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Mperia - Music and Micropayments
Mar. 8th, 2004 01:44 pmMPeria.com
Since the demise of mp3.com, which started off as a beautiful shiny thing, seemed to make a number of fuckups then shafted the artist community to hell and back trying to maintain financial viability, I've been at a bit of loose end for a decent site to whore my warez on (other than my own). For all the scammery towards the end, there's no doubt that having all my tracks available from there got people listening more than I could have on my own - I even made quite a few quid before they whipped the payback system into submission.
Worryingly, I think I'd have had a much rockier road if I hadn't got to the point where people have heard of the music now, without a well-known, functional place for people to go seek out new music.
Now, mp3.com is nothing but a holding page, for god-knows-what CNET Download.com will do with it. I squirm to think of all the files by all the quality artists that must have been purged from their servers.
Anyway - the good news is that something new has cropped up.
MPeria.com, launched by Bitpass, is starting to build up a roster of artists and (for the artist trying to see a few quid back on vodka money), they've got a payment engine in place which allows for tracks priced at pocket-money prices.
This is a great thing from both sides of the fence. Like eBooks, online movies, ringtones, etc, there have been many attempts to make people pay for something when either they can't judge the quality of the thing they're paying for (unlike browsing in a bookshop), or where you're asked to pay a fucking crazy amount for no physical product.
Am I going to pay $10 for the electronic of a book I can pick up for $12 in a shop? Am I fuck.
Would I pay $1 for a whole novel, and recieve it instantly? Oh yes.
While I'm extremely big on free music (dur), I'm also pretty big on the idea of seeing something back if what I make is deemed to be worth it. MPeria runs on micropayments, so prices can be as low as 25c per track. In my book, a song would have to be pretty gash to be worth less than that, plus (of course) you can preview the tracks and see pretty much what you're getting before you buy anyway.
And, in much the same way as accidentally leaving a bookstore without paying *cough*, you could always stream the track and record it with your own tools. I'm clearly not advocating this, I'm just not denying it. There's no DRM in place, and no silly bespoke playback systems. I think this is a good thing. It's nigh-on approaching the 'honour system'. Again, I think this is a good thing.
It's easy enough to rip off music, but if the price seems reasonable and the system's convenient enough, I am naive enough to have a bit of faith people will play fair.
The site is still (to my knowledge) teething - so there's the odd place where it's rough around the edges, but these are being fixed up and new functionality is building every day.
SO!
If you're an artist, or if you know artists, now is definitely to time to jump on board. While there are fewer of us on there, you are, clearly, in a better position to get noticed amongst the competition. Signing up is painless and free. If you've joined another mp3-site before, you know the drill. Get your photo and your press release and your tracks and off you go.
If you're looking for new music, this could be a good place for you to check out.
Goteki are already on there, with some (I think) previously unreleased work, we'll very definitely be doing more of the same as time goes on (between the usual freebie tracks).
If you have any comments / want to discuss the site, there's a page here where you can drop them your ideas and experiences. And, as they're building themselves on up now, you'll get listened to.
I've got my fingers crossed for these guys to do good things - mosey on by 'n see if you like what they're doing.
MPeria.com
Since the demise of mp3.com, which started off as a beautiful shiny thing, seemed to make a number of fuckups then shafted the artist community to hell and back trying to maintain financial viability, I've been at a bit of loose end for a decent site to whore my warez on (other than my own). For all the scammery towards the end, there's no doubt that having all my tracks available from there got people listening more than I could have on my own - I even made quite a few quid before they whipped the payback system into submission.
Worryingly, I think I'd have had a much rockier road if I hadn't got to the point where people have heard of the music now, without a well-known, functional place for people to go seek out new music.
Now, mp3.com is nothing but a holding page, for god-knows-what CNET Download.com will do with it. I squirm to think of all the files by all the quality artists that must have been purged from their servers.
Anyway - the good news is that something new has cropped up.
MPeria.com, launched by Bitpass, is starting to build up a roster of artists and (for the artist trying to see a few quid back on vodka money), they've got a payment engine in place which allows for tracks priced at pocket-money prices.
This is a great thing from both sides of the fence. Like eBooks, online movies, ringtones, etc, there have been many attempts to make people pay for something when either they can't judge the quality of the thing they're paying for (unlike browsing in a bookshop), or where you're asked to pay a fucking crazy amount for no physical product.
Am I going to pay $10 for the electronic of a book I can pick up for $12 in a shop? Am I fuck.
Would I pay $1 for a whole novel, and recieve it instantly? Oh yes.
While I'm extremely big on free music (dur), I'm also pretty big on the idea of seeing something back if what I make is deemed to be worth it. MPeria runs on micropayments, so prices can be as low as 25c per track. In my book, a song would have to be pretty gash to be worth less than that, plus (of course) you can preview the tracks and see pretty much what you're getting before you buy anyway.
And, in much the same way as accidentally leaving a bookstore without paying *cough*, you could always stream the track and record it with your own tools. I'm clearly not advocating this, I'm just not denying it. There's no DRM in place, and no silly bespoke playback systems. I think this is a good thing. It's nigh-on approaching the 'honour system'. Again, I think this is a good thing.
It's easy enough to rip off music, but if the price seems reasonable and the system's convenient enough, I am naive enough to have a bit of faith people will play fair.
The site is still (to my knowledge) teething - so there's the odd place where it's rough around the edges, but these are being fixed up and new functionality is building every day.
SO!
If you're an artist, or if you know artists, now is definitely to time to jump on board. While there are fewer of us on there, you are, clearly, in a better position to get noticed amongst the competition. Signing up is painless and free. If you've joined another mp3-site before, you know the drill. Get your photo and your press release and your tracks and off you go.
If you're looking for new music, this could be a good place for you to check out.
Goteki are already on there, with some (I think) previously unreleased work, we'll very definitely be doing more of the same as time goes on (between the usual freebie tracks).
If you have any comments / want to discuss the site, there's a page here where you can drop them your ideas and experiences. And, as they're building themselves on up now, you'll get listened to.
I've got my fingers crossed for these guys to do good things - mosey on by 'n see if you like what they're doing.
MPeria.com
