A tale of two (Music) websites and why using Bandcamp wins

Phil Widdows

I started writing this on Facebook while waiting for the servers to reboot/verify (overnight power outage) and then thought I would pop it here instead.

Let’s start with some background (get comfy this is a bumpy ride)

Every month FolkCast, put out a podcast that arrives in my MP3 player and provides 1 hour and 18 minutes of interesting folk music, some old stuff and some new. Folkcast is run by Phil Widdows (that’s him on the right) and Ken Nicol (who’s website exhibits some of the very issues we will be covering later).

This is mainly about the new stuff and one #hit and one #fail.

Lets start with the hit. The theme for the show was “Spring Into May: A Seasonal Special Music and poetry for the Spring to early Summer, from Easter to the Merry Merry Month of May.” I would suggest that you click on the link and you can have the show playing in background – who knows what you will find.

#Hit

Neal Cousin

About 5 tracks into the show was “The Hit”” was Neil Cousin and his song “Oh For The Spring” (that’s it below)

I followed the link on the Folkcast website and found myself at Neil’s Bandcampsite. A quick sampling (or 2 or 3 or lots) and it was a no-brainer to slip him the 5 quid and get the album (as FLAC – insert audio snobbery here).

So, 2 days to check it out, a painless fiver via Paypal and a 15 minute download. Deal is done. (My PC automatically uploaded it to my phone and tablet so it’s there for me to check out on the tram to work in the morning)

And as added bonus Neil had already responded to the tweets I left and he seems to be a really nice dude. (I love Twitter)

This is how music works for me in the 21st century. Podcasts replace radio’s curation function (except for 3RRR and that is a whole other story) and they do it better, friends recommend stuff via Twitter (follow @dubber or @solobasssteve. It’s rare for a day to go by and them not to mention something new) and then there is the joy of seeing who else a performer is listening to and following up their lists.

I followed the link on the Folkcast website and found myself at Neil’s Bandcampsite. A quick sampling (or 2 or 3 or lots) and it was a no-brainer to slip him the 5 quid and get the album (as FLAC – insert audio snobbery here).

So, 2 days to check it out, a painless fiver via Paypal and a 15 minute download. Deal is done. (My PC automatically uploaded it to my phone and tablet so it’s there for me to check out on the tram to work in the morning)

And as added bonus Neil had already responded to the tweets I left and he seems to be a really nice dude. (I love Twitter)

This is how music works for me in the 21st century. Podcasts replace radio’s curation function (except for 3RRR and that is a whole other story) and they do it better, friends recommend stuff via Twitter (follow @dubber or @solobasssteve. It’s rare for a day to go by and them not to mention something new) and then there is the joy of seeing who else a performer is listening to and following up their lists.

#Miss

What about the miss I hear you ask, well a dozen or so tracks later (Folkcast is a 2 hour show remember) was a track by a band called Magicfolk.

Same deal – tasty guitar, I follow their link and end up at their website.

I spot ”listen” in the side menu and was taken to a page that had a good selection of material, including the song I was looking for (Green Man for those of you playing along at home).

And here is where the wheels all fall off.

ALL the tracks listed on the page are 30 second samples. Yep, and to add insult to injury – it wasn’t even the 30 secs with the guitar bit that caught my attention. #megafail.

I rummage around and sadly this is as good as it gets, I head to Twitter (of course I do) and here I run into the next problem.

Their twitter and Facebook links are only on the contact page in their entire website (oops just spotted another brace of links at the bottom of the News page). So I send off a tweet and suddenly realise that they haven’t actually used it since Feb. Somehow I don’t see me getting a tweet back any time soon.

I could go to their Facebook page (which I subsequently did) and it hadn’t been touched for ages either, but wait it has a “Listen” button on it. BUT that takes you to “the new MySpace” and the same 30 sec samples, except none of the new stuff is there.

By now I have lost interest, the Folkcast podcast has over 20 tracks and there is some other great stuff to be followed up. There is a killer Steeleye track that I had never heard, and in a later tweet Phil told me that it was from a Live 2009 album Steeleye did, and yes it too has tasty guitar… but you already had guessed that

The End

Let me start with I am not “picking on” Magicfolk, they are just the latest in a long line of performers who go out of their way to make it near impossible for me to hear their music. Ken Nicol’s website has the same problem. I can’t hear the tracks before I whack down the money. On the plus side there are some great YouTube videos.

Over half the acts that I follow up in the UK folk scene have exactly the same website issues. You can’t hear the music – go figure. You are in the business of selling music. But you don’t want any one to hear it – the bad guys might steal it. The punters might get something for nothing. And so on. I have heard this argument time and time again.

Let’s look at an alternative, Steve Lawson, plays solo bass (and if you thought English folk was obscure – Steve wins hands down in the esoteric stakes).

Lets have a listen to him here This is his album Grace and Gratitude.

Now Steve let’s you hear and share all his music. You never have to give him a cent. But people do (I am one of them – hint buy the “everything” USB stick). I have chatted with Steve on twitter, he is a generous and inspiring soul. Through Steve I have found Emily Baker, Lobelia, Mike Outram, Neil Alexander, Daniel Berkman and a cast of hundreds.

Do I like everything he suggests? Hell no. BUT do I give everything he points out a listen? You betcha.

Is he successful? Go onto twitter/his website and ask him. I think he is.

What I heard on the podcast was interesting enough to make me jump through the Magicfolk hoops. BUT the experience (i.e. no music) has left the fiver firmly in my Paypal wallet unlike Neil who has something better than the fiver.

He scored a fan.

– Thatch

Originally published on ThatchSpace.

I am in complete agreement with the sentiments expressed. I am at a complete and total loss when I find musicians not using bandcamp. The same musicians who probably whine and complain, no one has heard of them, no one books them, no one downloads or buys their music.

Last summer I was at Staycation, a wonderful free music by the side of the River Wey in Godalming. I talked to most of the people who played. Very few had even heard of bandcamp, let alone had music there. Most were interested and a keen to follow through, but a few told me of how many sites they were on, and thus it was not for them. Those who had lots of sites my reaction was so what, and when I checked them out, nothing was up to date.

And why is anyone still using MySpace?

Recently I met Richard Smerin sat outside a bar in Puerto de la Cruz. He was just amusing himself, playing a guitar. We got chatting and I bought a couple of his CDs. I told him he must be on bandcamp, he half listened, but was not really interested, was already on dozens of sites, and if anyone wished to listen to his music, go to his site.

I did, and as I expected, the media player was awful, one of the worst I have seen. Why bother, why reinvent an inferior wheel? If on bandcamp, can embed on ones own website.

Maybe a little unfair on Richard Smerin, as I have picked him out, but sadly he is not atypical.

When are people going to learn, a few seconds of lofi mp3 is not doing yourself or your music any favours?

If people like your music, write about it, share with others, they are doing you a great big favour.

The West End Centre recently had retweet this gig and you get put in a draw for a free CD. This is a win-win for everyone. The venue gets publicity, the artists gets publicity, a few people get a free CD to tell their mates about.

We have 5 copies of Duke Special album Oh Pioneer to give away to a good home before his gig here on Wed 17 Apr. Retweet to enter the draw!—
west end centre (@teamwesty) April 02, 2013

I had never heard of Duke Special before. Although I have yet to listen Oh Pioneer, I have listened to his music, passed to others, said worth listening to. All because of one tweet by West End Centre and a free CD I was invited to collect.

• Lucky
• Condition
• Under the dark Cloth

Tonight they have Chris Wood, first night of a UK tour. They have tweeted his album on bandcamp, take a listen, if you like, are you not more likely to go along, maybe send to your mates invite them along too?

Chris Wood begins his UK tour tonight – in Aldershot! Be the first lucky folk to hear his new album… chriswoodfolkmusician.bandcamp.com/album/none-the…—
west end centre (@teamwesty) April 25, 2013

And I completely agree on Steve Lawson. Great music, knows how to use social media, and his blog is a must read. As is his book Rock and Roll is Dead.

Same goes for Andrew Dubber and if you have not read The 360 Deal, then please do, as it is a must read.

Rush Hour by The Ged Brockie Band

As I noted with I Have a Story To Tell I am no great lover of jazz. To me it is all of a sameness and were I to listen I would fall asleep of boredom.

There are though exceptions. For example Long Pair Bond Icelandic jazz from Sunna Gunnlaugs is an absolute must listen. Although Rush Hour is more mainstream jazz than I Have a Story To Tell I find I still like it.

Does this mean I am becoming a jazz lover? Absolutely no way.

The Ged Brockie Band make good use of youtube and I am pleased to learn they are busy uploading their albums to bandcamp which should be available to listen to, share, download, any day soon.

I have yet to understand why any band does not put their music on bandcamp. If they are not aware of bandcamp, that is fair comment, but if they are aware it is perverse. Maybe they like being ripped off, like their friends to hear lofi samples, like to wallow in obscurity.

The Ged Brockie Band will be touring across Scotland and England in March-April 2013.

The state of the music industry

The state of the music industry

How it was for a very long time

How it was in 1999

How it is now

Where it needs to go from here

Brilliant portrayal of the state of the music industry by The Oatmeal.

The future has arrived but many are still stuck in the past.

The major record labels are dead but do not realise they are dead. They try self-resuscitation by criminalising those who love music, who wish to listen to and share music.

The abysmal failure of NBC in covering the London 2012 Olympics, putting profit before viewers, is a classic example of the contempt old media has for its users.

There are still apologists for the record labels, an example of which was a recent article in The Guardian, its author spouting nonsense.

Who needs a record label? A twitter account is of more us than a record label. On offer is distribution. When did you last see a record shop?

Napster was a step in the right direction only it led off down a side alley. Yes, it bypassed the greedy record labels, but it failed to put money into the pockets of creative artists, though it did lead to greater exposure by making sharing easier.

I have yet to understand why anyone uses iTunes or spotify.

iTunes take a big cut, you cannot appreciate music from a few seconds lofi sample.

————— ditto Amazon —————

Spotify pays a pittance, it pays money to the major record labels, but worse of all it follows the facebook model, it steals personal data either through spotify or through facebook apps.

Bandcamp is the future. It makes it easy to listen, to share, to download music. The downloads are available in high quality flac, should you require better quality than lofi mp3. Should you wish to download and buy or order an album, bandcamp takes 15%. Bandcamp only does well if the creative artists do well. They have a mutually shared interest. For the music lover, they can listen, they can share, and if they wish to buy they can do so with the reassurance the money they pay is going straight into the pocket of musicians, not to a record label. [see mp3 v FLAC]

Last month bandcamp passed the amazing milestone of $20 million direct into the pockets of bandcamp musicians.

I am baffled why so few musicians are on bandcamp, still put their music on iTunes and spotify, when bandcamp offers a much better deal. Or why they try and reinvent the wheel and offer a cumbersome process on their own websites.

A couple of weeks ago I checked out a few of the artists due to appear at the Wimbledon Music Festival. None were on bandcamp. A few let you listen to a few seconds of lofi. Others no ability to listen. Why would I buy or go to a concert when I have no idea what their music is like? For those where you could by it was cumbersome and not worth the effort unless what you were buying was an absolute must.

It is shocking how many musicians are still stuck in an era that no longer exists and has failed them.

• Using internet and social media
• Solo artists in music

Using internet and social media

West End Centre cultural oasis in the cultural wasteland of Aldershot

SHOCK NEWS! Twitter late at night is not a sedative. — West End Centre, 1-46am 10 July 2012

@keithpp what’s on details are on website. That is where you will find all the facts. . — West End Centre, 10 July 2012

Tweet us your favourite thought for today… — West End Centre, 1 July 2012

Is going to penalties footballers’ equivalent of an encore? — West End Centre, 24 June 2012

..and don’t forget farnborough event tomorrow either… — West End Centre, 22 June 2012

There are those who know how to make effective use of the internet and see what is has to offer: Paulo Coelho, Andrew Dubber, Steve Lawson, Imogen Heap, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood.

They see the benefits internet has to offer to creative artists.

There are those who see the internet as a threat to their business model, they fail to see the world has moved on, they try to criminalise people.

When Paulo Coelho saw a man on the street selling pirate copies of his books, he went over to have a chat, he wanted to talk to the man. But the man saw it as a threat, ran away. Paulo Coelho wanted to thank him for taking the trouble to make more people aware of his books.

When people download music from Steve Lawson and share it with their friends, he does not think OMG, this must be stopped. He is pleased that they are taking the trouble to tell people about his music. No one tells it better than the people who like it.

Marketing people and PR and lobbyists I ignore. They are paid liars.

Critics I ignore. They rarely know what they are talking about.

If people tell me read this book, listen to this music, I usually ignore them too.

I make my own mind up what to read, what to listen to.

There are though rare exceptions. A friend has a vast record collection. If he says something is worth listening to I will give it a listen.

When a friend gave me The Eight to read, I read it. She brought if from the US to Istanbul. I passed it on and it is now in Moscow.

The best advice to a musician is be on twitter. It is far more important to be on twitter than a record label. You do not need a record label, but you do need twitter.

• What do record labels exist for?

But if you feel you really need to be on a record label, then sign up to Any And All Records.

Having a twitter account is not in itself enough, you have to use it effectively. What is it you do? Only you know the answer, but that is what you tweet about. If you are a baker you tweet about bread. A restaurant the dish of the day. A musician the latest album you have released, the next gig.

Social networks, split it down.

• social – interaction
• networks – many to many

It is not broadcast, one to many.

Do not tweet drivel. Not unless you want to piss people off, be followed by trolls and be seen by the people you need to communicate with as a total dick head.

One of the worst examples I have seen of the use of twitter is by the West End Centre, a cultural oasis in the wasteland of Aldershot. Occasional useful tweets lost in a sea of juvenile drivel. If the West End personnel wish to tweet juvenile drivel to their mates, that is fine, but do so from your own personal account, not an official account.

Asked repeatedly to please restrict to what is on and other useful, relevant information, their response was look at our website, do not follow us, our customers like our informal style.

Style is not a problem, it can be formal or informal, content does matter.

Yes, you can go to their website. Twitter should be to compliment their website, to deliver timely information.

Yes, you do do not have to follow them on twitter. But if everyone took that advice, they would have no followers. One assumes they want followers, want people to attend their venue, but people will only do that if they know what is on.

Anyone who has the audacity to highlight the West End Centre as an example of poor use of social media gets subject to a torrent of orchestrated abuse.

Some people like a venue, like the buzz, the atmosphere, meet their mates, it is almost irrelevant what is on.

With a few notable exceptions, I am the opposite. I will only go if there is something worth going to. I am hard to reach. But if you get me there, and I like, I am more likely to tell others.

The Barn is a cutural space in Farnham. Literally a barn. It is hidden in a courtyard, blink as you walk by and you would miss it. The West End Centre would be well advised to look at how they use twitter (unless of course they wish to remain a laughing stock).

The only criticism I would make of The Barn is that too often they tweet a link and nothing more. They need to say what it is about, else why visit, or you visit and find of no interest and will be less inclined to follow the next time. Nothing worse than wasting time following dead ends. Also make use of hashtags to reach beyond their followers.

For a musician being on bandcamp is as essential as being on twitter. People can listen to your music (I assume you want people to listen to it), can share with their mates (no one can like your music until they have heard it), can download high quality audio files, buy albums.

Although you do see the posting of individual tracks on bandcamp, it is primarily for albums. For tracks, work in progress, soundcloud is better, and you can always then collect together into an album on bandcamp.

For writers, the equivalent of bandcamp is wattpad, though personally I like bandcamp a lot more than wattpad.

This month bandcamp passed an amazing milestone: $20 million direct into the pockets of grass roots musicians.

If you can produce high quality video, then vimeo and youtube are a must. Please do not upload rubbish from a mobile phone from a pub. You are not doing yourself any favours. If you are good, then you want people to see you are good. If you are crap, well there is not a lot can be done, but as they say, practice makes perfect.

The Crypt Sessions are a good example of excellent videos.

• Reasons – Ahab

If you were applying for a job, you do not perform at your worst, not unless it is the local Job Centre forcing you to apply for some McShit job you do not want.

A blog is useful, but only if you have something worthwhile to say and can write (or if you cannot write you have to have something very worthwhile to say).

I was talking to a guitarist busking on the street. He said he wrote a blog. He was busking around Europe, he wrote about the places he visited.

An excellent blog and a must for musicians, is the blog written by bass-player Steve Lawson.

Another good blog is that written by nine-year-old Martha Payne. She is currently on holiday and has invited in guest bloggers. NeverSeconds has clocked up over 7 million hits!

For a how to then Music in the Digital Age by Andrew Dubber is a must read!

A picture tells a story. For individual pictures use twitpic, for albums flckr or facebook.

With facebook beware it is a walled garden, you do not wish to see people forced to join to see your pictures. Construct tunnels through the wall.

The one place not to be apart from legacy reasons is myspace.

Then tie it all together. In the blog embed an album from bandcamp. Tweet about the gig you have just written about on your blog.

• Andrew Dubber and Steve Lawson discussing use of the internet
• Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012
• “Twitter is art”
• Paulo Coelho: “Tweeting Is Art”

What do record labels exist for?

Any And All Records

Do we need record labels, if yes, then what do they exist for?

One common myth is they exist to filter out the rubbish. The same argument could be put forward for publishers.

We hear all the time of writers who were rejected by a hundred publishers before anyone would take them on.

I dare say musicians have similar stories to tell.

In which case, why is there so much rubbish on record labels? Why are so many bad writers being published?

In other words they are not acting as filters. Far from it. Often as not it is the good stuff that is rejected, it is rejected because it is different. That is why we hear of the writer who was rejected by one hundred publishers. We read their book and think, how could this have been rejected?

The rubbish is then hyped and the public brainwashed into buying.

What then of those creative artists we have never heard of? Who send off their demo disks, their manuscripts, only to get rejected.

The record labels, the publishers, are not acting as filters, they are acting as gatekeepers, deciding what will be read, what will be heard.

Anyone who has the money, can go into a recording studio and record good music. Many sadly go in and record poorly engineered crap, but that is another story.

On the other hand you can invest in your own recording equipment.

At the end of the day good music is good because it is good music, not because it has been hyped by a record label.

A twitter account is more important than a record label, but only if you use it effectively.

• Steve Lawson on books, music, communication and sharing
• Paulo Coelho: “Tweeting Is Art”
• “Twitter is art”
• A Conversation With Paulo Coelho
• Atwood leads the way in social media and new publishing

For those unsigned artists, Andrew Dubber and Steve Lawson have set up a record label, Any And All Records.

• Steve Lawson and Andrew Dubber discussing record labels
• We started a record label
• No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem

Three people, eight hours, £17 and Any And All Records the world’s fastest growing record label was up and running.

Impromptu – Darin Wilson

Conversations – Steve Lawson and Jez Carr

It is also vital to be on bandcamp, people can then easily listen to, share and download your music.

WattPad has been set up to provide a platform for writers and poets.

• Margaret Atwood: why Wattpad works

About the only useful thing record labels ever did was put records into record shops. But could you listen?

When was the last time you saw a record shop?

Rounder Records in Brighton Record is to close at the end of July after 46 years trading.

• Rounder Records to close

Spillers Records in Cardiff which claims to be ‘The Oldest Record Shop In The World’ narrowly avoided closure and eventually had to move from its prime high street spot in 2010 after 60 years in the same location.

Record shops have gone the same was as bookshops. Record shops destroyed by the big record labels, bookshops destroyed by the big publishers.

• A quarter of independent bookshops lost in last five years
• What’s gone wrong with our bookshops?

Good record shops do still exist, Ben’s Records in Guildford, Resident in Brighton, but they are a rarity.

Behold the Glory of the Discoverinator!

Something of a mouthfull, but basically it is a way of finding what you may like on bandcamp.

Not, I would add, the way I find music on bandcamp. I watch what is selling, as it is sold, and what is the top sellers. Plus other people’s recomendations. Though here I am very wary, as most people have appallingly bad taste. What I do not recommend is the staff picks, as they tend to promote garbage.

But it is a very clever way of finding new music and worth giving a try.

It was through Steve Lawson using Discoverinator, yeah I hate the word which in itself puts me off using it, and showing that it picked his albums, that I found Listen to the Silence. His own work I was already familiar with. Serendipity at work!

If you use Discoverinato, you are only going to find music in the genres you are familiar with. My method is more random and throws up what you would not have found. Throws up a lot of rubbish too, but that is life.

And it assumes you can categorise by genre. Most of the music I like does not fall into a category, or rarely does.

And it assumes what you like is on bandcamp. If a favourite artist is not on bandcamp, do as I do and ask why not? Maybe they have not not heard of bandcamp. Some take the perverse decision not to be on bandcamp.

Why? What? There are hundreds of thousands of albums on Bandcamp, but no easy way to browse through them and find your new favorite band. So we set out to build something that would take what we love most about traditional record stores — the serendipitous discovery that happens when we go to our favorite section and just flip through covers — and combine it with elements that are uniquely Bandcamp: the ability to listen to full streams, browse through every artist’s merch, see what the bands themselves recommend, and explore a deep and constantly expanding catalog of great independent music. That’s the Discoverinator. Want to hear the best-selling metal on vinyl this week? Recent indie cassette arrivals? The electronica most loved by the bands themselves? The Discoverinator delivers all of it and more. We’ve found it produces new and interesting results far more reliably than the barrage of what-our-friends-are-listening-to-right-now, and is just a hell of a lot more fun. Try it out at bandcamp.com/discover.

How do I control which track from my album plays in the Discoverinator? In a few weeks we’ll launch a new album editor that allows you to pick a featured track (which not only means it becomes the one that plays here, but is also cued up first whenever your album is embedded). Until then, your featured track is picked automatically based on popularity. (Note that some accounts have the new album editor already — if you’re one of them, just edit your album, and click the star icon next to the track name you want to feature.)

What about mobile? Working on it!

Is there anything I can do to maximize my presence in the Discoverinator? First, make sure you’ve picked your genre, otherwise you won’t appear in it at all. You can do that from your Profile page. And if you want your merch to show up when fans browse by format (and who would not?), then edit your albums, choose “add package” and get to it (including photos of your vinyl/CDs/etc. is key — they look great here and will boost your sales). We also encourage you to add a bio image and make your own recommendations.

Why can’t I browse by? Good question, please tell us more in the comments. Thank you!

• Behold the Glory of the Discoverinator!

Ticketmaster ticket scam scuppered

Nothing pisses me off more than trying to buy tickets for a concert and finding the ticket office tries to charge me for the privelege of buying a ticket.

Worse still are parasites Ticketmaster who levy a charge for selling tickets.

Worst still is that Ticketmaster pimp for scum of the earth ticket touts.

Well done therefore String Cheese Incident who have scuppered the Ticketmaster ticket scam.

• A Band Battles Ticketmaster on Sales Fees

In what can be seen as a novel form of crowd sourcing and community supported music, fifty fans and friends of the band String Cheese Incident took $20,000 in cash to the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The cash had been advanced by the band. With the cash they bought tickets, eight tickets each at $49.95. Then they took the tickets to the band who sold them through their website at $49.95 each, thus bypassing Ticketmaster and their markup.

I had not heard of String Cheese Incident, let alone heard them. For all I know they may be crap musically, but they certainly have integrity. We need more bands to follow their example.

It is not only the major record labels who are screwing bands and their fans. It is is also parasites like Ticketmaster and the ticket touts they pimp for.

Now all we need is String Cheese Incident to put their albums on bandcamp.

Moment In Time‏

An album of a single track of 30, 50, 60 or longer minutes is acceptable.

An album of a single track of 7.17 minutes is taking the piss.

There are some, albeit a tiny minority, who think it ok to put an album of several tracks on bandcamp, but only make one or two tracks at most available to listen to.

No it is not ok. It is an abuse of bandcamp which makes it possible to listen to an entire album, not only enables sharing but makes sharing easy.

Maybe they fear those who like the album will share it with their friends. If that be the case they have little understanding of bandcamp and should not be there.

If they only wish to make a few seconds lofi sample, then stick to iTunes or spotify where everyone gets ripped off.

Vitamin String Quartet are a classic example of crass stupidity. They make some good music, but it seems they wish no one to listen to it, as all they make available is a few seconds lofi sample. The only reason I know they make some good music is because kind souls have done their work for them and uploaded to youtube.

• Goodnight and Go – Imogen Heap – Vitamin String Quartet
• Lifeline – Imogen Heap – Vitamin String Quartet

There is a lot of rubbish on bandcamp, but also some good stuff too.

We judge a book by its cover, an album by its artwork. It is therefore essential that artists who have exercised great care with their music exercise the same care with their atwork.

Too many are let down by their cover art.

Moment In Time‏ is by no means the worse I have seen, I have seen some pretty atrocious album art, but it verges between mediocricy and bad.

Shadwoboxer produce good music, but let down by poor album art. I suggested an artist, they expressed an interest but then failed to grasp the opportunity. All that the artist was asking was that they mentioned her and the name of the work.

We all have the same opportunities. Those that bemoan the luck of others, and go through live so bemoaning, are those who fail to grasp the opportunities life has offered. On their deathbed, they regret a wasted life, but by then it is too late. We have to learn to read the signs, take risks, follow our dreams.

• Reading the signs
• Live a lie and regret or take risks and follow your dreams

I am more than happy to share the music I find with others. Sadly not all make this posible or easy. Not all posses the foresight of Steve Lawson or Paulo Coelho.

• A book for the price of a song
• To know the price of everything and the value of nothing

There are though exceptions. Not all the music I mention is worth sharing. The only reason Moment In Time‏ gets a mention is to make a point, not for any music or artistic merit.

Why give music away free?

Why give music away free?

Paulo Coelho has rocked the publishing world by making his back catalogue available for download at 99 cents a book.

• A book for the price of a song

This was a deal negotiated at the London Book Fair by his agent Monica Antunes with HarperCollins in the USA. Currently it only applies to the US but pressure is being applied by his readers worldwide.

What Paulo Coelho is forcing is a paradigm shift.

The comments in Publishers Weekly give an idea of how controversial. His readers are all in favour. They think it a great idea, they can see that more people will read his books.

• Tracking Amazon: Coelho E-books Dropped to $1, Skyrocket

Those dependent on the old discredit model just do not get it, as can be seen by comments from a man who admits he is an agent for authors, though he refuses to say who his clients are.

He just does not get it that the old discredited model is finished. A business model that criminalizes those who may wish to buy, not exactly the way to win friends and influence (though lobbyists who whore for them can always buy a few corrupt politicians).

Musicians too have woken up to this new world. They put their music on bandcamp, where it can be listened to for free (the entire album not a few second lofi sample), easily shared and often downloaded for free or pay-what-you-think-it-is-worth or a minimum price. And guess what, people are willing to pay more. People are willing to pay more because they know the money is going to the creative artists who make the music they love, not to a greedy, faceless, global corporation, which at best treats music as a commodity.

One such group is Hope and Social. And guess what? They are making more money, and having more fun, than when they followed the conventional model of being on a corporate record label.

Hope and Social explain why their music is free in a post Why ‘Pay What You Can’? which I reproduce in its entirety below.

• Music is Not Our Currency
• Why give music away for free?
• Thinking freely: New business models for the digital economy
• “Sharing Is Not Stealing” – Cost, Value And The Desire To Share
• The Problem With Music

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We release just about everything we do as Pay What You Can. We make music, you pay us whatever you think it’s worth. The minimum price for downloads is a big fat zero. The minimum price for physical (CD’s etc) is cost of manufacture + post and packing. If you come to see us at a gig we’ll sell you a CD for whatever you want to pay.

Why do we do this?

We believe that the old fashioned record industry model is on it’s last legs. We believe that it’s better to sell direct to fans than via shops. We believe that we now exist in an environment where recorded music is essentially available for free and that environment is totally created by the laziness of the record industry and why fight that? If you want our music you are more than welcome to it. Please… take it, play it, give it to your friends. If you feel that the music we make has value to you then feel free to give us some money. If you do give us some money then you can do so safe in the knowledge that all that money goes to us. It does not go to Apple ot HMV or Sony or some other massive corporation to whom your pounds are such a tiny fraction of their turnover but it all goes to us where it directly allows us to buy the petrol for the next gig or get the next cd pressed or even buy some food or something!

Believe us, we appreciate whatever people give us greatly and we are constantly amazed at how generous people are. In 2009 we made more money giving music away in a year than we have ever made in any of the 10 years previous of selling recorded music for fixed prices in shops, paying for PR and advertising etc… While we are still a league away from making a living wage from this we do believe that is the future for us and for many other bands.

If there’s one thing we would say it’s this. If you love a band find a way to give them money or help or just applause. They will need it and they will appreciate it.

Sharing of data between facebook and third parties

Not worried about data transfer between facebook and third parties? Well maybe you should be.

When you click on a facebook app, have you not noticed it requires access to your personal information? Is this necessary to play a time-wasting game? Why does it need this information?

Log in to many sites and it gives you an option of facebook login rather than typing in your ID and password.

Sounds easy, one click too easy.

What data transfer takes place? Even if none, and that is doubtful, do you reallly want facebook to know all your affairs?

Privacy to facebook is an alien concept. Your personal data is a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder.

- ‘We didn’t mean to track you’ says Facebook as social network giant admits to ‘bugs’ in new privacy row
- Facebook Is Not Your Friend
- Facebook Offers More Disclosure to Users

Always log in with your ID and password, do not be tempted by the one click option.

I clicked on spotify, it came up in a search, I was actually trying to find an article in The Guardian that was referred to in an excellent podcast on spotify and why it is best avoided.

I have no wish to use spotify, no wish to join.

It came up with an on-line registration form already completed that included:

• name (incl number of friends on facebook)
• e-mail address
• sex
• date of birth
• list of facebook friends who use spotify

All neatly completed with a single click to facebook to save me the time and trouble of filling out their registration form.

But I had never asked to register, I had simply clicked on spotify. Some of the information I had deleted from facebook, and yet it was still there to be transferred to a third party.

When you are logged into facebook, it logs everything you are doing. When you log out of facebook it continues to log what you are doing via software it installs on your computer!

I have no interest being on or using spotify. Why use spotify when there is a far far better alternative, where money is gong direct to the musicians, not to global corporations, even when the artists are not on their labels?

- Why I’ve Taken My Music Off Spotify…
- Why Spotify can never be profitable: The secret demands of record labels

I will make that last point more explicit, as it is important that it is understood: In the highly unlikely event that were I to download and pay for music from spotify where the artist is on an independent label or not even on a label, the major labels get a cut, even though they have not signed the artist!

Steve Lawson is on bandcamp (he was on spotify). I can listen to either of his albums 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything or Believe In Peace for free, I can share these albums with my friends, I can download for free, should I choose to pay for a download (and I set the price not Steve), bandcamp gets a cut of 15%.

The Sixteen have their own independent record label Coro. The Sixteen are on spotify but as yet not on bandcamp. Should I choose to download and pay for The Earth Resounds, the music of their Choral Pilgrimage 2012 which started last week with its premier performance in Winchester Cathedral, the major record labels take a cut, even though The Sixteen are not on a major label, have their own independent label Coro.

Why use spotify when there is bandcamp? With bandcamp at least you know the money is going to the pocket of an artist, not to a faceless coroportation.

- Slow music
- Community supported music
- A Little “Buy Music With Bandcamp” Primer…
- Tweet-Rant #2 : 23 Tweets About Bandcamp

The business model for spotify is to generate business for spotify. The business for spotify is to generate business for spotify.

Bandcamp lets you share the music you like, makes it easy to download, easy to buy. If you buy, the artist gets paid and bandcamp gets a cut.

The business model for bandcamp is to generate revenue for their artists, as it is only through generating revenue for the artists that bandcamp gets paid. Thus the interest of the artist and bandcamp coincide.

The spotify model is generate contacts off the back of the artists, which benefits spotify, not the artist.

Call this the facebook business model. The more friends you collect, the more links you make, the greater the data pool for facebook to mine.

There are four major threats to internet:

• government – censorship of what you may see, spying on what you do
• facebook – enter our walled garden and enjoy the delights within, sell your soul at the gate to gain access
• apple – enter our walled garden and enjoy the delights within, sell your soul at the gate to gain access
• corporate control of music – criminalisation of those who love and wish to share music

The UK is trying to bring in legislation to enable spying on what every citizen does on the net, every web page viewed, every phone conversation, every sms text message, every e-mail of every citizen.

- UK Police State

The music industry tried and failed to control the internet with Sopa, they are now trying again with Acta.

- Say NO to ACTA

I checked out hotels on TripAdvisor. The same hotels popped up on hotmail and twitpic.

I used google to translate Japanese. Adverts in Japanese popped up on twitpic.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. If it appears free, then you are the product on sale.

Facebook paid $1 billion for an application that turns good pictures into grotty pictures, an application that any competent software designer could knock out in a couple of weeks. Facebook paid $1 billion for the users. $1 billion is a crude measure of what your personal data is worth to facebook. One billion reasons why users of the application are deleting their accounts.

- Facebook, Instagram, Google, and the Monopoly Fallacy
- A billion reasons to beware of the latest dotcom bubble
- Don’t want Facebook to have more of your data? Here’s how to download and delete your Instagram account

Bandcamp is not free. It is free to listen to the music in the same way it is free to browse in a shop, you do not pay an entry fee at the door, do not have to fill out a registration form, show an ID. When you buy music through bandcamp, 15% of what you pay goes to bandcamp.

Top Story in Privacy Daily (Monday 16 April 2012).