The State of the Art

The music industry is currently deep in a transition period with no real clear model in sight for how best to monetise our 'art'. I have a friend who works with many up and coming bands on the live music scene and his perspective is that artists should give their music away for free and make money on the live gigs. You may share that perspective, and we respect that it's borne of first hand experience with bands working hard to make a consistent living from their music. But we see a few flaws in the 'live to gig' ethos.

First, it's a one-size-fits-all model that's easily applied to bands but not so easy to apply for producers who don't gig. Secondly, it's a slippery slope. For well known artists it works simply because they have a large fanbase, who will spread the word and act as a viral PR network for the product. There's also the newsworthy novelty aspect of a big band giving away their product. It all adds up to an effective PR push.

But it's also sending another message.

There's a possibility these big bands are unconsciously devaluing the perceptive value of music. Because the wider perception is that if it works for a big band then it should work accross the board and therefore music should be free accross the board. For a small artist this thinking begins a slippery slope frought with decisions that can undermine their value and potential. For instance; Once the track is distributed free you can't recall it. It's free forever. And which songs do you give away? The great ones will get noticed and shared, and the not so great ones won't work as effectively as a PR tool. If it becomes a hit then you've lost a good opportunity to earn from your catalogue. Music is not the same as the information industry, where you can give away your best ideas in the full knowledge that people will want more information on how the implement these concepts. A track is a complete product. There's no more unless you keep pushing out hit after hit. So a reality sets in with the free model that you'll need to keep creating hit tracks that are being given away free in order to earn from a gig. Somehow that doesn't sit right with us.

We think it's reasonable for an artist to be able to expect some equal reward for the quality of their music and the level of success they have attained. Currently it feels skewed and polarised to an 'all or nothing' model that best suits the commercial end of the market.

At TrackStack we're thinking about this and our solution is really a suite of tools that enable artists to promote themselves more effectively and reap the rewards more accurately. Tools and services such as:
 

• Self promotion news items that are displayed to people interested in your work or your genre
• Top 10 Charts that earn commission on all track sales through the list
• DJ and Label promos that can be purchased either as a complete mix or partially as individual tracks that also earn commission for the DJ, Label and Artists
• Promos are automaically royalty cleared so that the DJ and the artists earn from every play through the TS network
• Automated supplier signup process, catalogue upload and management tools

We also understand the only way for a clear model to rise through the system is for the supporting tools to be reliable, easy to implement and widely supported. This is our vision. And we're asking you to give us your feedback and be a part of it.