GnuMusiq
GnuMusiq is a design for a net-based service that will allow artistic quality to naturally "float to the top" and gain wider recognition, and to make it easier for artists to receive income derived from their creative work, without artificially hindering access.
A more detail-oriented discussion is here.
Goals
We want artists to get paid for creating, regardless of whether it's good or terrible. Ideally, an artist should be able to earn a living wage by spending a working day of reasonable length creating just about anything.
We also want artists to be additionally rewarded for creating good material – works that others find enjoyable – so that they will be able to obtain resources for higher-quality production (e.g. better microphones, additional musicians, spending more time getting the best take and best mix, etc.)
We specifically want this to happen without artists having to spend a lot of time and effort on "promotion". Quality should be what matters most (although there's no harm in also rewarding artists for being awesome people that their fans want to support).
We want artists to be rewarded for making their work freely available.
Last and foremost, we want listeners to be able to easily find music they like and keep up with the latest tracks from genres and artists they enjoy, while helping to sustain and promote their favorite creators and works.
How It Works
The project starts with uploads[1] of CC-licensed audio files, to build up a library of material that is freely available for listening or download.
We will offer a number of features to attract listeners:
- personal playlists - stream or batch-download for offline listening
- federated social networking - share and boost new tracks and playlists, with links for immediate access even for users of non-GnuMusiq instances
- feeds from other CC music sites - music from these sites will be added automatically
Given that CC-licensed music is currently scattered across hundreds or thousands of other web sites, with little or no cross-cataloguing, the mere fact of having a single location for searching and listening should be an attraction unto itself.
Listeners will be able to recommend additional sites, or upload[1] CC-licensed music they find.
Footnote
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The uploading can be done either by artists or their representatives, or by others who find CC-licensed music on other venues. We will need to work out a way to check that the license is correctly identified for each upload, but this can be done manually at first. There is probably a way to crowdsource this work as well.