Embracing the Flow
Nancy Baym
Microsoft Research
Photo : Mel B
Photo :Robbert van der Steeg
Economic (Market) Exchange
specific obligations
set rate of exchange
set time frame for repayment
based on legal principles
impersonal interaction
value independent of provider
(Blau, 1964)
CC: Schmarty
Decentralization & lost control
Photo: Hryck
Pirates
…There are other
ways to think
about audiences
CC: Uncle Catherine
Digital Media Empower Fans
Transcend Distance and Extend Reach
Enable Direct Contact
Provide Group Infrastructures
Enable New Forms of Participation
Curation, Wikis, Art, Fiction, Videos,
Remixes, Mashups
Fan
culture
is gift
culture.
mmlolek
ookssowell
greene connection
Social (Gift) Exchange
unspecified obligations
unspecified exchange rate
unspecified time frame
based on trust/obligation
Interpersonal
value tied to provider
(Blau, 1964)
psd
“I have to trust in the gift economy
idea. Because honestly at the end of
the day I would rather be surrounded
by people that I know and love that
are creative and that are moving and
changing cultural currents than to
isolate myself in the conversation of
infringement and the limits it puts on
the art. It puts us in the corner that’s
not as interactive and that’s not as
alive.”
Stephen Mason
Jars of Clay
Ian Muttoo
The Swedish
Model
Giving Music Away
“We put out mp3 songs from the start for everyone to
download, so that made a big impact in the beginning.”
-- Hybris Records
“ If someone reads about an artist on Labrador in a
physical paper and want to listen to the music it should
be very easy to find it. If they find their way to
Labrador.se they can download mp3s from all bands. If
they're on Last.fm they can hear every album in full
there. Etc. And if you're a small label you have nothing
to lose by spreading your music.”
-- Labrador Recordings
“If it doesn't spread,
it’s dead”
-Henry Jenkins
“If the right people
get it then he or she
will spread it because
that’s the way we are
working. […] We’re a
small company and
everyone who can
help us spread it,
we’re satisfied to
help.”
- Songs I Wish I Had Written
What do they get in return?
Status
“mp3 bloggers are important in the development of mp3
culture. In the beginning there weren’t many mp3 blogs.
It had very big impact if we put up our own site because
everyone would go to the site. Nowadays mp3 blogs have
taken that place. The label isn’t enough of a filter
anymore. It’s great for us. If a big mp3 blog puts up a
track by one of our artists it gives it credibility. It makes it
easier for people to like it and accept the music.”
-- Hybris Records
Attention
“All I want is to get the music through to people. […] It’s a matter of
using everything at the same time, trying to be represented on all
places at same time, getting people to talk about the music and
everything. It’s as important having a street team putting up posters
and stickers as having good representation on good sites and
having a web site that’s informative. I’m all in for information.”
-- Adrian Recordings
“ We have stopped thinking about selves as labels, we’re more like
music companies. We make music. We don’t think about selling
music, we just want to have attention. ”
-- Hybris Records
Data
Help
“So that's the thing. If you get fans, they really want to
help you. They want to be involved and they want to do
stuff like that. They'll make videos or they'll make a
drawing and send it to you and you could put it on a tshirt. They could make your album art. They can really do
whatever. They want to help you. They want to send you
what they do.”
Sydney Wayser
“My community's been a great help to me. After I shut it down, I got
an email, or notes through my website, from various people saying,
"If you'd like, we'll run your MySpace page for you." […] I have a
guy in Glasgow called Paul who runs my MySpace page […]
anything I put on the website to do with concerts, he keeps it all up to
date[…] he uploads the latest songs and things. I basically have a
great MySpace page, and I don't do anything. He also actually helps
me with Google Maps for the venues when the tours are announced.
He puts all the venues on my Google Maps so that I can plan hotels
and things […] I've got several volunteers who do various things. I've
got this group called the Young Idealists, and they sell CDs for me at
concerts and they put up posters in coffee shops and bars and things.
And one of them actually is a JavaScript expert. I did nearly all of
the coding at my website, but I couldn't make the music player work
with Flash, and it turned out to be a JavaScript problem, and another
Paul in Glasgow, who his regular gig is a philosophy professor and
he's a part-time web designer, he fixed the JavaScript issues for me.
So he's another person I'm greatly indebted to.”
- Lloyd Cole
“I like knowing that
there's a lot of people
out there who are
interested and seeing
what their reactions are
whenever I'm posting
information about a
new gig or a new tour
or new music.”
- Sivert Høyem
Support
Audience Community
nick_r
“It's real autonomous and sometimes they get pissed off with me […]
But they like getting together at Billy Bragg gigs, that's what they do.
They might not like Billy Bragg. I mean I spoke to one of them the
other day and she's absolutely clear she's not listened to an album I
made in the last ten years. That's cool, I'm not worried about that,
that doesn't bother me, the fact that I provide them with a social
framework.”
- Billy Bragg
Relationship
“I’m making friends with
people who listen to my
music and then I became
a part of their life and
they become a part of
mine. And I am truly
enriched by that. And
the music becomes the
soundtrack to that
relationship.”
- Steve Lawson
Creative Life
“They’re just letting me do what I
live for. I just live and breathe music,
I’m obsessed with it to the point
where it’s Gods and Devils and
Monsters to me, it’s so important.
And I know I can play without
anybody listening, but like I said at
the beginning of this call, it’s
unfinished then. It’s almost like a
kid, you don't want to keep it in the
closet. You grow it up maybe but
then when it’s grown up it goes out
and makes friends and is effective in
the world. And you're not done
raising the kid until the world has
accepted it.”
- Kristin Hersh
Collaborative culture
“We email quite a bit with
the “fans” (I'm having a
hard time use the word
“fans”)… The
relationship for me is the
fact/hope that we gather
like-minded people that
share a common love.”
-- Club 8 (Labrador)
“Listeners who are into our
kind of music, they are
more music fans than the
general listener. That kind
of person has increased in
number over last 5-6 years.
In Stockholm now there are
tons of clubs that play our
kind of music. It’s 100% file
sharing and the internet
that we have to thank.”
Mattias
Lövkvist
Hybris
Recordings
Global Reach
“We’ve become popular in places that if it
wasn’t for the internet, people wouldn’t
have heard who we are, just because either
people wouldn’t have the money to buy the
music or there just wouldn’t be any
promotion. We can pretty much play
anywhere. I don’t think that would have
been the case 20 years ago. I think we
would have sold more records 20 years ago
just because people bought more records
then, but we wouldn’t have been able to go
places that we go now, like really unusual
places like Chile or Indonesia or these kinds
of places. I don’t think our music would
have reached those places before.”
Stuart Braithwaite
-Sam-
Mogwai
Big Questions
What's the broader context of copyright?
What are the different kinds of value?
Who provides value and how?
What is the new "fair”?
How can we rehumanize creativity?