be watching to see where it goes, and hope the best for it.

You get to listen to the file a couple times. If you like it, you can pay a small fee for the song to be permanently unlocked and put it onto whatever medium you want it on, burn it to a CD, throw it on your iPod, whatever.

The best part of it is that it encourages people to share the music. Send the weeded file to your friends, they can preview it just like you did. If they like it, they can unlock it by paying a small fee. The catcher is that part of that small fee goes towards the artist directly and another part goes back to the person who referred the weed file to the friend.

This solves a number of issues, such as how to generate marketing for your songs, and lowers the cost in buying your music since by actually purchasing it, you have the potential to make a little bit yourself as well. Seems like win-win pretty much all around.

EQ magazine ran a little column in their current issue that bascially outlines all of this. They included the following links to check out:

• http://stores.ebay.com/Weedshare
• http://weedshare.com/

Personally, I find the idea intriguing, will be watching to see where it goes, and hope the best for it.

I have been using http://weedshare.com/ for a short while now, Not only have I been pleased with the music I have purchased, but also pleased with the money I have made from reselling songs. thus, allowing me to purchase more music which allows me to sell more music so I can buy more music... Do you get the picture. I never purchased a single song by download until I discovered Weedshare

With Weed, musicians always get to set the price of the song (usually about a dollar, of course) and get 50% from every sale. Weed publishers Shared Media Licensing, Inc gets just 15%. 35% goes to the people buying then sharing the music. (20%, 10%, then 5% commissions) And sites like ShareNewYork.com make it very easy to buy Weed files, upload them, and review why it's and great song, why you chose it. Whatever the cost of the song, if 5 people buy it, the song has paid for itself. It's also a great place to look for new songs, because most songs are posted with a few words from a fan.

Weed files are legal to share, and will play 3 times for free (on Windows Machines. Macophiles, I feel your pain) They are ideal for new musicians, since it is usually free to get your music in this format, and the music must be original. Now that CD Baby has endorsed Weed, 65,000+ musicians can convert their files by oping in to Weed as part of digital distribution, again for free.

Oh, and Heart's new Album, Jupiter's Daughter, is available in Weed.

For some reason, this Weed - CD Baby deal is completely below the notice of the media. I think it's the biggest deal in OMD since MP3.com went public, but the media doesn't get it. Anyone see anything about it here on /. ? What's up with that? CD Baby gives that needed catalog of 100,000+ files. As a whole, CD Baby represents 230,000 songs, but it remains to be seen how many will opt in.

With Weed files, there's actual potential for income for everyone ... musician, distributors, and even fans! The better each does their job, the more everyone will make. Music becomes a capital investment. it makes new business models of music possible. Now is the time to get involved.

Or wait, you intended to bypass the record companies and give money directly to musicians. Yes, there may be some litigation.

But there is a system that comes close. Check Weed.

Sorry, but I'm still not turned on to the idea of online music downloads.

1. To me, $0.99 per song is still a jack. If a track has 13-15 songs per album, that's $13 - $15 for all the tracks on the CD. Considering that I get no artwork, no packaging, no permanent format, that's a rip off.
2. The file format is lossy. I'd be paying for a lower quality representation than what I could buy at a store for the same price.
3. DRM is a bitch.
4. I can get the same thing, or a higher quality version online.

Sorry, but there has to be some more incentive for me to buy into the system.

1. $0.50 a song is a good starting point, $1.00 for a FLAC version of the song.
2. Printout art available when purchasing all the songs on the CD.
3. ISO downloads. A lot of CD's come with extra's for the PC. Quite simply, it's one of the things that makes me buy the CD rather than just donwload the song (other than actually liking the band). Add this, and I'll start reconsidering.
4. Stop being a bitch about giving this stuff to my friends. Do you know how many friends I've turned on to certain groups of music just by giving them a song? *cough* WeedShare anyone? Apple and Napster can learn from this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the arguments are very old in this post, and it's all been said before. But nothing's being done, and I'm still not being converted over. Considering how much of a computer user I am, this is rather surprising.

If you dislike iTunes you could always use weedshare

Ok, so now people are using coke and weed to get our children to listen to music? This is frickin' rediculous....

link
To buy a Weed file, get the Weed software, find the file you want to buy, and click on the title. Buying lets you play the song on up to 3 computers, burn it to a CD, or copy to a portable player. You can also share the song with anybody you like.

Apple does a nice job marketing. 25 million downloads is not alot of downloads at all. Kazaa gets that many downloads in a few days. The flaw with the Itunes model? No one knows how much money actually goes to artists. Its legal but most people using Kazaa don't give a shit about the law. So you have a situation where someone like me who currently boycotts the RIAA has no intention of ever supporting Itunes simply because Itunes hurts artists. Artists don't make a penny. Customers get robbed paying $1 for a low quality audio rip. You don't see that you are still paying the RIAA $1? I support Magnatunes, I supported Mp3.com, I even support Emusic. I'll never support Itunes, I will never pay for music on a per song basis unless at least 50% of my money goes to musicians. I will not pay $1 a song, songs should be priced by the market and not buy record execs. If you want to continue to pay content owners, go ahead and waste your money. If you want to save the music industry and help the artists and yourself Itunes is not the answer. Here are some alternatives Magnatunes Weed The Itunes business model will never be mainstream. When TV was invented, pay TV was not the mainstream and while cable did make money, most people had reguar TV.