I'm a supporter of MaximumFun.org (I religiously follow at least 3 of their podcasts, and dip into many of the others for a listen here and there). I absolutely love this explanation of their business model and, frankly, am evaluating it as a possible method for my own distribution. I love the idea of, "We are going to make things that we think are awesome. If you think they're awesome, too, we'd love it if you could help us continuing to make them." It's not a model that depends on iTunes downloads, Spotify plays, or anything like that--it's a way for the frands and the creator to have a relationship, and for the amazing people who like the content to be truly involved in its creation, knowing that every time they listen to a song, they get to think, "This is because of me!"
I have a lot of new and exciting things coming down the pipeline that I can't wait to announce when they are ready. Some of it will take inspiration from this model, some of it will still rely on old-fashioned distribution.
But the fact of the matter is that "Nothing Left to Lose" (my charity track for which all income, for all time, will be donated toward causes fighting eating disorders) raised $2,700. In one week. Despite the fact that anyone could stream it for free, and all anyone needed to pay was $1. Yes, it was for charity, and that's an entirely different proposition than what essentially amounts to paying an artist so that he/she has time and flexibility to keep creating as much and as often as possible. But, still, it shows that, given a legitimate reason, people will rally behind something as simple as a pop song about struggling with an eating disorder.
It's all extremely interesting, it all requires a great deal more processing and thinking on my part (luckily, my brain never shuts up and at least 60% of its thinking power is always focused on music), but there are signs here that a new business model, one that relies on a direct and close relationship with the frands, could potentially be possible. And as an artist who makes a really big effort to connect personally to as many people as possible who listen to my music, that's what I want. I don't want to put out albums/singles/EPs to get rich, I'm not looking to become famous, or even Internet-famous. At the end of the day, I just want to make cool music and cool videos that people enjoy, and I want to know who those people are, and want them to feel personally invested in the art, because, without them, it wouldn't exist.
This is rambly, this is stream-of-consciousness writing, and this is 100% just me thinking aloud (thinking a-type? thinking a-write?), and there are probably 8 million things that I haven't considered yet. But that's the way that things happen--they start out as ludicrous ideas ("Hey! I know! I'll make an alt-country EP!"), and then can turn into something cool. All I know is that I have a lot more thinking to do on the subject. And all I can say is to stay tuned, because there are some announcements coming that aren't entirely unrelated to this post.
Always 100% serious when I say that I can never possibly express all of my gratitude to you all,
Matt
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
jacobvanloon
gummygunk
baratheonpilled
jbbartram-illu
janainaart
