Posted by mcgin 21 hours ago
I would put the uncompressed flac files of my music directly on my website for everyone to download.
That does not mean that I would not be interested in getting paid. But I would approach it differently. I would charge for broadcasting it on YouTube or Spotify. Or for playing it in venues.
But I would not charge a regular Joe for it. They would be free to download it, play it and redistribute it in any noncommercial way they see fit.
The most important part is this. I would encourage the "buy after you like" model. Everyone is free to listen. And who likes what they hear, is welcome to buy it.
In my opinion, many small bands and solo musicians would benefit from that model. And I think it would also create some goodwill among their fans.
It also would not shut down the mainstream delivery channels. So if someone still wanted to listen to it over Spotify and pay for it that way, they would still be able to do so.
Better to protect yourself by registering it under creative commons or a similar licence.
It seems to me that the bands or musicians should distribute their music via their own websites. I think that then the users would care much more.
Instead of paying to download music, the users "pays" by following you across social media / streaming services. Granted it's mostly used for copyright-violating edits, but some musicians use it for original tracks too.
It's how basically any electronic music producer makes a name for himself before they ever sign a contract with a label.
What should be gated and limited is the commercial use: reselling, relicensing, using for business, etc.
> the optional payment (I promise you nobody's gonna do that)
Such "promises" seem to be based on no facts. Moreover, they contradict my personal experience.
I would be very interested in using that business model. In fact, I have already used it with other types of services. I have paid for software that is open source, free to download and free to use. Multiple times. Simply because I like the software and I wanted to thank the authors for it in some tangible way.
RIP
Of course, my bother is rooted in my little unemployed unmoneyed 13 year old self who didn't have access to NIN CDs at the time, but did have access to my friend's internet when I visited his house.