If they’re stealing from you, then you’re on the right track.
“You’ve just got to be open and free, because that’s the way people want to get content on the web”, says Dallas Penn. “Don’t be afraid of someone stealing your work so much, just have more work to give, and, if people are stealing it, you know what you’re onto something. You’re moving in the right direction.” continued Penn, who runs the vlog internetscelebrities.com. Frank Talk summarized it in poetic terms, “If they’re stealing from you, [then] you’re on the right track.”
Everything can be adapted into digital content—think YouTube or think Flickr. Take hip hop producer Oddisee, who describes his internet-centralized strategy as being circular, wearing many hats, and promoting himself with content: “Everything I do is circulatory…You can’t just rap, you can’t just make beats, you can’t just do one thing anymore. It’s just impossible.” Oddisee uses free content as a means of promoting paid content. He distributes his music via oddisee.bandcamp.com.
If I Ruled the Blogosphere was a panel discussion hosted last month by the Future of Music Coalition and Words Beats & Life. The talk covers many sides of producing/curating music-related content on the web. It’s a bit long—in two parts below—and includes Q&A in Part 2. But when it came up in my Reader feed (via Digipendent) I put it on play while I was working and listened to it all. Anyone involved in blogging, music, or using the internet—pretty much everyone—should find insight from it.
The price of music on the web is heading towards zero. Artists need to use the web to centralize their fan base and reach out to them. But for that to work, fans need to connect with the individual as much—or more than—the music itself. “If people invest in you as an individual before they invest in you as an artist…you know…I mean’s there’s a lot of talented rappers out there…there’s a lot of talented poets…you know…painters…illustrators, but if nobody can connect with that person’s individual story, then they’re just another person doing it.” says blogger FWMJ of Rappers I Know.
As far as avoiding blog shutdowns, Meka Udoh from 2dopeboyz.com encouraged embedding players from other sites rather than posting mp3′s on your own server. I gave similar advice in February when several blogs were shutdown because of the DMCA. Especially in the case of Bandcamp embeds, the data goes back to the artist. It’s a win-win-win—it helps the blogger, the readers, and the artist.
