a2f2a

… p2pnet would stay online.

Actually, it would be a few cents more than that, what with CC fees. But you get the idea …

I’ve just put p2pnet up for sale. I started it to share music – MIDI, not mp3, files — but ended up becoming a kind of online pamphleteer, joining the men and women (and nutcases ) who, mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries, saw injustices and did their best to try bring them to public attention.

They did this by publishing pamphlets, paying print costs out of their own pockets, unless they were lucky enough to find patrons.

I still have patrons – my advertisers – but my main benefactor has had to drop out to focus all his financial resources on his own business.

My wife, Liz, and I were talking about what’s happening and, “music is like diamonds,” she said. “Diamonds aren’t rare, but they’re controlled at the source.”

The major labels used to control music at the source as well, creating false scarcity.

And then along came the net.

Diamonds can’t be digitised but music can, and that 21st digital century reality has been responsible for busting cartel dominance. It’s also the primary reason Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music have been trying so desperately to gain control of online distribution.

First, they used mainstream print and electronic press outlet to present subpoenas as court cases in which innocent men women and children were pilloried under mainstream media headlines without ever having been near a court, judge or jury.

That didn’t work and now they’re trying to compel governments to act as corporate agencies with taxpayers footing the bill, and ISPs working as industry copyright enforcers, paid for by the ISPs’.

Certain similarities

On p2pnet, among many other issues, I’ve repeatedly emphasised the way in which Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music have been screwing both their contracted parties and their own customers and very recently, I co-founded a2f2a.com with UK artist Billy Bragg.

‘Artists need to be paid, and fans want to pay them’ as the bottom line” is our main point, and my present difficulties got me to thinking there’s a certain similarity between me and artists.

We both need patrons to keep on doing what we do.

“Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another,” says the Wikipedia, and Crosbie Fitch, creator of the 1ptu system, first woke me up to the possibilities.

For me, his project “epitomises what the net is supposed to be all about,” I wrote, continuing >>>

Reasonable people behaving reasonably to the benefit of everyone, instead of just a few.

What it boils down to is this:  under the 1p2u concept, readers aren’t customers: they’re patrons in much the same way that in the old days, artists, writers, musicians and other creators survived when someone recognized the value of their works and decided to provide them with resources of various kinds, including money, so they could continue to create to the comfort of society as a whole.

In my case, my readers become my publishers, which I think is pretty cool. If they like what I produce, they pay me to write more. If they don’t, they don’t.

Simple.

Unfortunately, Crosbie’s 12pu project is still very much in Alpha development and therefore can’t be much help to me. But I still think it’s a great idea and could benefit anyone in the arts.

Meanwhile, and coincidentally, I promise you, as I was putting this together, my wife posted a Reader’s Write in which she says >>>

Since Jon told me yesterday about our changed circumstances we have been doing a lot of thinking and talking. I don’t know about the rest of you people but sometimes my brain just engages in a whole range of free-associations.

I haven’t had time to tie them together and smooth them out but here they are: – one of the thoughts which ran through my head was: in a weird analogy Jon is experiencing the worst nightmare of a Billy Bragg or of any other musician – he supplies a cultural product and, right now, doesn’t know whether he is going to get paid. – to paraphrase Chris Ovenden (http://www.p2pnet.net/story/24704) perhaps the time has come to see if p2pnet has enough value to give it a price. By that I mean a price to its users.

I believe Jon’s advertisers value it. – Jon says above he is looking to sell the site: a notable story here on Vancouver Island was the recent employee buy-out of the Harmac Mill in Nanaimo. The employees, along with some investors, now own and operate the mill. In the case of p2pnet, if 3000 of the visitors to the site paid $1 per month that money would take care of our sudden shortfall.

Just some ramblings Liz Newton

Stay tuned.