IDYL Music - Share. Empower. Enjoy

Hey folks,

This is a call to action letter I wrote for the new company I've been working with the last several months called IDYL Music. We are developing a new music distribution platform that will not only pay artists at the highest possible rates for their songs, but very awesome-ly it will also pay FANS for using their social networks to help distribute those songs. So yeah, best of all possible worlds. Download music and instead of worrying about getting sued by the RIAA when you burn it for your friends and post it on your blog, you'll just get paid for doing those things like you normally do... If that sounds cool to you please read on and then send me some comments and please SHARE this message with people...that is the only way this thing will come to pass!

IDYL Music – A New Music Distribution System Designed to Empower Us All!

WHAT IS IDYL Music and WHY NOW?

            Over the past several months a new internet startup company has been hard at work creating something really special; it’s called IDYL Music and we’ve finally launched our new website! IDYL Music is an online music sharing system that compensates artists at a much better rate than many current services. What really sets IDYL apart from other sites is that it also pays FANS for helping distribute this new music through their social networks! I am thrilled to tell you that our web site is now live! You can check it out at www.idylmusic.com.

Right now, IDYL (pronounced “ideal”) is just that though, our vision of a better music industry in which artists are paid fairly and fans get to share in the revenue. In order to raise the necessary resources to build this concept into reality we’re also launching a crowd-funding campaign here: www.idylmusic.rockethub.com Similar to Kickstarter, Rockethub is a site where people go to share new ideas and seek donations to help build these ideas into the art projects, sciences and technology of tomorrow. In exchange for supporting these projects, you often receive exclusive rewards or gifts and the chance to use these new products before the rest of world! Our reward system is explained in depth on our website.

We’ve sent out this message to our close personal networks, our friends and family and we hope that you will send it to YOUR friends and family because to really make this thing rise up above the systems available we need support from everyone.

If you are a musician, if you have ever enjoyed music, if you have a friend in a band or even if you just like the idea of helping musicians get a fair shake, please click on the links and make a donation. We can’t do it without you, ALL of you!!

HELP OUR CROWDFUNDING GO VIRAL

The notion and the function of IDYL Music will thrive in social media, and we hope you will share in the power of its virality by SHARING this message across your networks! We know we can’t do it without you. In order to develop the tech that will make IDYL happen, our crowd-funding phase is crucial. You can find all the information about our crowd funding campaign and contribute to the cause here: http://www.idylmusic.rockethub.com And even if you decide you can’t help us financially right now, you can still support the cause be SHARING THE MESSAGE!

Ok you’ve got the basics.. And of course all the details are up on our site. If you’re sold then please hit the button and help fund this amazing idea! But if you want to hear a little more before you’re ready to lay down your hard-earned dollars please keep reading…

THE VISION UNFOLDS

Right now we are a team with a vision and a website. When IDYL is built, we intend to spread globally through your participation in social media. You can be the catalyst that will make sure IDYL helps artists everywhere earn money for their work, and also pay their fans who create the success those musicians have achieved. This system brings artists closer to their fans by making them part of the process and ensures that everyone earns a share for the work they put in. We think IDYL Music will be the way forward for artists who are just starting their careers or have not yet reached their peak, and for fans that want to participate more in developing the music scene they love. IDYL can also help to prevent piracy which has so plagued the music industry in the new millennium because it offers a better option than stealing music. Why simply steal it when you can get paid to share it?

HOW IT WORKS

            MUSICIANS: IDYL is a system of distribution based on abundance rather than scarcity and it works by monetizing virality. This system allows IDYL to pay artists an excellent percentage when their tracks are shared on the web, and also pay the fans to share these tracks. In this way, we will change the current industry standards in which only 1 out of 20 songs shared on the internet are paid for. IDYL puts more money back into the hands of the people who work hard to create your favorite new music, the artists!

            FANS: IDYL Music knows that the network of fans that helps empower the artist should be recognized and compensated. We monetize virality for songs in 3 tiers of reach outward along a social network (You share with your friends, they share with their friends and then they share with their friends). Now, your favorite songs are more than just a playlist, they’re your investment portfolio. This process is explained in detail on our website and in the intro video.

            WEB INFO: http://idylmusic.com has the lowdown on how the system works. There are several diagrams, some animations and most importantly an informative video. In the video you’ll find out about our team, hear from some musicians who are already excited about the cause and learn how any individual can use the system to access the best new music and earn money for themselves as well as for their favorite artists. Sharing the video is one of the most important steps we feel will help generate support for IDYL.

            CROWDFUND on ROCKETHUB: There are several phases of construction for IDYL and the time to fund it is now. We need to build the applications for desktop, tablets and mobile devices, we need to create the infrastructure and build the network that the system will work on and we need to bring artists, bands and independent record labels into the system so they can make all the best new music available through our network. To do all this, we need to raise money, it’s just a fact. By building IDYL with crowd-funded support we can make sure IDYL isn’t hijacked by corporate interests. IDYL is founded on the belief that creativity deserves compensation and it is very important that creative control for this project remains in good hands.

So that’s it! We’re hoping that you will click on these links, check out our site and watch the video that explains IDYL Music completely. When you’re done with that, we hope you’ll go to RocketHub.com fuel the campaign. But most importantly, we hope that you will pass this information on to your friends and family, the people that you trust the most because when it’s all said and done, we just can’t do it without you.

Thanks for your time and whatever you do, do it with music!

WEBSITE: www.idylmusic.com

CROWDFUND @ ROCKET HUB: www.idylmusic.rockethub.com

VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/78796462

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/idylmusic

To the Pavers of the Information Super Highway and the Cowboys that Cruise it Everyday

Cyberpunk.

I love that word.

Originally it was used to describe a literary genre. A genre described as “postmodern science fiction noted for focus on information technology, corporations taking the place of government and the need for fundamental social change.” The creation of which has generally been credited to William Gibson. With his first book, Neuromancer. Gibson first coined terms like “the Matrix” and described, long before the public knew about the world wide web, a concentual hallucinatory universe where people could “go” via their computers, a place where people went to increase the flow of information. Now we just call it the Internet but it’s definitely the Matrix. And our kids will wonder how we got around in that place with just a keyboard.

But to be an actual cyberpunk, that always sounded romantic to me. Neuromantic I suppose. IDYL is a Neuromantic notion.

With IDYL we have a goal to make an essential change. We’re working from within the music industry but the goals go beyond that. We want to make you think about the way you go about your day, your business. Take a hard look and decide; are you doing this the best way? Is this the best you can do or is it just the only way you know how? Because we think there is another way.

            Cyberpunk can also be described as the chronicles of the High Tech and the Low Lives…the struggles of characters that live on the fringe and conduct themselves according to a morally ambiguous or at least different set of standards. It sounds pretty cool. And it’s definitely a “lived in” genre. There’s grit, grime, cigarettes, booze…and energy. It’s all pretty rock n roll to be perfectly honest. Maybe its even punk rock n roll. Punk was originally about turning your back on the way things were being done and doing it yourself. DIY. Building something new. It wasn’t really cool then, that came later. The truth is that the Clash and the Sex Pistols were always pissed about being on a t-shirt. Well, Joe Strummer was pissed. Sid Vicious was probably pretty satisfied with himself and… oops. Got off track. I get emotional.

            There’s another element of Cyberpunk and that is the idea that the only way forward is through change. The characters tend to get caught up, through their everyday struggles, in a major reality shift; An essential and radical change in the social paradigm. Through their movement, actions, however mundane for their lifestyle, a new order arises. The shift occurs via information technology. And it turns these characters into heroes.

            Renegade revolution has always been part of the foundation for the information cowboys. That’s why we still see groups like Anonymous, Wikileaks, etc…and these people’s actions divide us as a society because change is never easy. It creates turmoil but ultimately it creates progress. Our grandfathers witnessed the actual birth of the computer. And in the 70’s the cell phones we conduct huge tracts of our daily life on, from business to the most intimate personal interactions, were fantastic whimsical impossibilities only hinted at in the best science fiction. Like Star Wars.

            If I’m really honest, the heroes I always go back to are the heroes of Star Wars. But in a way the basic tenets of Star Wars can be described with a cyberpunk analogy too. And what is always so striking about Star Wars, the thing I think captures imaginations to this day, is that the hero is plucked from obscurity and mediocrity and asked just to do his best and see what comes of it. Do or do not. There is no try.

            What we’re doing is making a change in how we think about business. For the moment, we’re talking about music business. But again, we’re asking; is the current model the best we can do? I think there is a better, cooler way. In our vision of the music industry, when you buy music it becomes a tool you can keep using to make money, not just sit in a collection. Your playlists become your portfolio; an investment, not just disposable entertainment. And the reason I want to take part in this change is because I’ve witnessed first hand how the music industry doesn’t work.

            I was on the road, in different bands, for several years and I’m not a famous or exceptionally successful musician, from a certain point of view. But I have seen a lot of bands rise and fall and I know how much time and energy, blood and sweat went into trying to succeed for those bands.  I also know that for my part I made it farther in the music industry than many musicians ever get. But even that wasn’t enough to make a living. Still, I stood next to people on stages that had been my heroes and got to call them peers and I will always cherish the moments I got to spend performing in front of hundreds of people. On a few rare occasions, thousands. When people choose to give you their attention, that’s an intimate gift and I think you have an obligation to do not only the best you can, but to use that time in a transformative way. You have to use your voice to make a stand and if you’re lucky, make a change.

            If I’ve got your attention now, then I have to tell you; I have been in the music industry and many people fail there. But RIGHT NOW if you feel like it, you can help us challenge that system and bring about a sea change of success. There is so much money in the entertainment business that in a time of economic crisis – and make no mistake, our country is on the edge of an abyss right now – we think we can harness the energy, and with it the money, and put it in the hands of the artists we respect and love. And for our efforts we can share a piece of the pie too. We think we can make an essential and radical change to the social order. And what’s cool is that regular people: you, me, and the rest of the folks out there in the matrix, called forward to just do their best, can bring about this change.

            So now while the country writhes in agony, trying to find a new balance and a way forward, we hold the cutting edge of information technology in our hands and we’re discovering that maybe that’s all we need. I don’t want just use my cellphone to “check in” or get angry at a few birds, I want something more. And I know that with a few mundane motions the tiny actions of many, galvanized into a single driving force, can turn an idea into an IDYL.

            We’ve got a shot at being true cyberpunks. Maybe even being heroes. And that’s all anyone can really ask for; a shot.

            Please come see what IDYL is about. If you like it, I encourage you to go to Rockethub.com and help fuel our campaign to turn this IDYL into a reality.

* as of 10-31-13, our RocketHub crowd fueling campaign profile isn't actually up yet. But it will be by Monday. If you are super interested, please go and check it out. But as of right now you can definitely check out

www.idylmusic.com

It is a massive undertaking and it's gonna be amazing.