Reimagine the way music is valued & distributed

We don't think that the current subscription based streaming model is rewarding artists and rights holders fairly - do you?

We have put together a concept to spin this on it's head. If you're interested, have a read at www.rarereleases.com

...

I agree with the premise of this thread. Also buy my vault.

As a guy who paints and draws i have always wondered why musicians dont do commissions.

"Ok bonerhitler420, you want a stoner rock song ok"- musician

>tl:dr extremely limited vinyl releases (as few as 1 copy) for high prices

Anything can be just be ripped to digital and distributed. Don't think this will work. But good luck.

They do, for soundtracks and commercial use. Music can be fully duplicated digitally which sets it apart from (non-digital) visual art, and which is also why its monetary value is so low. A commissioned piece of music is a foreign concept. You'd have to convince people why they even wanted such a thing when there's so much incredible music freely or nearly freely available, that is probably much better than the average musician could produce for a reasonable price in a reasonable amount of time.

Some people could pull off this sort of thing because they already have huge reputation and following. e.g. if aphex released a vinyl with ten total copies or something the price could be huge and people would pay it. But if you're not already famous, I don't think anyone would pay enough for your super limited release to make it anymore profitable in the end than putting it up on bandcamp for a low price and trying for volume.

>convince people

Lol no.

Just make a website were musicians make profiles and people pay them money to make a song or even album based on the buyers ideas.
Why should musical commissions be limited to the rich?

Visual artists take money from spergs who want them to draw their waifus naked all the time.

>convince people
Yes. People don't have any reason to buy commissioned pieces. Who would buy this and for what reason? And once again, even if there were buyers, unless the prices were very high, it would not be anymore financially viable in terms of time spent per money made than releasing an album on a platform like BC and going for volume.

they want to buy it because they have an idea and they want to hear it.

>Quoting taylor swift in the context of art

>Making music a rare expensive collectible that only a handfull rich fucks can afford.
Why would I support that? I'm already pissed off enough that some older albums never get reprints and I'd have to dish out insane sums to own a piece of plastic.

And how much would you pay to hear your idea? And how long do you expect the musician to spend on the idea? Assuming the musician already has all the instruments and gear necessary to produce the specific idea you have, and assuming it takes the musician 20 hours to write, record, and fully produce the piece, which is a major underestimate if you want a good piece and your idea is difficult for any reason, you need to pay $145 to get the musician to minimum wage. How many people will pay 145 dollars (or probably way more for anything cool) to hear their idea?

see, the problem with you is greed. You just want a large wad of cash instead of getting small wads from plebes which will add up.

>fat cash stacks
I just gave you the stats to achieve a 7.25 per hour MINIMUM WAGE you fucking dummy. How prolific is this musician going to have to be to achieve any kind of living wage? Or is he going to produce 10 pieces per day EVERY DAY 5 days a week year round for $15 a pop, again to achieve minimum wage? You are not thinking this through.

Fuck, this is stupid. Everyone should have music regardless of where they live and what their income is. We are currently living the dream. I've heard so much amazing music over the last month that will positively impact my life and I haven't paid for shit other than smaller bandcamp artists (and i could listen to them for free anyway). Figure out how to sell merch. Limiting art is gay

How the fuck is this any better than to keep a regular CD/vinyl release afloat for everyone to buy?

Also good fucking luck finding any plant willing to press a single vinyl copy

Thanks for your comments.

Just to clarify, I don't see this as the future of music consumption. It's effectively an idea for a PR exercise to hopefully bring this conversation into the media for people to discuss! I certainly don't expect musicians to see this as a sustainable way of continuing their careers. It's designed to be the polar opposite of the current situation.

We believe that the juxtaposition of what artists currently get paid versus what the maximum value is makes the current level of unfairness much clearer.

Thanks again for considering the concept all, regardless of whether you're for or against it.

Thanks for your comments.

Yes, only a select few individuals would be able to make something like this work. As I explained a moment ago, the concept is, in essence, a PR activity designed to stimulate conversation in mass media. It's designed to make the public reconsider whether they think it's fair how much artists receive. I believe that this *will* help grassroots artists.

If the individuals re-evaluate the value of music and it's even slightly higher than before they considered it, that's got to be a good thing, right?

haha.. I knew someone would pick up on that.

Well, she has done some really great work with defending artists and rights holders and can't agree enough with her sentiments.

Also, 1989 was an absolute banger.

I agree completely. Art shouldn't be defined or judged by it's value.

However, if you are an artist and create something which you decide you would like to share with the world, surely you should be able to decide 'how'.

If you don't upload to a subscription streaming service, it's likely you'll receive next to no revenue as it will be pirated, illegally streamed etc.. So, you upload to Spotify/Apple etc.

I just don't think that feels fair. I don't blame the streaming companies entirely. At least they're generating some revenue for artists. I would argue the larger problem is that the publically perceived value of music has been diminished.

Bandcamp is the most artist friendly and ethically sound platform I'm aware of. What do you think of their system?

Love Bandcamp.
It gives freedom and flexibility to artists.

Does it fix the problem? By itself, i'd say no - but it does provide a great platform for the future.

>using your home address to register a domain
lol

fuck off and go sell your download codes retard

Cut to acetate and not vinyl and you'll have my approval.

Deal.