Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-nz - Re: [Cc-nz] DIY MySpam

cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Matt McGregor <Matt.McGregor AT royalsociety.org.nz>
  • To: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion <cc-nz AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Cc-nz] DIY MySpam
  • Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:08:43 +1300

Hi everyone,

It's not too opinionated for me, nor too long, though I will need to write a
sentence at the beginning in italics pointing out that it's a community
piece, if that's ok?

Let me take this opportunity to say that if anyone else in the community has
CC related news or information they want to share, feel free to post it here,
or pitch it to me privately. The OA week materials were a test case for how
the CC site could be an information and discussion hub. While it will have to
be more 'curated' than the list, it would be nice to have more voices in the
mix.

Best wishes,
Matt


________________________________________
From: cc-nz-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [cc-nz-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On
Behalf Of Danyl Strype [strypey AT disintermedia.net.nz]
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2012 11:18 PM
To: Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand discussion
Subject: [Cc-nz] DIY MySpam

Kia ora koutou
(Matt, is this too long, or too opinionated for a blog post on
cc.org.nz<http://cc.org.nz>?)

DIY MySpam is a song and video by indepent musician Jayme Gutierrez, which
sings the praises of the share and donate business model:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1XZHVYqenw

One point Jayme's playful lyrics make is that for most of the history of
recorded music, the successful artists and songs have been chosen by
corporate gatekeepers, which increasingly own both the major music labels
which manufacture and sell musical commodities, and the mass media channels
which promote them. However, in the decentralized social media culture of the
web, we the audience decide which musicians becomes prominent, via the
network effect of sharing music we like in our social networks and
patronising its creators through direct donations and crowdfunding campaigns.

Although Jayme Gutierrez doesn't appear to use CreativeCommons licenses yet,
he does offer 'magnet links' on his own homepage, to help people freely
torrent his music:
http://www.jaymegutierrez.com/music.html

This must be deeply confusing to anyone who buys into the anti-BitTorrent
hysteria, which has resulted in dawn raids on Kim Dotcom's family home, and
threatens UK webmaster Richard O'Dwyer with extradition to the US for
copyright violation. How could anyone hope to make a living out of music
without trying desperately to generate profit through creating artificial
scarcity? Jayme is relying on the what Malcolm Gladwell, author of 'The
Tipping Point', calls the "stickiness factor". He hopes that having his music
circulating freely online will attract people to his website to make
donations, or offer him paid jobs as a composer and musician.

Could these tactics of self-production and self-promotion to a global
audience be the future for budding musicians, and indeed artists of all
kinds? These digital tools do open up a plethora of opportunities for hobby
musicians (and for those whose political ideologies reject commercialization
entirely), but contrary to the self-serving propaganda of the recording
industry associations, the change we are seeing is not from music-making
being a paid activity, to being an unpaid activity.

Rather, it is a change away from an extremely well-paid activity for a
handful of mega-stars, and the corporate bureaucracy that has grown up around
them. A change to a paid activity for anyone who can find success in the
share and donate economy - the native economy of the Internet. A true "free
market" in a way that a market dependent on the corporate welfare of a
state-enforced monopoly like copyright can never honestly claim to be. We the
audience decide, with our 'Likes' and our pledges, who makes a living out of
their music. This could be seen as the first steps towards a radical
democratization of culture (and indeed investment).

If so, what role does that leave for people who make their living off the
"content industries"? It's the same question faced by people working in
fossil fuel industries, as communities transition to renewable energy, and by
chemical industries as people increasingly join the "slow food" movement, and
choose 'organic and 'spray-free''. These are questions which public
organisations, whether they be part of governmental or civil society, can
help to answer. At heart though, they are exactly the sort of questions we
need artistic (and academic) freedom to answer. Freedom which the
beneficiaries of the "content industries" are desperate to see taken away. We
must not let them succeed, for our own sake, but also for theirs.

Hei kōnei rā

--
Danyl Strype
Community Developer
Disintermedia.net.nz/strype<http://Disintermedia.net.nz/strype>

"Geeks are those who partake in our culture."
- .ISOcrates

"Uncomfortable alliances are not just necessary; they reflect and speak to
the tremendous possibility of our political moment."
- Harmony Goldberg and Joshua Kahn Russell
http://www.nationofchange.org/new-radical-alliances-new-era-1337004193

"Both Marxists and Chicago-school libertarian economists can agree that free
software is the best model."
- Keith C Curtis
http://keithcu.com/wordpress/?page_id=407



  • [Cc-nz] DIY MySpam, Danyl Strype, 11/17/2012
    • Re: [Cc-nz] DIY MySpam, Matt McGregor, 11/19/2012

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page