why free, you ask? why do I encourage sharing?
why do I give free access to the source files?
I have put serious time (4 years) and money (gear, studio, mastering, pressing) into this project, but
making money (or even recouping my investment) has never been the inspiration behind my music. It has always been a combination of experience, feeling, instinct and influences thereof that drive me to create. I try to respect this as a gift. Music is a language. It exists to passed down, spoken, shared, modified, recycled and honored. Accordingly, I have chosen to give away my album for free, make $ contribution a choice, and thereby push open source music distribution. This is all in the name of gaining wider audience, sharing, learning, collaborating and just seeing what happens.
From a less philosophical point of view, onliness v1.0.1 is free because:
1. I want people to hear this - I want people to share this. I want people in Djibouti to bounce to this. Easter Island just twirk to this (okay maybe this is far fetched) By making it free, and encouraging both sharing and mashing, I hope to gain a wider, more participatory audience . I believe that open source music (as I have attempted to define and demonstrate) removes barriers between the artist and the listener, and thereby can create new opportunities for participation, dialogue and (me)diaspora. Not knowing what will emerge excites me.
2. I believe in open media and open source - not just as a way to release code, or music, but also as a way of thinking. Open information, sharing, collaboration and contribution all incentivized by free will have made this world and will continue to make this world a more interesting domain.I believe in open networks, sharing, p2p's potential, and I believe that artists should increasingly be rewarded based on merit not marketing budget.
3. This is a social experiment - I want to test the model of "donationware" applied to music. With it's free availabilty, forthcoming versions/updates and naming structure (v1.0.1) I have tried to conceptually approach the release a music album as software. From a business model perspective, I am interested to see what happens financially with the contribution incentives (master quality CD, updates, etc) even though the high quality MP3 version is available for free. Which factors will drive or deter contribution (i.e. Feldman's bagels)? What drives people to contribute $ for something they can for the most part get for free?
That said, I have no expectations. Instead I am fascinated by an experiment beyond my control. I will not be disappointed if all contributions total two quarters and some used tube socks. I won't be a hater if millions of people from obscure countries don't download this.
Accordingly, and in line with the social experiment side of this, I will be posting all contribution results on the website, along with contributors names (only if given permission), and any other information contibutors themselves would like to provide (links, files, whatever). This list shall be called the "Wall of Good Karma".
In the end, how onliness unfolds, materializes and develops is entirely up to its listeners, collaborators, contributors and supporters.
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