Dan Bull Auctioning Off A Custom Song On eBay

from the nicely-done dept

Mon, May 9th 2011 3:20pm — Mike Masnick

We've written about singer Dan Bull a bunch of times, including doing a case study on him and highlighting a few of his songs, including Death of ACTA and Dear Lily, both embedded here:

Beyond singing about copyright issues, and releasing his stuff for free (though I bought his album), it appears he's experimenting in other areas of business models as well. For years, we've pointed out that one of the key "scarcities" that can be sold is the creation of new works. This is a point that confuses many, since a song is not scarce once created (and made available in digital format). But the creation of a new work is very much a scarcity. Dan seems to recognize that and is running an experiment in which he tries auctioning off the creation of a new song on eBay. Since eBay auctions disappear, here's a screenshot:

The text reads:

Hello, my name is Daniel and I make songs. You can see my stuff by typing "Dan Bull" into YouTube. I've decided to find out what my music is really worth so I'm sticking myself on eBay. The winning bidder will receive:

One song on any topic of your choice, written, performed and produced by Dan Bull. Duration: 2.30 - 3.30 approx. I will liaise with you via e-mail if there any specific details you wish to include in the song. You will be free to use and redistribute this song in any way you wish, however I reserve the right to do the same. The song will be delivered to you in MP3 format within 14 days of the winning bid.

Get bidding now, because this may never happen again. Love from Dan :) x

Pretty cool experiment. We'll be interested to see how it turns out...

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Filed Under: auction, creation, dan bull, music, scarcity

17 Comments

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Drizzt, 9 May 2011 @ 4:18pm

Cool idea, but ... (just a little but)
The idea is pretty cool and I hope it's an success, though I'd preferred it, if he'd also offered the bidder to choose the format of the track. Like FLAC or Ogg/Vorbis. Because as he has made songs for free culture/about copyright, he should be aware of the patent mess around MP3.
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raysson rallys, 9 May 2011 @ 4:24pm

twitter
me sigam ai no twitter �:
@rayssonrallys
VALEU
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zegota, 9 May 2011 @ 4:33pm

Re: Cool idea, but ... (just a little but)
I'm sure he'd send it to you in a raw format if you asked.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2011 @ 5:00pm

Nice to see him trying a free market approach based on his value as an artist instead of the monopolist's approach used by the Music And Film Industry Associations.
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bshock, 9 May 2011 @ 5:01pm

i like it
I'm not really a fan of this artist, but I agree this is a cool idea and I hope it catches on. I would very much like to see other musical artists emulate this model.

I mean, I can't write music to save my life, but I know a young lady who loves music, and might be thrilled to have a song written just for her. If I could approach one of her favorite artists and offer them an accessible sum like $5k for a song, that would make a truly amazing gift (even more so in my case, because this young lady doesn't like me to give her physical objects, but will accept things like charitable donations in her name).

And this doesn't even seem like a terribly new idea. Centuries ago, you could go to an artist like Mozart and commission him to write music for you, as long as you had the money.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2011 @ 5:15pm

But ... but ... but ... artists will starve!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2011 @ 5:18pm

Re:
(BTW, you should update that image from time to time since the number is now closer to $250, for historical purposes. Update it towards the end of the bid).
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Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2011 @ 5:18pm

Re: Re:
Or, rather, it is $250 at this point.
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NotMyRealName (profile), 9 May 2011 @ 5:25pm

new business model?
I wonder if there would be a market for a website that held pledges for new songs in escrow, so the price could be distributed among several people. I imagine some contacts within the current music establishment would be required to drive big enough "name brand" bands into it to make a sustainable business of it though.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 May 2011 @ 9:27pm

BTW, is it normal for the same person to keep outbidding himself? I guess I don't really use E-Bay enough to know.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 May 2011 @ 1:53am

Re:
It only appears that a single individual is outbidding themselves due to E-Bay's maximum bid feature which automatically bids for the individual until they have the highest bid or their maximum bid limit has been reached.
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Rabbit80, 10 May 2011 @ 8:47am

Re: Re: Re:
Its in ��'s not $$$$'s. And its currently at �255 (or $417)
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Thomas Jones (profile), 10 May 2011 @ 8:51am

There's a guy in Toronto who's been selling the creation of new songs for a long time: http://songstowearpantsto.com/

Unfortunately a while ago he started charging for downloads to some of his older songs, but you can still commission a new song from him.
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dano (profile), 10 May 2011 @ 8:51am

Here's a music business model idea
This made me think of a new business model for music...It would be similar to equities investments. 'Investors' would buy 'shares' in a song, the proceeds going to the artist. Subsequent sales and royalties from the song would be paid to the investors as dividends based on some formula. It could even evolve into a common market similar to mutual funds. Just a thought...
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Thomas Jones (profile), 10 May 2011 @ 8:54am

Re:
He also does songs based on ideas submitted by people who don't play, but they are generally shorter and you don't really get any control over the song, and there's no guarantee he'll make it.

Basically the entire point of the site is that he makes songs based on your ideas.
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jerrycatin, 10 May 2011 @ 11:22pm

Re: Here's a music business model idea
Sounds a bit like Sellaband.

https://www.sellaband.com/
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Anonymous Coward, 13 May 2011 @ 4:19pm

Re:
It's not "the same person outbidding himself". You need to check the checkbox "Show bids placed automatically" which is off by default, and then you will see the true story.
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