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This is Hannes from Popcuts. What Zed describes ("Competitors Don’t Get It") actually did exist for a while. Snocap used to offer a service where you uploaded m

This is Hannes from Popcuts. What Zed describes ("Competitors Don’t Get It") actually did exist for a while. Snocap used to offer a service where you uploaded music and could sell it through an embeddable ministore. AmieStreet has something similar. And, of course, so do we. But I think the author oversimplifying a bit. Sure it's technically easy to sell music online. The stuff that's hard to come by is people's attention. And while it's true that the Internet lowers distribution barriers, it has also decreased the perceived value of music recordings. Because access has gotten so much easier, people tend to think of music less as something you can own, but rather of something you have access to, be it through MP3s on your hard drive or streaming. We at Popcuts set out to address that. Because we think there's a deeper sense of ownership possible than simply having access to a sound file. And we do think music should have a price tag. Our site is based on the idea that buyers of a song get a share of the revenue that song makes in the future. So when you buy a song on Popcuts, it's in your interest that that song does well. You might tell your friends about it, but you probably won't seed the file to a BitTorrent site. In addition, we try to reward the behavior that a lot of music fans already show: They know of a hot new band before everyone else, and they want to show it off. </selfpromotion>

joshuarr 18y ago
That's an interesting idea, but doesn't it suggest that the better a song sells, the less revenue the artist receives?
- thetable 18y ago
  No, we have a fixed portion that goes to the fans, and the artist decides how much that is. Also, early buyers get bigger cuts, so it pays not to wait if you like a song.
  - albertcardona 18y ago
    Reads like you've got all the incentives right, to stimulate both purchasing itself and the proliferation of buyers interested in bringing in more buyers.
Goladus 18y ago
This is a terrific idea, in that it exploits one of the big reasons people listen to music (others recommend it). However, I think there is a real decrease in the real value of music recordings. While the internet does cheaply connect fans with musicians in widely different geographical regions, overall the supply of music has gone way up. Why should I pay one band for music when there's another band, just as good, giving away their music for free one click away?
sho 18y ago
"So when you buy a song on Popcuts, it's in your interest that that song does well. You might tell your friends about it" The huge and fatal flaw in that idea is that as soon as word gets around that people have a profit motive to recommend songs from PopCuts, and it will, then any such recommendation becomes suspect. Would you buy a song on the recommendation of someone who you knew was getting a commission for recommending that song? Of course not. Wishful thinking about human nature, I think. Ain't gonna work. People are ultra-sensitive to that kind of thing. But you know what, I don't think anything is going to work. Chalk me up in the camp that thinks there are basically two options now for music sales: compulsory licensing (ie, $10/month pass to absolutely everything), or no sales at all. I think the music industry has a year or two to implement the first option. If they don't, Oink 2* will be born, decentralised, completely P2P and un-shutdownable, and then the age of paying for sound recordings of any type will come to an end forever. * Oink was a huge BitTorrent site which was basically the best music resource in the world.
- ph0rque 18y ago
  >I think the music industry has a year or two to implement the first option. If they don't, Oink 2* will be born, decentralised, completely P2P and un-shutdownable, and then the age of paying for sound recordings of any type will come to an end forever. I'm no pirate, but I hope the music industry takes its sweet time.
  - endlessvoid94 18y ago
    If that happens, say goodbye to your worldwide tours, and consequently, your favorite band from australia (or somewhere) coming to montana to tour. Right now, the labels pay for that kind of thing. Without the labels, the band has to make a huge amount of money on sales, and we've just described an impossible situation. A band is not going to make enough money unless they have funding (not unlike a startup). Radiohead did this because they'd already been successful in the past, that's why fans were willing to pay for their music even if it was given away. It might work for a new band, but if ALL bands are on equal footing, I don't think the income will be as high per band. I could be wrong though.
run4yourlives 18y ago
I think you're sitting on a goldmine. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully a record label with brains picks you up.

joshuarr 18y ago

That's an interesting idea, but doesn't it suggest that the better a song sells, the less revenue the artist receives?

thetable 18y ago
No, we have a fixed portion that goes to the fans, and the artist decides how much that is. Also, early buyers get bigger cuts, so it pays not to wait if you like a song.
- albertcardona 18y ago
  Reads like you've got all the incentives right, to stimulate both purchasing itself and the proliferation of buyers interested in bringing in more buyers.

Goladus 18y ago

This is a terrific idea, in that it exploits one of the big reasons people listen to music (others recommend it). However, I think there is a real decrease in the real value of music recordings. While the internet does cheaply connect fans with musicians in widely different geographical regions, overall the supply of music has gone way up. Why should I pay one band for music when there's another band, just as good, giving away their music for free one click away?

sho 18y ago

"So when you buy a song on Popcuts, it's in your interest that that song does well. You might tell your friends about it" The huge and fatal flaw in that idea is that as soon as word gets around that people have a profit motive to recommend songs from PopCuts, and it will, then any such recommendation becomes suspect. Would you buy a song on the recommendation of someone who you knew was getting a commission for recommending that song? Of course not. Wishful thinking about human nature, I think. Ain't gonna work. People are ultra-sensitive to that kind of thing. But you know what, I don't think anything is going to work. Chalk me up in the camp that thinks there are basically two options now for music sales: compulsory licensing (ie, $10/month pass to absolutely everything), or no sales at all. I think the music industry has a year or two to implement the first option. If they don't, Oink 2* will be born, decentralised, completely P2P and un-shutdownable, and then the age of paying for sound recordings of any type will come to an end forever. * Oink was a huge BitTorrent site which was basically the best music resource in the world.

ph0rque 18y ago
>I think the music industry has a year or two to implement the first option. If they don't, Oink 2* will be born, decentralised, completely P2P and un-shutdownable, and then the age of paying for sound recordings of any type will come to an end forever. I'm no pirate, but I hope the music industry takes its sweet time.
- endlessvoid94 18y ago
  If that happens, say goodbye to your worldwide tours, and consequently, your favorite band from australia (or somewhere) coming to montana to tour. Right now, the labels pay for that kind of thing. Without the labels, the band has to make a huge amount of money on sales, and we've just described an impossible situation. A band is not going to make enough money unless they have funding (not unlike a startup). Radiohead did this because they'd already been successful in the past, that's why fans were willing to pay for their music even if it was given away. It might work for a new band, but if ALL bands are on equal footing, I don't think the income will be as high per band. I could be wrong though.

run4yourlives 18y ago

I think you're sitting on a goldmine. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully a record label with brains picks you up.