Where to Begin?

The View from Vista Mountain

I arrived in Montreal just over a month ago.

I had a stack of Newdor CDs with the new interface that I wanted to bring around to demo at various locations. I quickly discovered a few stores that were interested in carrying them, although mostly as a novelty item. I also started thinking about various ways to distribute these CDs, and ways the average consumer could make a living doing the same kind of distribution.

Most of this came to an end with the closure of the Weedshare program. Upon reviewing a lot of the work I've been doing these past few years, I realized that I'm not really interested in supporting this kind of restricted corporate model, even if the founders originally had good intentions. I'm looking for more of an independent solution, one capable of providing a maximized benefit for the consumer and the artist, with the corporation existing only to provide for a level playing field for everyone over the Internet.

DRM - Digital Rights, Records and Restrictions Management

The problem with DRM is that most people, including the 'Open Source' and 'Free Software' organizations, see it as a means of control. This bias has prevented these same organizations from developing open-source solutions for DRM that would allow independent artists and media outlets to use DRM as a potential business model.

What is not realized is that DRM has more potential to benefit the Independent Media industry than the older media organizations. Through use of technologies like 'file wrapping', it's possible to deliver content through the Web or CD and recieve a benefit for both the artists and the consumers.

Building a DRM solution that caters to the artist and the consumer, allowing both to share in the revenue stream, eliminates much of the issues regarding corporate greed in relation to DRM. I'll try to outline how such a model could flow.

Shareware Music - DRM as a delivery system

Imagine being able to purchase, for just $2, a preview CD or DVD packed with hundreds or thousands of songs from independent artists around the globe. Tracks can all be previewed an unlimited number of times, but will request the user to purchase a song to remove the 'nag screen', as is normally used in the Shareware Software model.

Once purchased, a unique file is created, licensed to the individual consumer for general use. The consumer then has the ability to create a DRM-Free file (mp3) for their own personal use on a variety of devices, without worries of compatibility. They are simply asked not to share the DRM-Free version over p2p programs. In this manner, this solution is no different than the recent steps taken by EMI in regards to Apple's iTunes, yet now consumers can share the unique file they've purchased.

Purchased DRM'd files under this type of wrapper/incentive system protect themselves through a more ethical means than traditional DRM. Although consumers have the option of sharing a DRM-Free version of their purchased file with their friends, this is where the line is drawn between stealing and fair use. Unlike current corporate DRM models, the consumer is only stealing from themselves and the artists, should they choose to share the DRM-free version of their media. If they've already paid for the track, their unique file is now registered to them and serves as a means for recouping the costs of purchasing. Although the concept of stealing from the 'corporations' is not seen as morally wrong, stealing directly from the artist and fellow consumers removes several of the grey areas from the equation.

DRM as the New Newspaper

Newspapers and magazines have long relied on advertising to pay for their production. Although paper and ink are relatively inexpensive, and we've long since had access to printing presses that can produce these items in mass quantity, their production cost still far out weighs their retail cost. Publishers offset these costs by providing advertising space which helps pay for the production before it's hit the market. Using wrapper-style DRM, CDs and DVDs gain new life as a cheaper and more efficent publishing medium than paper print media.

Say, for example, someone wanted to produce an Arts & Culture review magazine in Montreal. CDs can carry 700 MBs of data, which amounts to a whole years worth of newspaper articles. However, with DRM these CDs can now carry music and video for sale as well. A well-designed Media Magazine on a CD could feature music from local artists, offer information concerning local hot spots in the music scene, as well as thousands of stories, poems and artwork from local artists. Profits from advertising them become the icing on the cake instead of a means for covering production costs.

Overhead Value

A Music Magazine CD, retailing for $2, if produced in volume has a production cost of below $1. In this case, each sale pays for it's own production, unlike print media. Advertising revenue from ads placed within the CD tack on an additional profit margin. And finally, if the CD is even half-filled with DRM'd media for preview and purchase, it can have an additional potential value of upwards of $50-$100, depending on how artists price their tracks. Although the production costs were paid for with the inital purchase, both artists and the publisher can benefit from this new revenue model.

Thus it can be shown that using DRM to benefit independent media instead of the large corporate interests, it's possible to develop a whole new branch of multimedia publishing where the consumer, the small-scale publisher and the artist can all benefit from the new publishing formats.