Tunesquare falters

Over the weekend we received a rather polite, but sad, e-mail from the Tunesquare team
"We created TuneSquare with the hope to see artists getting paid for making their musical works available for free download through our site. While the overall response from artists and members has been positive, there are some aspects of this service that haven't worked out quite as well as we had hoped.

So why have we temporarily stopped making payments to artists on TuneSquare? The short answer is that the continued operation of this ad-supported music download service is a very expensive enterprise that requires an emormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide at the moment. Traffic stats at this point are simply not high enough to generate sufficient advertising revenue. This, in addition to high developing costs has resulted in slow website development which has resulted in delayed press releases which has resulted in...well, you get it...

So, instead of saying farewell, completely shutting down and cease to exist, we have decided to spend our remaining assets on further developing this website -- something that we unfortunately have been unable to focus on for a very long time. And we apologize for that.

The killer line is that one about traffic stats - to rely on advertising revenue to finance a site you really have to have, and maintain, a high profile

Give it away, give it away, give it away now!

In this speech author Paulo Coelho talks about the positive effect that allowing freedowloads of his book has had on sales of hard copies

Now I realise that there is no longer the need to obtain a "hard" copy of an audio file, but maybe if somebody really likes a track they will buy it given the option?

"let's see art and content from a different perspective. We cannot control. You close Napster they open BitTorrent,they open Emule"

PS, the relevant bit is contained within the first 17,minutes but its worth listening to his finish (around 22 minutes) to get a feel good buzz


Link: sevenload.com

"Art for arts sake, money for Gods sake"

If you are interested in distributing your work via the miricle of the internet then David Gratton's blog should be required reading
amongst other things he has posed the question "What if music were free?"

Okay, so he was referring to the audio file in the context of the "new musical experience" and the need to put together a media package that would enhance and support the purchase of music, but let's pre-suppose that, in the current climate, the audio file has reached the point of negligible monetary value, what will happen if "music" is free?

Well for a start the artists would vanish.
It’s simple economics. If there is no financial incentive, or perhaps more importantly no potential for monetary gain, then we will see the demise of the audio artist.

Now I expect to be taken to task about the above statement.
Surely, you will argue, the accessibility of the new delivery systems via the internet & associated technologies will only encourage the blossoming of talent, and that would be a fair conclusion.

You can argue that any emerging artist needs exposure, and “giving away” audio files is an accepted marketing tactic. However, there will come a point when the artist will crequire some recompense for their efforts.

This is a perfectly logical progression. How many of us aspire to become professionals, to make a living out of doing what we enjoy, namely making music?
In order to advance our skills (we all know practice makes perfect)it is almost a pre-requisite that we devote more and more time to the art.

However, unless you are someone of independant means,the real world impinges on your quality creative time and somehow or other you have to find the lucre from more mundane pursuits to keep body & soul together.

If,and this may have already happened, the music is going to be increasingly dependant on the window dressing to sell, then you have to question the value of creating that music in the first place - it may sound awful but its delivered in such a pretty box wrapped in ribbons that it will sell by the boatload. Is that really what we want?

Alternatively, the other option is that the musician will have to take on the production role for the packaging and associated bells and whistles.
Now many of us are quite able and keen to take on creative control of our "product" but wouldn't wearing many such hats by very definition detract from the time we could devote to the core of any offering, the song itself?

However, take a look at the quality of some of that “user generated content” currently available. I don’t even pretend to be a taste guru, but even the most open minded listener would have to concede that the majority of it is, frankly, below standard.

Can Clapton paint? (its a rhetorical question)

Buddy can you spare a dime?

Amongst all the flashy gizmos & widgets that seem to plague the internet these days (c'mon, do you really NEED to pretend you're a zombie?, karmafan.com stands out for its simplicity.


The FAQ will give you all the info you need but basically this allows the artists the opportunity to generate some revenue based on the goodwill of their audience - the "fan" can donate as much or as little as they deem fit as a token of their appreciation of the work, be it a blog, a peice of music or any other artistic endevour.

As an artist you can put the "tip jar" widget on any site where you feel folk might reward you, which in itself is handy, but, and here's the sweet part, you can put the same jar on more than one site - so if you are a renaisance artist,with songs artwork and a blog you can channel tips from all three into one account.

Quite apt with all the talk of the credit crunch.

Springtime for Indies and Oh Emm Dees

Consider this:

You can carefully craft a tune in the luxury of your own bedroom and, with a little skill (and maybe even a little talent?), you have the power at your fingertips to create a piece that is technically and artistically as good as anything that any signed artist is producing.

Before you “acoustic” artists berate me saying “that’s fine for an electronic musician but what about me” just reflect on the fact that for the cost of a few rehearsal sessions you could probably turn your own PC/laptop into a passable mixing desk and, using the skills honed on a portastudio (whaddyamean you’ve never heard of them?), produce a decent recording of a “live” session.

If you are reading this there is also a strong probability that you also have access to a virtually free method of distribution, via the various on line hosting sites, some of whom even provide a way to get paid.

For a minimal outlay (i.e. the cost of your equipment) you have a product, the means of distribution, and even a potential income –so why aren’t you as big as the Stones?

The traditional answer is that you are lacking promotion, but even THAT is questionable these days.

Even with the backing of major corporations musical tastes have now become so fragmented that major advertising campaigns no longer translate to major sales.

It may be a socialists dream come true that, at least in the musical field, the workers now hold the means of production and have been freed from the shackles of the Music Moguls exploitation, but now that we are all Producers who is going to peddle our wares to an increasingly shattered and fragmented market?

Preaching to the converted

Sometimes promoting your music via modern technology can seem a bit like the search for extra terrestrial life.

Take a look at Mashables 90+ On Line Music and Audio Websites along with this guide to OMD's and its no wonder, as an independant artist, that it must get frustrating trying to get heard.

The internet has the POTENTIAL to get your material beamed directly into the ears of millions of people who, if they only knew it, are your most ardent fans, but how in hells name do you get them to listen?

Type your own bands name into your search engine of choice and I'll warrrant that top of the list will inevitably be your MySpace profile, and therein lies the rub.

Despite its apparent brilliant manipulation by the likes of the Artic Monkeys and Lily Allen (I remain skeptical partly because of Miss Allen's showbiz links and partly because I refuse to conceed that anyone could ever seriously suggest that the Artic Monkeys are anything other than sub-medoicre) , the accompanying gold rush by every unsigned artist (myself included)to attempt to emulate them has merely swamped the social networking site.

Ask youself where YOU would go to listen to new music - note the word listen- to new music? Is it the same place that you host your own material on? And if it is, other than fellow users of the site, do you share this place and recommend it to your MySpace friends?


Its all very well wanting people to listen to your stuff amnd recommend it to others but ask yourself how often do YOU recommend something to others?

Karma dude, do unto others and all that.

Radio Mperia at IAC

The Independant Artist Company is still a viable option if you want to sell tracks.

However,as the limit on the free option is two tracks it will probably not net you that much unless you plan releases the way they used to plan single releases (anyone remember the Blur/Oasis "battle" back in the nineties)

There is another use for this site, namely for exposure. Embedded in this blog is the Radio Mperia playlist streaming through the XSFP player via IAC

If you want to be included on the playlist and get exposure via this blog, and the Radio Mperia Myspace profile,and anywhwere else that I can find to paste it, then simply open an account at IAC, upload two songs & let me know where they are so I can add them to the playlist.

Yes,I wish that you could just upload them and they'd be automatically added, but at the moment this is the only way until someone fulfills the wish list outlined on the Mperia Legacy post

I'll leave it up to you whether you sell them via IAC