A lot of artists these days participate in a kind of artist-hood that is different from that of other eras.

A lot of the main tenets of what I think about that have already been covered by Mark Amerika and Steve Albini.

Getting closer to the point: the music distribution process is dead. Well, it’s dead to me. If we have the technology to bypass many of the hoops through which a musician has to jump in order to distribute music, why are we still doing that? As a musician, getting “signed” is the end-goal and a way to make a living making music. Independent and experimental labels aside, being owned by a label is not a very good way to make a living. We still pursue this process as musicians because the industry is so set in its ways that there isn’t much room for adaptation. Nobody has figured out a good way to break out of the process, and that is a shame because the process is killing the spirit of music by rendering it simply a commodity.

That means that, for the music industry, the primary concern is the bottom-line. In some cases, the money you spend on artists’ music does make its way to those artists’ bank accounts. But more often, it doesn’t. More often, it will go to record execs, talent scouts, venues, producers, promoters, printers, sound engineers, managers, lawyers.

I don’t believe the answer is to find new ways for music to get money from the consumer. Like it or not, the consumer doesn’t have to pay for music if they really don’t want to pay for it. Yes, it is illegal now to steal music. No, there is no way to stop it.

Here is where I propose something new: What happens if you pre-empt theft by making it not illegal to download music?

As that is the case, the groundwork for this blog is set up with an intent to question the music business via an applied behavior, albeit a simple one. The intent of this project is to release all of my music for free, and I’d like to make the composition process transparent and communal. Why? First, to see what happens, and second, to find out if there are alternate sources of revenue for a musician.

So I’ve started this blog as a way to sort the ideas I have and to organize the sub-projects accordingly. Also, this is a good way to get feedback. If anyone is reading or listening, that is.

I’m not saying that my music is going to speak for itself and will change the world. But I do intend to find something by taking my music, guarding it from becoming a commodity, and instead treating it like a gift intended for those that will care to listen.

Questions? Comments? Hit me up sometime.