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Corporate Records

Corporate

Just a quick note on the music distribution side of things there is a new UK site that may just be worth a look.

 

http://corporaterecords.co.uk is a site that allows you to upload your tracks free of charge and sell them at a price you set.

There is even a "pay-what-you like" option :

"Audiences always say, when surveyed, that they are willing to pay for music but that they want their money to go to the artists themselves. Pay-What-You-Like makes them think about that at the moment that they start a download and makes it easy for them to act on any guilt they might feel. At the same time it removes the incentive to post the music elsewhere as, once you enter a zero in the payment field, you have a free download. Pay-What-You-Like recognises that many people will download your music for free whatever you do - but it brings it back into your control"

http://corporaterecords.co.uk/paywhatyoulike

(You can actually set a lowest price parameter should you not wish to merely give away your stuff)

The site is simple to use and non-exclusive when it comes to your material

The filthy lucre aspect is handled via paypal:

"Paypal charges a fee to handle all transactions, after this has been paid, artists recieve 80% of revenue they generate."

http://corporaterecords.co.uk/faq 

Although it still falls short of our original wishlist in that it does not seems to have any internal promotional resource or recommendation system (short of the charts that seem tio be de-rigeur for such sites) it looks like it may have room for expansion and may be worth a look if you require another sales outlet.  

 

Bring Something to the Table

What have you got through the internet?

I've garnered a plethora of trivia, a seasoning of useful techniques & tips,watched and listened to some good pieces of videos and music,(and even more poor ones).

I've also (allegedly) rekindled old friendships and cultivated new ones not dependant on geographical location.

But its all bee,n well, kind of arbitrary and to be honest I've wasted rather than used my time on the world wide web and my attention span has deteriorated - I'll follow certain avenues and then get sidetracked onto something else - admittedly these deviations have taken me down paths I might not have followed otherwise but ultimately it's just passing the time.

Years ago I had a acquaintance at school whose record collection was immense and included exotic tracks only available on import. One day the opportunity came for a few of us to sample this collection and we approached the event with mounting anticipation. However our host quickly fell into a pattern of selecting a track playing a few seconds then excitedly saying "you must listen to this" and putting the next track on, and so the afternoon passed. I'm sure that there were probably some gems in that collection but all I came away with was the distinct impression that the day had been wasted-yet that's exactly what I do now on the internet!

I can only conclude that I no longer have the discipline to see things through without being cajoled and/or encouraged by others.

So

How about collaborative learning

Not the formalised educational version, but maybe a free form style project where a group of people set themselves a task and encourage and help each other to compltete it?  
Invites could be sent and, like most things, oarticipants would get out of it what they put in so to speak - it could be run as a forum,  wiki chatroom or some other form of shared communication.

Now invariably when someone comes up with a vague idea like this one person will turn around and say "That's a good idea why as the instigator why don't you set it up?"
If there is anyone willing and able to show me how to I'm more than willing to learn.......

Oh and we also need a task to kick the project off

Alternatively if facilities like these already exist then please point me in their direction...

Right, what have you got to bring to the table? 

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Is it working yet?

The Apathy Principle

September 2000 in a field in County Durham. Silent John, The Guru and myself were attending a motorcycle rally. Having arrived late on the Friday night, they dragged me off to the beer tent to enable me to reach the same level of inebriation in as little time as possible.  "White Stallion"was the name of the brew I believe, and it was served in a two litre plastic bottle with child poof locking caps.

It should have been just like any other rally, arrive Friday night, get wasted, spend Saturday recovering in time for the evening session etc etc., and indeed, that seem to be the path that was emerging.
Having procured ourselves much Stallion to imbibe, we found that we became the inheritors of all the candles and flares that had been left behind as people drifted off into the night, intoxication having taken took its toll.

In the glow of the candles the theory of the Apathy Principle began to coalesce. None of us can pinpoint what triggered the discussion, it was like so many a drunken conversation, meandering from the sublime to the ridiculous much as an inebriate stumbles down the road.

It was probably a comment along the lines that one of us couldn't be bothered to get up and go to bed, followed by another of us saying they couldn't be bothered to drink any more, that led to the revelation:

You only do something because it's the most apathetic thing to do!

On the face of it this may seem a nonsensical contradiction, and one has to understand the mechanics of our thinking at 2 a.m. on that September morning, so let us consider the options that were presented to this drunken trinity:

1.Continue drinking the White Stallion.
On the face of it the most viable option. However, take into consideration that at 2pm on a Saturday morning an empty marquee tends to get rather chilly. So you have to ask yourself
"Can I be arsed to stay here?"


2.Retire to your tent.
This is the other option. However, you have reached a stage where you are finding it difficult to speak, let alone manage to stand up, so the act of rising and heading towards your sleeping place is a gargantuan task. So you have to ask yourself
"Can I be bothered to get up?"
The point where the decision is made is when one option is the most apathetic course to take, and the other option becomes hard work by comparison.

So, around 2 a.m., the Apathy level would be tipped in favour of the first option, as getting up would seem to be an almost impossible task for which the exertion does not equal the rewards. However, gradually, over an indefinite period of time, the act of staying and drinking would require more and more effort, to a point where the Apathy level would increase in the direction of the second option.

 
Naturally this theory needs more development but, well...........