So I got a tweet today from someone I follow. He said that a The Cat Empire had released a new CD, and were offering a free song to download. I love free stuff, but when I got there it wasn’t free at all.

Let me preface this with the not free thing. See the track cost zero dollars to buy, which technically means it if free but the was a cost to pay. I clicked the link to download my free version and was presented with a form to enter my details – It even had little stars next to fields, which means that data was required.

Do they need my date of birth to give me a free song?

Required fields to download a track. That is translating to data they need to send me information when-ever they wish to. Basically – Spam.

I should explain my feelings with a story – of course. A few years back I found an abnormal songwriter to my normal styles, release a free CD. Because it was free I followed the links, filled in the forms, and downloaded the free CD. I think I listened to it once. Didn’t really enjoy it.

What followed were emails. Lots of emails. Whenever the artist wanted to get news out, or released a new CD, or just wanted to say howdy I got an email. It wasn’t long before I unsubscribed and moved on.

There was no connection with the band in this case, and they had my contact details. Many emails followed, and everyone that arrived in the inbox made me never want to listen to the band again.

As a band releasing your music for free a negative connection is the wrong connection to make. Even with people who don’t like your stuff. How you connect with people who don’t like your music is where the respect starts. If you treat them well, they will let others know

When you offer something for free, and you have to take details then make sure you treat your contacts with respect. I would even say that an email is good for four times a year contact – if people love what you do then they are going to find you in other ways. Twitter. Facebook. MySpace.

The best way is to release your CD with a no-obligation link. Allow people to sample your music, for free, and if they like it they will find you. Trust me, a connection with a band is something that is strong and people will follow you.

Take what you need, not what you can get. Respect and trust the people who you are giving your product that if they like you you have a fan. If you do it right, you’ll have a dedicated fan.

I didn’t download the song at Cat Empire, because I am unsure weather to trade my contact details for 25 minutes of music I may or may not enjoy. How about you, did you trade details for the song?

The previous article I wrote I finished to get something up by my pre-determined deadline. I had not finished the article, so I severed it and left it for the following week to continue my thoughts and hopefully to answer some questions.

Obvious Hurdles

Really what is in place with the movie industry, the television industry and the CD industry is that money is a screening device. Money makes sure the best are hired, money makes sure the advertising is to the right crowd, it makes sure that everything is solid. Acting schools produce actors who know what to do. Record labels hire bands who can last (hopefully) longer than one CD, and still be entertaining.

Oh my there are exceptions. Alien Ant Farm. Xena. These are varied and wide, and show that money also controls the choices of the producion of the media. The internet has shown this to be a large stain on the industries themselves, because for the first time the money wasn’t a filter.

In the past the industries had control of the media they distributed. They controlled how people got into their industry, how they stayed a star/or not. They controlled the distribution of their media. Everything was sheparded through by people who had or wanted to make the money.

Now they spend huge amounts of cash to protect these old ways. Instead of rolling with the punches they decide to fight people off with wads of cash. They are definatly loosing the battle, and instead there much more of a social following for bands or movies on the internet.

Sure good music still ends up on labels, but that filter doesn’t exist anymore. And with money not being a factor in putting music, screenplays or media into the world, we have found a new outlet for our crazy visions and ideas to see their five minutes of fame. And now the world has caught up and is prepared to waste hours on the internet like geeks have been doing for years.

Established Ramblings

So I have been writing here for a long time now. What am I really driving at? I think I am trying to hit a three areas.

1. There are no bounds in releasing our media.
2. Removing the bounds means we can increase our targets, and find a broader audience.
3. Money can be made through non-traditional means.

There seems to be three topics I have been building towards, but never actually hitting upon. These three areas I see as new horizons. And while many people have explored these areas before I reckon its about time to start making money from these areas, and truly releasing our ideas into the world. To go beyond blogs and twits and to take media into the new era of the internet.

It is already happening:

• Attack of the Show – “Videos, gadgets, comic and movies”
• Rocketboom – “daily international news program”
• Demonoid – A torrent site that releases bands music. Members can release their music for free and get a newspost about it. I know I have grabbed the free music, even if I haven’t listened to it once downloaded. Current album is Hello Madness.

We can also look at the amazing amount of internet start-ups that are popping up everywhere. I am currently involved in three (that spring to mind). It is a huge market, with so many potential players and with the financial climate like it is, many people would be willing to take a chance and get onto the next big thing.

Finish

So I keep rereading what I have written, hence the lateness of this post. While I am sure the post is relevant, I am not sure about the originality of my content. Really this has been done before, I think what I am coming to the realisation of is that it takes someone with a passion and commitment to an idea to see it to the end. No longer do ideas need to be limited by our minds thinking about money to see it through.

I guess what I need is action on some ideas in my head.

And that is the conclusion. It makes no sence in words. Maybe I’ll finsih this post off another time – A title that doesn’t show what the article is about. Content that switches between one to another, without making a point about anything. Maybe it could be best described as what it is like to live inside my mind?

I have been thinking quiet a bit about my last post – titled The Death on an Industry. I have been thinking of doing a new one and have hit many brick walls – usually when that happens it means i am meant to write something else (writers block means find another way).

I was going to write about changing the guard, researching ways to reinvigorate an industry as the last lines said:

“I’m going to do some research into the music industry to find interesting places to go, or avoid.”

Sounds rather big of me to change an entire industry from my blog. I was going to spend time looking into CD Packaging and how it grew. Looking into CDs as a dying media format – that would be a big call from anyone on this internet thing. But overall I was going to look at how we can use the internet as a better marketing tool.

I think what I am talking about is not a little change, it is not as I put it a ‘Death of an Industry’ – more as a reformation. The dictionary defines reformation as ‘the act of reforming’ and reforming as ‘To improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition.’

Now there is something I can talk about. I have many theories on how to reform media industries a lot of which have come up in my huge number of years spent on the internet. There has been some successes who have attempted releases on the internet, see In Rainbows by Radiohead or many of the latest Nine Inch Nails albums.

The time is right for change. The time is right to experiment with something new. The time is even right for me to stop talking in small riddles, and incomplete thoughts. So on with the show.

The Realisation of Reformation

Stagnant media stinks. The world is changing so rapidly online, we never seem to spend too long in an era of the internet before someone goes and changes things. Lots of little changes add up to big ones. And staying on the bleeding-edge of the technology is choosing to be in a constant learning curve.

This is not a bad thing, because Era’s of the internet are a long time coming, mostly because it takes the general public to be involved in them before the era changes. It was sites like MySpace, Facebook or Flickr that heralded the Era of Web 2.0. It would have eventually got there for us geeks, but the more usership on a site leads to more bugs fixed and a more solid website.

I am happy for you to comment on this thought. But I think Web 3.0 will be upon us in full force when the general public starts getting the hang of the new semantic features. In other words when the websites that boast what we would call Web 3.0 start being used frequently and passionaly by the public. Maybe the best way is to say, when Web 3.0 is not idiological but invisible…

While this is happening with the internet, we now see a huge shift where the internet is incorporated into ‘real-life’. Like bands plastering their myspace address everywhere. People sharing blogs enticing people to read what they write. Twitter, taking it further than online diaries, and more into minute by minute updates. Trends decided by analytics. The internet is becoming more real world, a little more tangable day by day with the advent of things like google docs, bringing products that we used to purchase to our desktops (with google gears).

And so more real-life internet means that is become a place to exist and sell items. But in this new era how do we bring the older media types, that have existed for years as tangible items, into this web-driven world?

A Question with Answers Already…

Hey I know that this is the question posed by thousands of people already. I also know that it is basically stating what I wrote in the previous article. Just excuse me for a little while, I am still trying to collate my thoughts on how to handle this.

The future is open. There is no set goals, but I think there is a dash to the line in achieving media distribution in a way that benefits the creators and the consumers. There is no perfect solution right now.

But is there?

Is there a way to bring the created item to the consumer in a way – I think this is where my previous article left off – where the middle men, the guys who used to hand out and take money, are left out of the creation of the media?

On a side note: I am currently working with a few chaps on a project that takes the advertising out of the mix when searching for a product. Say a camera, or phone, or beer. The MyPerfect choice engine selects a product based on its features and not on the advertising dollars spent.

What will it take to have the passion put into a song, or a tv show, or a movie without other hands grabbing it to make it easier to sell? In the past, for example with bands, it has been to find a record label that won’t control the sounds you make. But even those labels get bought out by bigger labels when they start making money.

Catch us next week when this article continues. Maybe I’ll even get some questions answered – I think they are in my mind, somewhere… Wish me luck!!