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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Putting Musicians Back in Control of Their Music

Music streaming accounts for more than 51 per cent of the market share for album consumption, yet many artists struggle to get their share of the profits. "Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth," as musician Jack White once put it - but what technology takes with one hand, it often gives back with the other. For bedroom musicians the world over, digital advances are opening up new ways to make money and find an audience.

Berlin-based streaming service Resonate opened to the public in May, after previously being available to its supporters. It already has more than 1,000 artists and 150 labels signed up to its pay-as-you-play model. Artists earn more every time a subscriber streams a track, until the ninth play, when it becomes free forever.

The idea is that fans pay to support their favourite artists. "It's going to take a while before the decentralised technologies are fully developed," Resonate founder Peter Harris says, "but the co-operative model gives us protection against being led down that investor-controlled road."

Read the rest at Wired

 

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