The worm has turned. The Flower Kings, a european prog rock group has officially encouraged its fans to tape live shows and trade them via CDR and through their tree at yahoo. They have posted a list of rules in which violators will lose their taping rights. This policy covers audio not video. While it reminds me of the policy of the Greatful Dead in years past, it is the first official embrace by a band to share files via the internet.
One of the true powers of file sharing is to expand not limit what is available. Artists only recieve 50 to 75 cents per CD and then their advances are taken off the top. We know that artists make their coin off of live shows. Record companies have spent the last two years pissing off everyone that rips a track to .mp3, it is time for artists to take control of their art and embrace their fans.
One way to do this is create more songs available not less. Sell stuff on your artists web site. Offer official free downloads. Let us buy your CD’s directly from you. Offer us your entire catalog, fan disks, limited editions, even CDR’s. The prog underground is starting to respond to P2P sharing with many of these options. They ask only for support of their “official” releases.
It really doesn’t matter what you think of the Flower Kings, to see a band with a dozen+ CD’s encourage taping and trading is a step closer to the potential of internet music and file sharing. In my digital world the artists and fans are happy and only the non-producing middle man is left holding nothing.
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