Equity for artists

A new company that gives artists true equity in their work 
can take over the world, kick ass and make a lot of money. 
We're inspired by how people get paid in the new economy. 
Many visual artists and software and hardware designers have 
real ownership of their work.



I have a 14-year-old niece. She used to want to be a rock 
star. Before that she wanted to be an actress. As of six 
months ago, what do you think she wants to be when she 
grows up? What's the glamorous, emancipating career of 
choice? Of course, she wants to be a Web designer. It's 
such a glamorous business!



When you people do business with artists, you have to take 
a different view of things. We want to be treated with the 
respect that now goes to Web designers. We're not Dockers-
wearing Intel workers from Portland who know how to 
"manage our stress." We don't understand or want 
to understand corporate culture.



I feel this obscene gold rush greedgreedgreed vibe that 
bothers me a lot when I talk to dot-com people about all 
this. You guys can't hustle artists that well. At least 
slick A&R guys know the buzzwords. Don't try to compete 
with them. I just laugh at you when you do! Maybe you could 
a year ago when anything dot-com sounded smarter than the 
rest of us, but the scam has been uncovered.



The celebrity-for-sale business is about to crash, I hope, 
and the idea of a sucker VC gifting some company with four 
floors just because they can "do" "chats" with "Christina" 
once or twice is ridiculous. I did a chat today, twice. Big 
damn deal. 200 bucks for the software and some elbow grease 
and a good back-end coder. Wow. That's not worth 150 million 
bucks.



... I mean, yeah, sure it is if you'd like to give it to me.

I know my place. I'm a waiter. I'm in the service industry.



I live on tips. Occasionally, I'm going to get stiffed, but 
that's OK. If I work hard and I'm doing good work, I believe 
that the people who enjoy it are going to want to come directly 
to me and get my music because it sounds better, since it's 
mastered and packaged by me personally. I'm providing an honest, 
real experience. Period.



When people buy the bootleg T-shirt in the concert parking lot 
and not the more expensive T-shirt inside the venue, it isn't 
to save money. The T-shirt in the parking lot is cheap and 
badly made, but it's easier to buy. The bootleggers have a 
better distribution system. There's no waiting in line and 
it only takes two minutes to buy one.



I know that if I can provide my own T-shirt that I designed, 
that I made, and provide it as quickly or quicker than the 
bootleggers, people who've enjoyed the experience I've provided 
will be happy to shell out a little more money to cover my costs. 
Especially if they understand this context, and aren't being 
shoveled a load of shit about "uppity" artists.



It's exactly the same with recorded music. The real thing to 
fear from Napster is its simple and excellent distribution 
system. No one really prefers a cruddy-sounding Napster MP3 
file to the real thing. But it's really easy to get an MP3 
file; and in the middle of Kansas you may never see my record 
because major distribution is really bad if your record's not 
in the charts this week, and even then it takes a couple of 
weeks to restock the one copy they usually keep on hand.



I also know how many times I have heard a song on the radio 
that I loved only to buy the record and have the album be a 
piece of crap. If you're afraid of your own filler then I bet 
you're afraid of Napster. I'm afraid of Napster because I think 
the major label cartel will get to them before I do.



I've made three records. I like them all. I haven't made filler 
and they're all committed pieces of work. I'm not scared of you 
previewing my record. If you like it enough to have it be a part 
of your life, I know you'll come to me to get it, as long as I 
show you how to get to me, and as long as you know that it's out.



Most people don't go into restaurants and stiff waiters, but 
record labels represent the restaurant that forces the waiters 
to live on, and sometimes pool, their tips. And they even fight 
for a bit of their tips.



Music is a service to its consumers, not a product. I live on 
tips. Giving music away for free is what artists have been 
doing naturally all their lives.

Record companies stand between artists and their fans. We signed 
terrible deals with them because they controlled our access to 
the public.



But in a world of total connectivity, record companies lose that 
control. With unlimited bin space and intelligent search engines, 
fans will have no trouble finding the music they know they want. 
They have to know they want it, and that needs to be a marketing 
business that takes a fee.



If a record company has a reason to exist, it has to bring an 
artist's music to more fans and it has to deliver more and 
better music to the audience. You bring me a bigger audience 
or a better relationship with my audience or get the fuck out 
of my way. Next time I release a record, I'll be able to go 
directly to my fans and let them hear it before anyone else.



We'll still have to use radio and traditional CD distribution. 
Record stores aren't going away any time soon and radio is 
still the most important part of record promotion.



Major labels are freaking out because they have no control 
in this new world. Artists can sell CDs directly to fans. 
We can make direct deals with thousands of other Web sites 
and promote our music to millions of people that old record 
companies never touch.



We're about to have lots of new ways to sell our music: 
downloads, hardware bundles, memory sticks, live Webcasts, 
and lots of other things that aren't even invented yet.

But there's something you guys have to figure out.



Here's my open letter to Steve Case:



Avatars don't talk back!!! But what are you going to do 
with real live artists?



Artists aren't like you. We go through a creative process 
that's demented and crazy. There's a lot of soul-searching 
and turning ourselves inside-out and all kinds of gross 
stuff that ends up on "Behind the Music."



A lot of people who haven't been around artists very much 
get really weird when they sit down to lunch with us. So I 
want to give you some advice: Learn to speak our language. 
Talk about songs and melody and hooks and art and beauty and 
soul. Not sleazy record-guy crap, where you're in a cashmere 
sweater murmuring that the perfect deal really is perfect, 
Courtney. Yuck. Honestly hire honestly committed people. We're 
in a "new economy," right? You can afford to do that.



But don't talk to me about "content."



I get really freaked out when I meet someone and they start 
telling me that I should record 34 songs in the next six 
months so that we have enough content for my site. Defining 
artistic expression as content is anathema to me.



What the hell is content? Nobody buys content. Real people 
pay money for music because it means something to them. A 
great song is not just something to take up space on a Web 
site next to stock market quotes and baseball scores.



DEN tried to build a site with artist-free content and I'm 
not sorry to see it fail. The DEN shows look like art if 
you're not paying attention, but they forgot to hire anyone 
to be creative. So they ended up with a lot of content nobody 
wants to see because they thought they could avoid dealing 
with defiant and moody personalities. Because they were 
arrogant. And because they were conformists. Artists have 
to deal with business people and business people have to 
deal with artists. We hate each other. Let's create companies 
of mediators.



Every single artist who makes records believes and hopes 
that they give you something that will transform your life. 
If you're really just interested in data mining or selling 
banner ads,stick with those "artists" willing to 
call themselves content providers.



I don't know if an artist can last by meeting the current 
public taste, the taste from the last quarterly report. I 
don't think you can last by following demographics and 
carefully meeting expectations. I don't know many lasting 
works of art that are condescending or deliberately stupid 
or were created as content.



Don't tell me I'm a brand. I'm famous and people recognize 
me, but I can't look in the mirror and see my brand identity.



Keep talking about brands and you know what you'll get? Bad 
clothes. Bad hair. Bad books. Bad movies. And bad records. 
And bankrupt businesses. Rides that were fun for a year with 
no employee loyalty but everyone got rich fucking you. Who 
wants that? The answer is purity. We can afford it. Let's go 
find it again while we can.



I also feel filthy trying to call my music a product. It's 
not a thing that I test market like toothpaste or a new car. 
Music is personal and mysterious.



Being a "content provider" is prostitution work that 
devalues our art and doesn't satisfy our spirits. Artistic 
expression has to be provocative. The problem with artists and 
the Internet: Once their art is reduced to content, they may 
never have the opportunity to retrieve their souls.



When you form your business for creative people, with creative 
people, come at us with some thought. Everybody's process is 
different. And remember that it's art. We're not craftspeople.






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