new ways of doing music business Creative Commons & Sound In May 2008, front man of the noir-rock band Nine Inch Nails (http://nin.com) Trent Reznor music business announced to the world that they were releasing a second album, The Slip (http://theslip.nin.com), case studies under a Creative Commons licence, encouraging fans to download, distribute, and mashup their work. In doing so, NIN was making an indelible Ancient Free Gardeners 11 mark upon the music industry: take note, business models are on the move. Andrew Garton 13 Audiophile 16 Offering a flexible framework with which to manage copyright, CC provides artists with the Jonathan Coulton 17 opportunity to engage creatively with content. As early adopters of the flexible CC licences, Creative Commons musicians demonstrate an increasing interest Music Collaboration in entrepreneurial activities through online and Project (CCMP) 19 offline community-based and collaborative initiatives. Presenting the incentive to ‘Rip. Jamendo 22 Sample. Mash. Share,’ in 2004 Wired Magazine Knives at Noon 27 released a CC remixable CD, featuring the Beastie Boys, David Byrne, Le Tigre and Magnatune 29 Gilberto Gil, amongst other artists of note (http://creativecommons.org/wired). This venture Nine Inch Nails 32 gave rise to the ccMixter.org online community, Pocketclock Records 35 an award-winning project which is currently being converted into a business spin-off to explore the Postmoderncore 37 commercialisation of user-generated content. Topology 39 More recently, as the music industry has turned Yunyu 41 towards new business models appropriate to the digital era, several ‘survival strategies’ OpenVoice Free PBX 43 have been posited by David Byrne (www.wired. com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ ff_byrne) and the Open Rights Group in the United Kingdom (www.openrightsgroup.org/ building an australasian commons creativebusiness/index. independent Australian artists and labels php/Main_Page). In to connect with their community of fans this environment, an through CC licences. Employing CC increasing focus has as a promotional tool, local musicians been placed on CC’s role such as anime-inspired pop star Yunyu, in innovative practice. experimental ensemble Topology and Pioneering music sites New Zealand synth-rock band Knives such as Magnatune (http:// at Noon allow free downloads of their magnatune.com) represent works for non-commercial purposes, a concerted effort to and offer albums for sale on CD Baby introduce innovation to the and Jamendo. Such distribution, management of content, bypassing traditional publishers, has combining open access been embraced as a way of increasing philosophies with revenue- the bands’ prominence in both local and raising mechanisms. international markets. At an international level, the innovative business approach Building on this innovation, expressed by the independent and in December 2007, Creative idiosyncratic Jonathan Coulton has Commons outlined its been shown to work well in his favour. CC+ framework (http:// His experiment with new ways in wiki.creativecommons. which content can be distributed and org/CCPlus), which aims disseminated as a result of the Internet to encompass both the has born significant fruit, with 45% of his sharing and the commercial income in 2007 being derived from paid 10 economies, offering artists digital downloads. the ability to relicense their work non-commercially Whether engaging in distribution models whilst retaining the right as an emerging artist or a megastar, for resale to commercial musicians are navigating a new dynamic enterprises. Business which promises greater creative control. strategies embracing CC are The Creative Commons licensing currently being considered scheme signifies a departure from the and implemented by an traditional middle-man approach, and as ever-increasing series of such, represents a unique opportunity to sites, including Jamendo, capitalise on creativity whilst giving back Beatpick, Strayform, to the community. Youlicense, RightsAgent, Blip.tv, the Copyright Clearance Center, and Cloakx. These models ‘thank you for provide salient illustrations of different engagements your continued with commercial practices, Images: 3.0 BY-NC-SA CC US, http://theslip.nin.com which are continually being and loyal support The downloadable package redefined in the effort to for The Slip available from the capture the imagination of over the years Nine Inch Nails website included online audiences. the music files for the tracks - this one’s on me.’ accompanied by a PDF of album The following case studies Trent Reznor artwork. These are four images underscore the desire of from the album artwork. http://ninblogs.wordpress.com New Ways of Doing Music Business creative commons case studies Ancient Free Gardeners description: Ancient Free Gardeners are an indie-rock band from Melbourne, Australia, using Creative Commons licences to distribute their music. website: http://ancientfreegardeners.com licence used: CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 Australia, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- sa/2.5/au media: Audio Image: By Bo Hui. 2.5 BY-SA CC AUS, http://ancientfreegardeners.com/?page_id=13 location: Melbourne, Australia Ancient Free Gardeners (Left to Right) Callum Barter, James Milsom, Steve Morfesse and Gautam Raju Overview internationally through the use of Creative Commons licences, having previously been signatory to distribution Ancient Free Gardeners are an indie- deals that have borne significantly rock band in Melbourne, Australia. less than what the band had aimed for. The band consists of James Milsom Their first album is currently being pieced (vocals, guitar), Gautam Raju (bass together. The singles will be available 11 guitar), Callum Barter (drums) and Steve under Creative Commons; perhaps the Morfesse (keys, vocals). The band whole album. plays original music written by James Milsom at venues in Melbourne and (on occasion) tours interstate. Licence Usage The band takes its name from the friendly society, Order of Free For the self-titled release the Creative Gardeners, which dates back to around Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- the 15th century. What is the actual ShareAlike 2.5 Australia licence was link between the two? The tram into used. After almost completely selling out Melbourne CBD from the cemetery- of the five-track EP without recouping side sharehouse in which the band was expenses, the band tried another angle established rushes past the now-defunct for the distribution of the same songs: to adopt Creative Commons. James Milsom, Ancient headquarters of the Free Gardeners’ Free Gardeners Melbourne branch. An impulse caused vocalist and guitarist, two band members to make a visit on The entire EP is available on their website for free download (http:// took part in the one occasion, and so bizarre was the ancientfreegardeners.com/?page_id=49) Creative Commons experience that the adoption of the name Clinic Intern Program or streaming. It is also available on the was a foregone conclusion. in 2008. During his Creative Commons distribution platform internship, James Jamendo (www.jamendo.com/en/ Ancient Free Gardeners earn income researched and wrote album/22206) and through commercial a paper exploring the from playing live shows, CD sales and distribution points including Apple’s digital music sales via iTunes. However, need for new business iTunes music store. models for the music the band is not yet self-sustaining, and sector and what these is financially supported by the members. Though no statistics are available new models might The band aims to reach wider audiences for downloads, the band believe they look like. Creative Commons & Sound building an australasian commons ‘...once you understand that with CC licences you don’t actually have to lose all of the rights to the music, there is nothing but bene!t that you can derive. You have next to nothing, so you have nothing to “lose”’ James Milsom, Ancient Free Gardeners derived very little benefit from the distributive and promotional effect they release being on iTunes and other sought. But since making their music online music retailers. The move to open available free for non-commerical use content licensing was a very recent one, they have gained from several significant so the band has not yet experienced promotional opportunities such as a any significant benefits from licensing feature on the Obscuresound music blog its music under Creative Commons, but (http://obscuresound.com). Equally, they looks forward to the experiment. They negotiated a synchronisation licence recently expanded their experimentation with LonelyGirl15 (www.lg15.com/ 12 with CC by releasing the single Innards lonelygirl15/?p=452) for the use of the Out on the website under the same track ‘I am not a shipwright’ which would Ancient Free licence as their previous release. ultimately be viewed more than 60,000 Gardeners time. Despite this increased exposure have been they still only saw a minor rise in iTunes experimenting sales. with the use of Motivations Creative Commons The Creative Commons Attribution- licences. Their first James Milsom, front-person for the Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 release, a self-titled band, first heard about Creative EP, and their recent Australia licence was chosen because Commons at a lecture on innovation single Innards the band wished to reserve their right made by John Wilbanks, the Executive Out are both to attribution. Further, having licensed Director and Vice President of Science available on their work previously and experienced fairly Commons (http://sciencecommons. website under a severe difficulty in generating any org). The band became aware of the Creative Commons profit through independent music, the distribution and publicity potential Attribution- band wished to reserve their right to Noncommercial- afforded by the Internet. First steps into commercially license their music should ShareAlike 2.5 the area using iTunes failed to have the Australia licence. the opportunity arise. Said Milsom: “For the thousands of bands just like us, once you understand that with CC licences you don’t actually have to lose all of the rights to the music, there is nothing but benefit that you can derive.