The IP Maximalist's Guide To Making It Big

from the or,-How-to-Make-Money-in-a-Sea-of-Pirates dept

Fri, Apr 1st 2011 5:25pm — Tim Cushing

Techdirt talks a lot about how to make money in the music biz without actually selling music. Consider this an improvement. With these instructions, you'll hardly have to produce any music at all, and if you do, you won't have to go through all that time-intensive and "extremely expensive" production/promotion stuff.

1. Make some music.
Before you can start making money, you'll need some product (hereinafter occasionally referred to as "bait"). Don't worry! You don't need an entire album's worth of tracks to start cashing in on infringement and piracy. Hell, you won't even need an entire EP. The RIAA has shown that a single song is worth up to $150,000! (By comparison, the median wage of the bottom 90% of American wage earners is only $30,000. Take that, non-artistic office drones!)

2. Establish a confrontational web presence.
Set up a site to promote your music. Preferably, this should be nothing more than a huge, sternly worded copyright notice and some low-quality watermarked jpegs. Better yet, use bitmaps. Nobody swipes bitmaps. If, for some reason, you feel you should post some music, make sure it's a low-bitrate stream running through an old version of RealPlayer. Limit each stream to 90 seconds or less. Feel free to shorten this length if it seems to be "giving away" too much. You want people to feel unsatisfied and therefore, more likely to purchase your album whenever the hell it actually arrives.

3. Never release your music.
This is key. Always keep your music in demo form. (Much like Zynga games and Minecraft -- always be in "beta".) Without an official release, all music of yours found elsewhere is guaranteed infringement. The time you don't put into releasing your body of work (hereinafter referred to hysterically as "your children") will pay dividends when discovered on YouTube or Soundcloud. Never underestimate the power of self-righteousness in the face of egregious betrayal. Don't be tempted to think of this as "free publicity." Nothing in life is free, least of all when you're planning on getting rich the old fashioned way: through artistic endeavors and/or copyright infringement lawsuits.

4. Get your demo stolen.
This ties in with step 2. In order to maximize your theoretical losses, you'll need to have your product distributed without your consent. If you're still carrying around your demo on a USB drive or *gasp* a DAT (Luddite!), be sure to clearly mark it with the label "Demo." Also consider adding "DO NOT STEAL!!!" for maximum seriousness. After all, all caps and multiple exclamation points work for letters from collections agencies. This lets everyone around you know that you would prefer that your precious "children" not be kidnapped and shuffled around the internet like so many trafficked humans.

There are many ways to have your demo conveniently stolen. For those in certain genres, the quickest way to a stolen demo is through the boudoir. During your next post-gig threesome, display your demo conspicuously. (Perhaps on the nightstand. Or tape it to your bare chest.) Be sure and point out to your cohorts that said "demo" is full of "groundbreaking shit" and contains at least one "top 40 hit." Once all the fun has been had, fall into a deep sleep. This will allow your new acquaintances to let themselves out (along with your demo) without having to deal with awkward goodbyes or false promises to "do this again sometime."

For others, it may be more convenient to have it removed by a member of the studio staff or tossed onto the internet by an unscrupulous muso journalist/blogger, who has been deemed trustworthy enough to handle your demo. Take whichever route feels more "indignant."

5. Publicly bemoan the loss of your demo.
Use any and all interviews to rant about your stolen demo (the "bait") and its subsequent reappearance in a variety of digital storage lockers. Be sure to mention the countless hours spent finessing your product and how this betrayal has left you bitter and (most likely, especially if we're still using the "children" thing) barren. Rail against the internet in general in comment threads. Don't just limit yourself to music blogs. Take your case to tangentially-related articles at major online publications and other "artist-friendly" forums. Highlight the thousands-to-millions of dollars that have just been removed from your wallet by this theft.

Take care to downplay the fact that you still have another copy of your demo which could be released at any point in the future. If a blogger or journalist has the temerity to ask whether you'll still be releasing this album, resist your urge to punch them in their logical mouths and point out that there would be absolutely no point. After all, if everybody (yes, everybody!) has gotten ahold of it for free, why would they even consider paying for the official product?

6. Connect with your fans.
In this day of rampant digital thievery, it can be tough to tell who's actually a fan and who's just some sort of internet cat burglar. Play it safe and assume nearly everyone is out to get as much for free as often as they can. After all, you've got piles of self-interested studies to back up this viewpoint. Be sure to take to the comment threads of various sites to air your complaints. Decry "piracy" and "infringement" with passion and misspellings. Belittle independent artists who work with small labels or self-release. Write off the entirety of the internet as basement-dwellers and misanthropic teenagers. Point out how piracy has both severely damaged the world's economy and diluted the talent pool. Back up these assertions with exclamation points and poor analogies.

7. Profit.
Here's where all your efforts will pay off. Having carefully protected your intellectual property and antagonized thousands of people, all you have to do is release your music and wait for the royalties to roll in. Try to keep the sale on your terms: buy the album or get nothing! After all, you're not releasing a collection of singles. You're releasing a fully-formed child with a maximum of 40% filler! If the world fails to beat a path to your wallet, you can always blame piracy and the internet's unholy signal-to-noise ratio. But don't panic. Bide your time. After all, you've got the collective power of the world's governments in your corner. As enforcement maximizes, so should your profit.

Use your downtime to prowl comment threads with legal threats, allegations and complaints. Mock T-shirt sales. Dismiss every alternate business plan as a one-time fluke. Praise enforcement efforts for stomping all over privacy and civil liberty. Thieves deserve no less.

[Disclaimer: The above steps are not guaranteed to provide you with a lucrative return on your time and talent investment, despite the pageview-grabbing headline. I also realize that a disclaimer is usually more effective when posted in front of the content, but you're probably used to badly-worded, opaque contracts at this point.]

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Filed Under: business models, intellectual property

40 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 5:52pm

...And you have completely lost your marbles...
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Anonymous Poster, 1 Apr 2011 @ 5:58pm

Best article all week.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 5:58pm

Dear Mr. Cushing,

I followed your advice and it changed my career—nay, my life—forever. Not even my extraordinary songwriting prowess can put the gratitude I owe you into words.

Before I read your guide, my album's CD and casette editions sold poorly, and yet I was constantly plagued by unpaying (and thus ungrateful) fans telling me they "loved my work" and it "means so much to them" and it makes them "cry tears of ecstasy" and other such no-cash-value remarks. It was as if they thought that just participating in the magic of music and knowing I had touched the hearts of so many strangers would be rewarding somehow. Music doesn't make me happy! It's just a job, like accounting or cleaning Rush Limbaugh's trough.

These ungrateful fans kept asking me "got any t-shirts?" and "why aren't you on itunes?" and shit like that. I didn't spend all of high-school playing the guitar so I could become a fashion designer or a nerd—I did it to meet girls! But when that didn't work, I turned it into a career, and I shouldn't have to do crap like diversifying my skill-set just to succeed in the workplace. I just want to work for the weekend and live for the paycheque.

Now, thanks to your advice, that's exactly what I'm doing! Well, except for the paycheque part. And the weekend part, since I had to get a second job after we didn't draw bar-minimum at that venue I booked last mont. But even though I'm still miserable, at least I know I'm not bringing joy to a bunch of freeloading assholes.

Sincerely,
One Smart Musician
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:00pm

Re:
If this site had a shark to jump I'd say it's long past.
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blah, 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:02pm

Damn, trouble brewing now!
I believe this business method is already patented and being sold to artists via paid advertisements.

C&D in 3...2...1...
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Marcus Carab (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:06pm

Re: Re:
couldn't decide which mediocre joke to lead with, huh?

If this site were the Roman Empire, I'd say it's in decline! A-hur-hur-hur...
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:10pm

Re:
My marbles weren't "lost." They were pirated. Any loss is purely theoretical, which works out to about $1.2 billion USD.

And as for the shark jump, that was last month's $50 offering on the CwF + RtB page. Fun was had by all. (All who participated, that is. You haven't lived until you've seen a grown shark jump.)
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Jay (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:10pm

Re: Re: Re:
If only we could use #GladwellLogic for this...
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:13pm

Re:
"cleaning Rush Limbaugh's trough..."

Hahaha! That's going in the book. It'll be a collaborative effort with one big name and several smaller names on the cover, like a Patterson or Cussler novel.

And good on you! Screw those freeloading assholes and their relentless "respect" for your "artistic integrity." Hugs and sexually explicit fan fiction don't put goat cheese and hummus on the table!
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Greevar (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:19pm

Re:
I found my marbles, so now I'm flying to Neverland!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:28pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
How many freetards does it take to screw in a light bulb? Hey, there was a light bulb here a second ago . . . .
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Jay (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:32pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yep, that made no sense
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:40pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
How many IP trolls does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Unknown. They sit around while someone screws in the bulb bitching about how screwing in replacement bulbs only works for this person.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:50pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
How many paytards does it take to screw in a light bulb? I don't know but candlelight is stealing.
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TrolLkiLLer, 1 Apr 2011 @ 6:52pm

Re: Re:
You're an idiot shill
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:02pm

Re:
Thanks, AP. I thought the same thing but I didn't want to be the first person to bring it up. ;)
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:07pm

Re: Damn, trouble brewing now!
I'm covered. Fair use. I only linked to their trollish comments rather than cutting and pasting them into the post. Airtight!
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Chris in Utah (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:12pm

Re: Re:
Care-full going to need brain bleach for the Rule #34 form the trough. Though considering friday's popularity as the new Rick-Roll go fur it.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:22pm

I would be inclined to think the OP was an April fools joke if reality weren't so ridiculous.
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Jay (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:40pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Ah, gotcha...

:p
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 8:46pm

Here is an example of innovation that was created without the need for patents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

Noticed why it was developed

"Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing"

Again, as in most cases, necessity spurs innovation, not patents.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 9:30pm

All I can say is that you really should keep this B class material for your own blog. Mike's blathering and self-justifying posts are bad enough without having to wade through this sort of material.

You think you are clever, but you are just like Nina... self defeating.
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Justin Olbrantz (Quantam), 1 Apr 2011 @ 9:46pm

Re:
No need to lie. That would just mean less material for you to dismiss without ever actually addressing. If you really wanted that, you would've stopped coming here ages ago and eliminated such material from your diet entirely.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 9:47pm

Re:
You seem to have #2 pinned down!
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harbingerofdoom (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 11:06pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
i believe the line you were looking for is:

zero: they spent all their funding on legal campaigns suing those who actually spent their time screwing lightbulbs in.
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The eejit (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 12:00am

Re:
B-class material? IS that some kind of Kryptonite for you?
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G Thompson (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 12:11am

Re:
Oh Look, it is April the 1st and we have fools commenting about what is self evidently parody that shows them the stupidity of there own actions..
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2011 @ 4:52am

Re: Re:
Of course it is parody. The problem is enough of the faithful here think that it is "the truth", and just like a Nina cartoon, it is a gross simplification of ideas. The objective is to create a sort of overall strawman that can easily be taken down in the minds of the readers in the future.

It's B material at best, a true headshaker at best.
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The Devil's Coachman (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 6:08am

Re: Re:
And if you had a legitimate thought to contribute, other than the usual pointless contrarianism, it's long overdue.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 6:34am

Re: Re: Re:
It's not a "gross simplification", it's an intentional simplification. Obviously satire like this, and Nina's cartoons, wouldn't carry Techdirt site alone: it needs the more serious and in-depth analysis to back it up. But that doesn't mean those of us who feel similarly about these issues can't enjoy some jokes and some clever summaries based on them. After all, you will loudly complain about absolutely anything that is written here, so it's not like Mike is worrying about YOU when choosing posts.
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Old Fool (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 7:33am

Me first
I had that idea first, and you will be hearing from my lawyers.
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Atkray (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 8:38am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Someone please find something for Marcus to do, he obviously is bored.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 9:17am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Someone please find something for Atkray to do. He clearly doesn't understand multitasking so it should get him away from here. :P
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2011 @ 10:14am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Multitasking reduces your capabilities to that of a 80 points IQ, according to research LoL
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The eejit (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I blame the bottleneck caused by them darned pirates inside your nerves for that.
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Marcus Carab (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 11:22am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Then I guess you're lucky the entrance requirement for trolling is only a 40 IQ.
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Bt Garner (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 12:18pm

My First song using this method is titled "April Fool." Keep in mind I was going to use the method outlined by The KLF in their classic book "How to Have a Number One The Easy Way," however, since I am not in the UK, nor a UK citizen, I cannot be "On the Dole" as one of their first steps claims I must.
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Justin Olbrantz (Quantam), 2 Apr 2011 @ 1:00pm

Re: Re: Re:
It's all about the balance of nature. As long as industry propaganda sites like the Copyright Alliance Blog exist, not only will sites list this exist, but they'll be vital to balancing the scales. Just like a sprinkle of the Pirate Party is necessary to counter-balance the opposite extreme.

For some friendly advice, I might suggest that you might be happier reading said blog rather than this.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 4:05pm

Re: Re: Re:
"Of course it is parody. The problem is enough of the faithful here think that it is "the truth", and just like a Nina cartoon, it is a gross simplification of ideas. The objective is to create a sort of overall strawman that can easily be taken down in the minds of the readers in the future."

In case you haven't done so already, try clicking a few of those blue links. They'll lead you directly to comments made by others who wear their anonymity proudly, with each one a perfect, unique, clueless snowflake. So, if the faithful here think it's the truth, that's because it actually is. If you don't like what's being said, you and your trolling, anonymous counterparts really have nobody else to blame.
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Christopher (profile), 2 Apr 2011 @ 11:09pm

Re: Re:
Yeah, that Anonymous Coward who keeps on posting here (yet never makes an account) is just a shill for the media companies.

It's time for the media companies to stop living in the past and realize that today, there is no artificial scarcity to music like there was 200 years ago.
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