There are two aspects that form the basis of our philosophy. Firstly we believe that artists/musicians should have a way (or mechanism) to earn more royalties for their creations… and Secondly, there already exists a way for this to happen, its called ‘super-distribution’, (people powered distribution) often simply referred to as P2P. …but there is a way to dramatically change the equation.
We believe that what is needed is to utilize the best attributes of P2P file sharing technology, but to radically change the way the technology is applied so that ordinary people actually earn money by becoming the new distribution channel for digital music. To achieve this will not be easy, but the end result could be nothing short of revolutionary, so we want to start to make it happen.
OK, a bit of P2P history…. Since Napster and other file sharing applications came along, the power of super-distribution of music has found itself in an all out war with the orthodox systems of copyright and the ownership of music. .[open a full image of this cartoon in new window, by clicking it, recommended!]
Napster and numerous other technology companies that had developed super-distribution applications, were shut down by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which also has filed law suits against more than 30,000 US citizens, for downloading music that is legally subject to copyright protections.
So the answer, we believe, is to level the playing field…
We believe that there can be a new way to apply the super-distribution properties of peer-to-peer file sharing, and one of the key aspects would be to monetize the exchange of digital data in a file sharing network so that people are rewarded for collectively becoming a new distributed distribution channel for music. Part of the solution will be to enable independent Artists who own the copyright on their music to trade freely in such a way that they can potentially make a proper living.
We will work with Artists who have existing obligations to their record companies, publishers and distributors to assist with necessary compliance but as time goes by we believe that even main stream bands will move across to distribute their music independently, but this will happen gradually. The reason we believe this will start to happen is that musicians, song writers and bands can receive higher royalties, because there would be far fewer entities in the music value chain, and the concept of fans and bands working together to distribute music, and both getting paid for that, is an idea that makes sense and is long over due.
[follow this link if you would like to know more about the context behind the philosophy of the project ]