Monday, January 18, 2010

Fair Trade Music

When I was in the grocery store with Lynn on Sunday, I found myself spending the majority of my time where I usually do when I am in the grocery store – on the coffee aisle. As a thoughtful consumer, I am drawn as usual to the small label that reads fair trade coffee. This little label settles my conscious to pay a little more to those who put hard work in to the product. But what if there was a way to not have to pay more for fair trade? This is essentially what you get with NoiseTrade, an online music distribution service connecting musicians directly to fans.

In the music business, we have seen many companies getting creative in selling music to listeners through digital download. The most popular option, ITunes, which is to no surprise the #1 music download store, offers songs for 99 cents to $1.29 per song. NoiseTrade however, allows fans to immediately download music (from musicians who have uploaded their music into an embeddable widget on the NoiseTrade website) by simply telling five friends about the artist via email or paying what they want. Fans also provide their name, email and postal code upon download which allows musicians to email newsletters to fans and also get an idea of where their fans are around the country for touring purposes.

NoiseTrade founder Derek Webb says, “Who needs peer-to-peer when you can have artist-to-fan? If artists and fans realized how they could help each other and started making direct connections, without a middleman, the whole industry would change overnight. It would start a revolution.”

For more, visit www.noisetrade.com


- MB

2 comments:

  1. Michael,

    Thanks for sharing this. I am always searching for new ways to find great music, and this looks like a source that will definitely be fun to use. Plus, being created by someone I have the upmost respect for, Derek Webb, doesn't hurt either :) Thanks again.

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  2. Michael,

    This is a good example of direct trade, which isn't necessarily Fair Trade.

    For example, if there's no established standard, musicians using NoiseTrade may well decide to race to undercut each other eventually simply give away their music. This is an increasingly common practice in both recorded and live music performance, especially in the US where music is too often considered "just a hobby" and the public is largely unaware of the time involved in preparing it. At that point, the artists do not receive what the product is worth, and lose time/money, eventually going broke and leaving the business.

    A number of movements have started addressing this: Fair Trade Music PDX in Portland, Oregon, a campaign of the Musicians' Union (AFM) Local 99 is addressing inequities in live music performance by raising awareness regarding ubiquitous lopsided business arrangements and offering an ethical alternative. This movement continues to gain momentum in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and other cities.

    There are also at least two Fair Trade Music initiatives that address recorded music. One is in Germany: http://www.fair-trade-music.de/ There was another in the US but it appears to have dissolved.

    Please contact me if you have questions.
    Jake Pegg, coordinator, Fair Trade Music PDX
    jake@fairtrademusicpdx.org

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