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[kaugumi]

Hi Everyone. I'm involved in the project described below. Don't hesitate to ask any question.


AMOUR & DISCIPLINE - SHORT, REDUCTIVE AND INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR THOSE IN A HURRY

How much does a band earn when you’re sharing their music with a friend, or when you're using P2P or direct download services to get it?
Well, ok, zero.

But how much does a band earn when you buy a 10$ CD in a store ?
1.2 dollar.

How much does a band earn when you buy a 0.99 song on Itunes ?
15 cents.

How much does a band earn when you listen to a song one hundred times on Spotify ?
0.5$.

Of course, these are average figures regarding both indie and major label artists ; some manage to get better deals, others get worse. But most of the time, no matter how you listen to music, the artist gets very little financial support.

In recent years, technology has made music shift from scarce goods to infinite goods : once the original is made, it takes zero marginal cost to make a digital copy and distribute it. All the music in the world is available for (almost) nothing, and less and less people are buying physical records. Global Non-Commercial Culture Sharing is now a reality – which, don't get us wrong, is simply great -, but the problem of decently funding artistic creation remains.

But Why?

a lot of people want to maintain old centralized models of distribution, creating artificial scarcity on infinite goods, and pretending global culture sharing never happened
big entertainment corporations keep laying down the law
many middlemen are still involved. Some of them are valuable (independent labels), some have to be questioned

So, why not directly support those who create music and those who really help to produce it?

Amour & Disipline is a non-profit DIY organization establishing a donation platform where people can donate to ANY independent band or label in the universe (to cover our costs, we decided that those using A&D will simply choose if and how much they want to give us). A&D project is not about charity, but Gift Economy. It is not about guilt, but common decency.

Of course, good ways to support bands/labels already exist and crucial ideas still have to be tested, but we think A&D can be a useful step to promote two fundamental and inseparable points :

Non-Commercial Culture Sharing is essential and legitimate
We can and we must find new ways to support independent authors and producers, so the aforementioned fact won’t cast them in the sewers where they will starve alone

We want A&D's initiative to rest on the very people it intends to support. Thus A&D also includes a collective ad-free webzine written by all kinds of people contributing to the shiny world of underground/indie cultures (bands, labels and activists such as d.i.y promoters, venues, webzines...). A&D is NOT a place dedicated to music download, but a place to support artists/labels. The only music available will be found in the webzine, willingly shared by the artists themselves.
Finally, we don't want to promote Gift Economy only on our website, so we hope to be linked on a lot of other webzines/blogs to remind people they can support music this way.

We think the combination of coercive (i.e. governments) and mercantile (i.e. corporations) tactics should certainly not be the only ones driving the legislation, distribution, and financing of culture. On the contrary, we believe the present situation urges us to invent new alternative strategies.

FULL MANIFESTO, SENSITIVE INFO & EPIPHANY ON WWW.AMOUR-DISCIPLINE.ORG

Some bands/labels/webzines contributing to A&D Webzine :

Action Beat, Aguirre Records, Anders Hana (Moha!, Ultralyd...), Amen Dunes, Astral Social Club, Autumn Records, Ben Greenberg (Zs, Hubble, The Men), Ben McOsker (Load records), Brad Rose (Digitalis), Bruno Dorella (Bar la Muerte records, OvO...), Carla Bozulich, Chris Corsano, Chora, Clint Simonson (De Stijl records), Dan Deacon, Daniel Francis Doyle, Datashock, Dean Spunt (No Age, Post Present Medium), Deerhoof, Dirty Beaches, Doru Mihail and other Cookshop dudes, Dustin Wong, Dwight & Brian (Get Off The Coast / Secret Decoder), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeedyoublackemperor/A Silver Mt Zion/Constellation), Ela Orleans, Eli Keszler, EMA, Ensemble Economique, Father Murphy, Gangpol und Mit, Giuseppe Ielasi, Golden Cup/ 8 MM Records, Hoquets, Jakub Adamek (Weed Temple), Japanther, Jeffrey lewis, Jon Hency (Bathetic records), Julian Lynch, Justice Yeldham, Kemialliset Ystävät, Lightning Bolt, Liars, Marc Richter (Dekorder), Marvin, Mount Eerie, Orange Milk records, Our Brother The Native, Patrick Flegel (Women), Peter Nicholson (One Ensemble) Pheromoans, Pica Disk, Pierre Bastien, Pink Reason, Pneu, Prince Rama, Ramona Cordova, Rusty Santos (The Present), Scout Niblett, Sculpture, Senufo Editions, Shadow Grounds, Shawn Reed (Wet hair/Night People), Singing Knives, Sole, Sore Eros, Spencer Clark, Stonerobixxx, Stranded Horse, Sun Araw, Sunburned Hand, Tape Drift Records, Teenage Teardrops, The Ex, The Rebel, Tonstartssbandht, Troglosound, Tune Yards, Upset the Rythm, Volcano the bear, Xiu Xiu...

[Xen]

Dude,

this is EXACTLY what I have prayed for all these years .

I *so* want to have a way to donate to artists.

As you say common decency. It's just an expression of love for the artist.

It don't want to "buy" music I have never listened to and therefore I will never buy anything on iTunes. And when I have listened to it, why should I download it again using a paid-for download? It makes no sense. I'm very principled on these matters.

My business model for digital downloads is basically this: I get it for free with no strings attached, and I give back money for free with no requirement whatsoever.

The gift economy lives in my heart.