Recently I read @vuzhmusic the last statement of Net Audio Berlin (bolds are mine):
Netaudio Berlin has terminated it's activities at the end of 2011. The development within the music industry has responded in various ways to the claims and needs of the digital music scene - and keeps on developing tools as a response to the massive impact of the internet - as well as net-oriented communication- and organisation stuctures. Netaudio - like the cc-movement and many other alternative models and structures in digital music distribution - has left some remarkable imprints in music business - but due to a lack of will to professionalism, Netaudio will continue to stay an underground and amateurs network, where the vast majority of musicians try to escape rather sooner than later.Esta declaración me trajo las siguientes preguntas:
You may discuss this as waste of potential or as realisitic approach, as a sad quintessence or the backbone of an anti-capitalistic self management - we decided not to spend any more heart blood, time, energy and acitivities on something wich is not to become a working alternative system on the long run.
Netaudio is a great opportunity for newcomers to start building up a fanbase and start releasing their music without compromises and forces of traditional (analogue) music business. But as long as Netaudio stays an amateurs network is not relevant for music business at all - except as a talent's pool where you can scout and pick musicians coming along with an already existing fanbase and market-prooved sound design. Traditional music business benefit from the altruistic approaches of the netlabels by overtaking bands and musicians on a much higher level as ever - free fare of cause - and not provided with any form of contract which could be stressed. Which poor netalbel would be able to pay a lawyer to enforce anything?
All this indicates that on the long run Netaudio is not a proper tool for musicians who want to earn money with their music (wich is about 99% of all musicians we spoke to). And after the 3rd promising talent left a poor, naive - and finally helpless netlabel (wich has discovered and promoted the artists with all its energy and passion) to sign a major contract, the activities of many of those netlabels are coming to a disappointing end.
Within the group of netlabel heads we disovered very little pragmatism and ambitions to work on something which may provide artists, labels and other involved activists with a promise on a common future. Idealism and anti-business ideology are common amongst the label heads - as long as they continue their work. When the give up their spare time killer (for whatever reason) they leave alone the artists - and often cover their dead-end ideology with a silent comment on their failure.
Anyway - we had a great time organising two festivals and connecting an international netaudio community. We met phantastic people and listened to incredibly inspiring music! May we all continue to benefit from the ideas of fairness and personal integrity - be it in face-to-face situations or within a framework of rules for a respectable business behaviour.
¿Puede monetizarse el movimiento de las netlabels?
¿Es deseable la profesionalización de todos los músicos? (por ejemplo: que su objetivo primordial sea el comercio musical)
¿Es obligatorio para un sistema alternativo de creación musical incorporarse al sistema comercial?
¿El futuro de el movimiento netlabel depende estrictamente de de la comercialización de sus modelos de operación?
En última instancia: ¿Existe un valor en la música que no "existe" para el comercio musical?
This declaration prompted me the following questions:
Can the netlabel movement be monetized?
It is desirable that all musicians must "become pros"? (i.e: that their main objective is the musical commerce)
Is obligatory for an alternative system of music creation to become part of the commercial system?
The future of the netlabel movement depends strictly on the commercialization of its operative models?
In short: Is there a value in the music that doesn't "exists" for the musical commerce?
Obviamente son preguntas teóricas que aún no tienen conseso en su respuesta, pero podemos empezar a atacarlas imaginando una utopía.
Obviously these are theoretical questions that still don't have a consented answer, but we can start attacking them by imaginating an utopia.
Declaración de principios de UbuWeb:
“Let's imagine Utopia: a world with no copyright, no fair use, no micropayments, no royalties, no profits, no losses, no attribution, no licensing, no property. Let's imagine a world without money; in fact, let's imagine that money doesn't exist: nobody touches it; nobody pays, & nobody gets paid. Let's imagine a world with no grants, no government support, no Kickstarter campaigns, no fundraising drives. Let's imagine a world with no advertising, no mailing lists, no promotional blasts, no coercion, no donation boxes. Let's imagine a world with no bureaucracy, no boards, no patrons, no committees, no lawyers, no agents, no contracts. Let's imagine a world with unlimited hard drive, unlimited server space, unlimited bandwidth, no ISP bills, no download throttles or limits; a world with no captchas, no wait times, no nefarious profit-driven cloud-based lockers. Let's imagine a world with no numbers, no stats, no download counters, no clicks & no clickthroughs. Let's imagine a world where it doesn't matter if there are three visitors daily or three hundred thousand. Let's imagine a world where the content on a site is too arcane, too confusing, & too intellectual for any government to understand it (and by extension, to censor it) yet it contains the most radical ideas, politics, & sexuality imaginable. Let's imagine artworks that function outside of normative capitalist modes, their value being more aesthetic & more historical rather than economic. Let's imagine a world where decisions are not made by committee or popularity, with no regard for accountability & authority; a world where representation is subjective & eccentric, where choices are made on intuition, hunch, feeling & guesswork; let's imagine a world that embraces risk, uncertainty, instability, unreliability & whim. Let's imagine a world bereft of historical argument, in fact, let's imagine a world without argument at all. This is UbuWeb; this is paradise now.”El futuro de las netlabels estará en algún punto entre éstas dos visiones.
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“Imaginemos Utopia: un mundo sin copyright, sin micropagos, sin royalties, sin beneficios, sin atribuciones, sin licencias, sin propiedades. Vamos a imaginarnos un mundo sin dinero; de hecho, imaginaremos que el dinero ni tan solo existe, nadie lo toca; nadie paga y nadie es pagado. Vamos a imaginarnos un mundo sin subvenciones, sin apoyos gubernamentales, sin campañas electorales, sin financiamiento. Vamos a imaginarnos un mundo sin anuncios, sin listas de correo ni campañas promocionales, sin represión, sin cajas de donaciones. Imaginemos un mundo sin burocracia, sin patrones, sin comités, sin abogados, sin agentes, sin contratos. Imaginemos un mundo de discos duros ilimitados, de servidores sin límites y de banda ancha ilimitada, sin captchas, sin esperas. Imaginemos un mundo sin números, sin estadísticas, sin contadores de descargas, sin clicks. Imaginemos un mundo en el cual no importa si tienes tres visitantes diaros o tres mil. Vamos a imaginar un mundo donde el contenido de una web es demasiado críptico, demasiado confuso y demasiado intelectual para que cualquier Gobierno lo entienda y por extensión, lo censure. Imaginemos artworks que funcionan fuera de la imperante normativa capitalista, donde su valor es más histórico o estético que económico. Imaginemos ahora un mundo donde las decisiones no están tomadas por comités o basadas en la popularidad, sin tener que dar explicaciones de contabilidad o autoridad; un mundo donde la representación es subjetiva y excéntrica; una corazonada, un sentimiento; imaginemos un mundo que abraza el riesgo, la incerteza, la inestabilidad, el capricho. Imaginemos un mundo privado de argumentos históricos, de hecho, vamos a imaginarnos un mundo sin argumentos de ningún tipo. This is paradise now.“ (Tr. David G. Balasch)
The future of netlabels will be somewhere between these two visions.
