Don’t Stream, don’t Pirate. Buy and Sell Music instead.

We have seen the decline of the music industry for most independent musicians and bands in the digital age. Save for a few lucky megastars, the rest of the artistes and bands are struggling to make a living. In fact, many are taking on day jobs to pay the bills.

I’m not going to repeat and re-analyse the various digital services that has screwed up the entire industry. Downloads for $0.99, streams for free or a few bucks a month and of course peer-to-peer sharing has eroded revenue for musicians. And that’s not the worst thing that it has created. The most damaging effect it has on the lives of those who depend on music sales for a living is that it has created an entire generation of consumers who are used to NOT paying for music in return for eyeballs. It has exploited the wonder and beauty of music to lure consumers to spend money on every other thing except music. Phones, computers, tablets, headphones….they are all gift-wrapped with music that is unpaid, or underpaid.

It does the industry no good when music distribution is an oligopoly, where there are only a few sellers. Prices can be fixed, and producers are at the mercy of these stores, just because they are big and call the shots.

However, things can change. And things will change.

Everyone A Buyer. Everyone A Seller.

It is now possible for anyone who supports and buys music to also earn an income from reselling it. Before you judge and scream “Piracy!!!”, do consider this: What if your fans help you sell your music and earn a commission for each sale? Rather than punishing and threatening your customers with lawsuits and nasty letters, why not share your revenue from each sale with them?
There has always been a cost for distribution for any product, and music shouldn’t be any different. If a percentage from each sale is set aside to reward the right people for helping you earn money, everyone will be winners, and there are no losers. Let’s examine this from both sides — the consumer and the creator.

CONSUMERS

The whole industry’s future lies in your hands. Piracy is not a technological problem, nor is it a legal problem. If it was, technology and law enforcement would have eradicated it long ago. Piracy is always morphing. Streaming is a form of piracy. Just because you paid 10 bucks to a middleman for unlimited music doesn’t make you any less of a pirate. Or perhaps you promised to listen to a “few words from our sponsors” before you listen to music makes you guilt-free. Nothing you did has put bread on the table of the guy singing his heart out and recording it for your listening pleasure.
Piracy is a behavioural problem. It is bad behaviour reinforced by even worse rewards. As long as you keep getting rewarded for doing something, chances are you will keep doing it.

However, this is where a solution lies.

We reward those who buy music with cash.

Imagine this: You bought an album for $10. You get $2 for every friend that you recommend to buy as well. Of course, the album has to be good enough for you to part with $10. $10 is not a lot…maybe enough for a meal. But hey, you get $2 everytime someone buys the album when you recommend it to them. Pretty neat? There’s more.
What if the album or song goes viral? You manage to get maybe 5 friends to buy the album, and each of them also get 5 other friends to buy as well (they earn $2 too, just like you did)….and you get some money from each subsequent sale too? Maybe just a few pennies, but hey, it adds up. But wait…there’s MORE.

What if we can track every subsequent sale that resulted indirectly from you…and track it to 10 degrees of passes? So, imagine everyone tries to “break even” or at least earn enough to cover their $10 spent, it would be about 5 people reached by each person. So, to do the math, 5 to the power of 10 works out to 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 9.7 million. And you get just 1 cent from each of the 9.7 million sales….that’s $97,000 for doing the right thing in the first place — spending just $10 to buy music.

CREATORS

Now, musicians and artistes, especially independent ones, are a varied lot. Some do it for passion, some do it for art, some do it for survival. There are bound to be a significant number of independents who are not concerned with making money with music, but see music as a hobby, or a form of art. These are the musicians that would turn away and cringe everytime someone puts a price tag on music or talk dollars and cents when it comes to music as a business. Obviously these musicians are not hungry, and are happy sharing music on Youtube and whatever platforms and stages they can be on.

There are also those who have real lives to live, and bills to pay, and families to raise. Imagine putting your music on a platform that can connect you to paying fans. Imagine having your music speak for itself and going viral — not in terms of views and clicks, but actual sales. Each sale earns you at least 50% from the revenue as royalty (don’t worry, “profit”, “revenue” , “cost” are not scary mysterious financial terms), while the other 50% covers the cost of distribution — paying fans who buy and help recommend and other service fees. That $10 album that goes viral and reaches 9.7 million sales earns you $48 million, give or take a few million. And that’s just one album. Of course, maybe it may not go viral, but hey, you would still have the chance as long as you give it a try and work hard.

Sounds good! Where can I find it?

Ok, this is a shameless plug for some publicity. I’ve been working on this idea for 3 years, and sacrificed a lot of time money to figure out how the entire platform would look like, and how it should work. Head on down to www.Pompipi.co to find out more. It’s essentially a labour of love and sacrifice for 3 years, because of one man’s crazy sense of justice that consumed him. I cannot believe how a simple solution can solve the problem of piracy, but the execution is more than I expected.
Do feel free to comment and challenge this notion, and do contact me if you want to get your music ON Pompipi, or FROM Pompipi.

What’s Pompipi anyway?

“Steady Pompipi!” is what we say here in Singapore. It’s Singlish, so there’s no direct translation. It’s like “Hoo-ahh!” or something, but it means “Hey, we’re cool. Chill.” But if you want to know why Pompipi, it’s stands for Promoting Original Music, People to People. POM -Pi Pi. Get it?

If we can turn the tide, and empower every fan, every artiste, and everyone to create and curate, we can make a difference.