Haunting music, interesting video, more like a modern dance routine or a minimalist drama.
Tiny Human, is the first release from Imogen Heap since her album Sparks, aka HeapSongs, released early 2014. Scamp, her daughter, happened along the way, and was her inspiration for Tiny Human.
Imogen Heap, Immie to her friends, has released Tiny Human as an experiment, to test out her idea of Mycelium.
The music industry is in crisis, or so we are repeatedly told by the record industry and its apologists.
When was the last time you bought a CD or a record? Chances are, you’re listening to more music than ever, but buying less of it.
As has been repeatedly shown by bass player Steve Lawson and music professor Andrew Dubber, this is not the case.
The music industry is not in crisis, it is in a healthy state, it costs a fraction of what it once did to record and release music, artists can communicate directly with their fans.
What is in crisis, is the major record labels, for years they ripped off fans and artists, now they are no longer needed.
In terms of sales of shiny circular bits of plastic, sales have not collapsed as we are led to believe, not if we add in DVDs and games.
If I look at the last four weeks, I have bought as many CDs as the number of weeks. Actually more, and a DVD, and several books. But maybe I am atypical.
What Imogen Heap is trying to do, and using Tiny Human as an experimental release, is to elimnate the middle (unless they add value) and use the blockchain (the on-line database that tracks and logs) to keep track of where the music goes and to facilitate payments to the artist.
The blockchain will hold all the information, artwork, recording studio, players, composer, lyricist, all that would be expected in sleeve notes, plus lots more. It could, for example, link to this article.
You can download Tiny Human for free, choose if you wish to make a payment using bitcoin.
bitcoin immie
Immie bitcoin address
- 16diWTDN8DUxsX994WzyNAotVp36qBqXku
Using bitcoin a mistake, it would have been better to have used faircoin.
Faircoin addresses many of the problems of bitcoin, but more importantly, it was established to support projects like Mycelia. Closer cooperation between the two, would be to the advantage of both.
Faicoin uses open source software, is reliant upon the blockchain. Collaboration would be in the interests of both.
In many ways Mycelia is an extension of bandcamp, which enables on-line listening, payment to artist, album notes, artist notes, and the artist gets the data.
Mycelia extends this further and is far more ambitious. To include every artist, could be extended to e-books, indeed anything of a digital nature.
No reason why bandcamp could not be a participating partner.
What bandcamp has shown, fans are willing to pay for music, support the artist they like.
There is no control. I would recommend Tiny Human, or maybe a future release, an album or EP, is released on bandcamp too. There is then something to compare with, currently nothing.
Maybe Zoe Keating or Jewelia release their next recording through bandcamp and Mycelia. We will then have a comparison.
- The Making of Tiny Human
- The New Music Industry, Mycelia and Tiny Release
- Imogen Heap’s Mycelia: An Artists’ Approach for a Fair Trade Music Business, Inspired by Blockchain (1 of 2)
- Imogen Heap Gets Specific About Mycelia: A Fair Trade Music Business Inspired By Blockchain (2 of 2)
- Imogen Heap: saviour of the music industry?
- Adele’s 25 set to make UK chart history as sales of new album soar
Blockchain: Each block contains a record of transactions. It is linked to the previous block, and contain a crypto-hash of the previous block. It is transparent, and available to everyone. It is these factors that make it secure.
- The Blockchain: A Promising New Infrastructure for Online Commons
- Blockchain: A Promising New Infrastructure for Online Commons
- Video: Rachel O’Dwyer on the Blockchain as Governance by Design
Tags: blockchain, Imogen Heap, music, Mycelia, Tiny Human
Keithpp's Blog 
November 25, 2015 at 2:08 pm |
http://kendra.io might be another step in this direction:
“Media Industry
Musicians, artists, bands, writers, filmmakers, photographers, record labels, managers, all need to manage the production process in more efficient ways. Kendra Initiative is investigating tools to assist with collaborative workflow and rights management.”
December 9, 2015 at 2:11 am |
An attack has been posted on Mycelia and Imogen Heap.
To my surprise, Michel Bauwens reposted on a closed P2P discussion.
http://rocknerd.co.uk/2015/12/02/imogen-heap-doesnt-make-the-blockchain-hype-make-sense-either/
Below my response …
I am surprised Michel you even wasted time posting this bullshit.
‘Nobody in the extant music industry has any interest in this working’
For this dumb statement, read Big Record Label Music Business.
Of course theu have no interest in it working, not only no interest, they will do everything possible to ensure it does not work. It would destroy the Big Record Label Music Business overnight.
That is all the more reason to make it work.
‘nearly fucking impossible to actually buy this song’
Probably true, but does not have to be, does not have to use bitcoin (I would advise not). It could use faircoin. It could use the faircoin Android wallet, which is relativity easy to use (emphasis being relative).
Criticism true of all crypto-currencies, which is why they will never take off.
Which is why design a system that is as easy to use as using a credit/debit card.
And no, you do not have to buy bitcoin, then exchange for another crypto-currency. You can pay, you choose how much, with bitcoin.
‘The big name in recent “blockchain” (Bitcoin) hype is Imogen Heap’
Yes, she is not stupid, no she has not been sold ‘snake oil’, nor is she hyping Mycelia.
Together with cellist Zoe Keating, Imogen Heap has suggested Mycelia as a concept using bitcoin.
That is all it is at present, a concept, a concept that needs a lot of work to sketch out standards and to explore whether or not it will work.
She has released Tiny Human as something concrete to work with.
Therefore to claim it has not ‘sold’ well is meaningless.
You can download Tiny Human from dropbox.
I tried and it would not let me, said file too big (maybe insufficient room on my tablet, though I could not see that was the case). It would let me transfer to a dropbox, or download individual files.
Files:
– music as FLAC
– music video
– information PDF
I could not see anything that would tie it into a blockchain, and thus was mystified, but maybe I was missing something.
I tried playing files on tablet, Google Nexus 7 2012. Would not play.
I tried playing files on tablet viewing files from laptop as external drive. Would not play.
I copied files to desktop. Would play using VLC, and audio files would play using WinAmp.
Rather than people writing garbage and Michel to my surprise re-posting, it would be better to assist and explore the possibility of Mycelia being viable and if yes, helping make it viable.
Anything that connects fans to artists cuts out the greedy Big Business Record Labels is to be welcomed.
December 9, 2015 at 4:55 pm |
I downloaded and played it from Dropbox with no problems, and I bought it from Ujo with quite a lot of problems, but I did manage it in the end. I agree Faircoin is easier, just buy from ttps://getfaircoin.net with credit card or PayPal. Anyway when we have Bitcoin and Faircoin cash machines (soon! thanks to Entropy Factory) it will all be easier.
I think it depends on artists working out what they get personally from every sale on itunes or whatever and just charging a bit more than that, which makes it super-cheap, and will attract people who might otherwise torrent it, plus you get the lyrics, covers, liner notes etc. Basically I think this could work in the long-term.
December 9, 2015 at 4:56 pm |
I meant to say https://getfaircoin.net of course.
December 9, 2015 at 5:14 pm |
What were the problems Guy that you had buying from Ujo Music?
https://alpha.ujomusic.com/#/imogen_heap/tiny_human/tiny_human
It looks simple, pay 60 cents (less than 2/3 iTunes price of 99 cents a song) to download, payment made in Ether (FairCoin would be better).
I guess the hassle is in obtaining Ether to make the payment.
December 9, 2015 at 5:33 pm |
Once you have the Ether it’s fine, it’s getting the Bitcoin (have to either jump through lots of hoops to go with a ‘certified’ exchange (like opening a bank account and trusting them with loads of personal data) or use something like localbitcoins.com and trust a random stranger (albeit with a good rep on that particular site).
The latter worked for me, then you have to swap some BTC for Ether, say ‘yes’ to a scary notice about there being no warranty and you might lose your money, then you buy the song. For the average person in the street this is going to be nigh-on impossible (believe me I teach I.T.), even for a hardened geek like myself it was not straightforward. However these are clearly teething troubles and it will all get easier – e.g. cryptocurrency exachange machines – put in your credit card, choose your currency out of hundreds available, whether to anonymise or not (hopefully), hold your phone up to the screen and there you go.
December 9, 2015 at 6:18 pm |
Yes, as I thought, the problem is not with the Mycelia concept, it is obtaining the crypto-currency to make the purchase.
It begs two questions: Why use Ether, and why have to buy one crypto-currency to buy a second crypto-currency?
It would have been a lot easier with FairCoin.
No one is going to go through this hassle.
But that does not invalidate the Mycelia concept, ii simply shows the payment process needs a lot of work.
And how much is lost through the various exchanges, what percentage of the 60 cents?
Contrast with bandcamp, simply present credit/debit card details, and payment made, click download.
All the information is readily available to artists and fans.
The only difference, the transparency of the blockchain, seeing how many sold, where the money goes, which is available to everyone, and the artist getting paid within minutes.
December 9, 2015 at 9:40 pm |
The blog from which the bullshit post originated (now deleted from P2P discussion), is full of bullshit. If generous, could call contentious. The author, maybe too harsh to call a troll, but that end of the spectrum.
Putting though to one side, I wish to address the claim hype and difficult to pay and has generated very little revenue.
I have already noted can obtain through dropbox, and give Imogen Heap bitcoin.
Unbeknown to Imogen Heap, Ujo Music were developing a similar project to Mycelia, a music distribution network using blockchain.
Now collaborating with Imogen Heap, they have knocked out a working prototype using Tiny Human to test the concept.
At the centre, can listen, download, Tiny Human. Radiating out, various contributors. Can also interrogate, and obtain further information, the payments made, where and how these are being distributed,
Yes, there is a problem actually paying, have to buy bitcoins, to then exchange for Ether. It would have been easier to have used FairCoin.
Ujo are aware of this problem and working on it, but it does not invalidate the concept of Mycelia.
I was not aware of this prototype. If Imogen Heap had mentioned, I must have missed.
Few people would be aware, even fewer will wish to download, a tiny minority will wish to go through the hassle of obtaining the crypo-currency by which to pay.
It needs reference growing number of articles.
Use FairCoin is a must. Had it been FairCoin, I could have used FairCoin Android wallet to pay.
Add a few more songs. Ask Jewelia and Zoe Keating to contribute.
Also consider alternative payment methods.
I can walk in a newsagent and hand over a tenner. Using PayPoint, a 16 digit voucher is printed. This 16 digit number is keyed into my phone, a text message back, £10 credit on my phone.
Need a control, upload songs to bandcamp.
December 9, 2015 at 9:58 pm |
Bitcoin really is useful. Just not in the way you think
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/23/bitcoin-really-useful-not-in-way-you-think
Imogen Heap’s Tiny Human
http://blog.ujomusic.com/2015/09/imogen-heaps-tiny-human/
Imogen Heap shows how smart music contracts work using Ethereum
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/imogen-heap-shows-how-music-smart-contracts-work-using-ethereum-1522331
December 11, 2015 at 10:33 pm |
To download Tiny Human, priced in dollars, pay in Ether, for which need bitcoin to purchase.
The blockchain shows varying amounts of Ether paid. I assume this reflects the varying exchange rate of Ether.
Why not price in Ether? I assume because would be meaningless to most people.
December 17, 2015 at 9:30 pm |
How Bitcoin works
https://keithpp.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/how-bitcoin-works/
January 18, 2016 at 5:33 pm |