a2f2a.com Massive Monster Mash
p2pnet view Music | P2P:- Over the past few days I’ve been taking on- and offline flak for:
A: Trying to work with high-profile artist/activist Billy Bragg on a2f2a.com, a site we set up together to provide a way for artists to communicate/work directly with fans, and vice versa, cutting out the bloated middle men.
B: And then not criticising him when he decided to pack it in
C: Deciding to keep a2f2a.com going sans Billy. (’Without him, you’re nothing’, says one email.)
D: Proposing an outside event I’d tentatively named the Massive Monster Mash.
FUC the FAC
Crosbie Fitch has, on p2pnet and on a2f2a, been key in explaining and defining what could be, as opposed to what is.
Yesterday I posted FUC the FAC. Who needs them? — the FAC being Featured Artists Coalition and in a comment post, “Well observed Monkey, wrt Billy’s apparent ignorance of FAC’s endorsement of an Internet tax”, said Crosbie in response to a post from Monkey D. Luffy, to wit >>>
I’m going to stomp on some feet here, but so be it. I’ve been doing some thinking and you know what? I’m glad Billy’s gone. I just don’t trust the guy, and I can’t work with someone I don’t trust. I was reading this post and something Billy posted came to mind, then I found his post.
“83. Billy Bragg Says:
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Instead, all I succeed in doing is waking up the undead, thirsty for blood as they hadn’t fed for two weeks, who, without a moment’s reflection, went for my throat again.
First post – from Zombie Fitch – opening line: “So Billy, if people won’t voluntarily donate their money to charity cases they should be forced to do so via an Internet tax?”
WTF? Where did that come from? What is he talking about? “I’ve no idea what this ‘internet tax’ you’re all so afraid of is.”
Take a good look at the date of Billy post. Now if you go to FAC page that this post about their support of a net tax comes from, you will see that post is dated Feb 15th.
Again, from Billy: “WTF? Where did that come from? What is he talking about? I’ve no idea what this ‘internet tax’ you’re all so afraid of is.”
So Billy, who is a board member of the FAC, has no fucking idea what a net tax is, even though FAC came out in support of it seven days before he made his denial post. I know we’re all supposed to shake hands and part friends, but I fucking HATE liars and I will neither forgive nor forget.
Continues Crosbie’s response to Monkey >>>
No-one likes saying the ‘tax’ word, least of all Billy. He prefers “Where money is made artists should be paid”. It’s not hard to go from this to royalties, to compulsory license fees, to ISP levies, to an Internet tax.
As even Jeremy Silver recognises, one can transition from “compulsory control (which has failed) to compulsory remuneration (which is highly feasible)”. [Jeremy Silver is a FACtotum and I'd quoted him liberally in FUC the FAC.)
"Compulsory remuneration"? it's a bit of a weasel term like 'extraordinary rendition' isn't it?
There were three clear choices that Billy (and a2f2a) could have opted for, and obtained consensus on one of them.
1) Copyright: better enforcement, 3 strikes, etc. (Jeremy Silver says 'compulsory control')
2) Internet tax: compulsory license fee paid by ISPs. (Jeremy Silver says 'compulsory remuneration')
3) Free market: artists and fans dealing direct (copyleft, license free, free as in speech, not as in beer)
Billy had to choose and chose. FAC has evidently also chosen. Both have chosen 'compulsory remuneration'. You can guess who will suffer compulsion and who will be remunerated can't you? Internet users and publishing corporations – with a minuscule dribble ending up with the artist.
The better transition is from an ineffective 18th century anachronism, the monopoly known as copyright, to a free market.
Once again, Crosbie sums it up. For me, at least.
Free market: artists and fans dealing direct (copyleft, license free, free as in speech, not as in beer).
Below were my first thoughts on the a2f2a Massive Monster Mash >>>
I have a totally insane idea.
a2f2a.com was started with the idea of putting fans and musicians together.
So let’s put them together.
All in one place.
The UK is where most of the (in)action is happening at the moment, so let’s organise a concert — a Massive Monster Mash — specifically so fans and musicians can meet in the same place at the same time and trade thoughts and opinions …
… artists to fans to artists.
Have half-a-dozen bands, say, not on a stage, but in a performing area surrounded by fans. They’d each do a short set, break, talk to fans via roaming mics/cameras broadcast live on X number of big screens so everyone could see and hear, and then the next band would take its turn.
And so on.
Film and tape it and turn it into a documentary for free release online, and for showing in offline cinemas.
That’s one way we’d make it clear the Rock Tsars aren’t where it’s at.
Devilish Presley’s Jacqui and Johnny are both in the UK and the other day I was talking to them about this. They reckon it would take six months or so to put such an event together.
Could it be done more quickly?
Either way, IMHO, it’d be a great opportunity for a documentary/film maker or two, half-a-dozen bands and who knows how many fans to make it clear who’s really in charge.
I know, I know. It’s an insane idea and I haven’t really thought it through.
But anyway …
And isn’t this kind of thing what a2f2a.com is all about?
And it would be a media magnet with the focus on us instead of them.
It’ll take a huge amount of work and effort, I added, "But it can be done."
The market for copies has ended
a2f2a.com member Jacquie Vixen of UK Gothic rockers Devlish Presley put together a work-list to keep me on track and in a comment post to Crosbie on a2f2a.com said >>>
"If artists and fans cannot demonstrate they can do business with each other directly, then an Internet tax is inevitable."
Completely agree 100%.
We quote you from Techdirt: "So tomorrow’s musician no longer hires a record company to sell copies for them, instead they sell a recording directly to their fans. The market for copies has ended."
Completely agree 100%.
Me too.
I answered her, "as I told my wife, Liz, and daughter, Emma, yesterday, I’m going to devote my Sundays to making it [Monster Mash] happen.
“Emma, 13, is a hard-core music fan. Last year she and her friends went to a Warped Tour concert in Vancouver.
“I start work at 3:00 – 3:30 am every morning and while I was in bed last night she found the organisers of the tour, thinking they might be able to help. Could be. Who knows? 
“But the point is — Emma didn’t think Monster Mash ‘might’ be possible for even a second. She took that for granted and started looking for ways to make it work.
“With my daughter as an example, I feel the same way.”
Cheers!
Jon Newton – p2pnet / a2f2a
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
February, 2010
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