Moby Not Just Giving Away His New Album For Free On BitTorrent, He's Okay With You Profiting From It

from the an-enlightened-view dept

The musician Moby has long been an outspoken critic of the old recording industry. He's been a big fan of giving away works for free (and noting that he's made quite a bit of money from music he's made available for free) and has argued strongly against the old gatekeepers. He's criticized their anti-innovation views, suggested the RIAA should disband for suing music fans, and said he can't wait for the major label gatekeepers to die.

So it shouldn't be too surprising that Moby happily teamed up with BitTorrent to release his latest album as a BitTorrent bundle for free (you just have to provide an email address). But here's the more surprising part. Not only is he happily making it available for free, but he's actually fine with people profiting from potential remixes or other uses of the music. As he explained in a recent interview with Mashable:
Are people really free to do whatever they want? Can they sell their recordings?

I met with the BitTorrent people and they were asking, "What if someone comes up with their own remix and they sell it?" They were wondering what I would want them to do with the money. And my response was that they could take their friends out to dinner or give money to their favorite charity. Even if I make the stems, if they made the effort to make the remix, they should be the ones to profit from it.
This is a really enlightened view. Even among people who are accepting of how to use free in a business model, we still see artists get uptight about "commercial use" -- even though it's often not entirely clear what qualifies as commercial use. We've long advocated that more people should be open to the idea of allowing commercial use of their works, as the potential benefits for everyone -- including the artist and fans -- could be great. I recognize this still makes some artists (who otherwise support remix and open culture) nervous, but I think as we get more examples of artists who allow for commercial use, and see how well it works, that we'll see more artists get comfortable with allowing others to profit as well.

The rest of the Moby interview is worth reading as well. He points out that artists who adapt aren't worried about infringement:
Artists who are adaptable are doing fine. A musician who makes records, tours, DJs, remixes, does music for video games and films is doing fine. If you can learn how to adapt — it's really weird and unhealthy when people talk about restricting progress to accommodate the inability of people to adapt. Every industry has been impacted by [changes in technology] in both negative and positive ways, but I feel like to complain is pointless. I love Thom Yorke, but when I heard him complaining about Spotify, I'm like, "You're just like an old guy yelling at fast trains." I love anything that enables people to have more music in their lives.
He also talks about how great other services like Spotify, SoundCloud and Pandora are -- and notes that he's actively lobbied Congress not to restrict such services. He also talks about how ridiculous it was when his old label, EMI, tried to control everything to prevent infringement:
It was about 7 or 8 years ago when I was on EMI, and someone at EMI business affairs contacted my manager and told him that I wasn't allowed to play my own music when I DJ'ed because they didn't want people in the audience pirating it. This was back in the days of the Nokia flip phone. If someone recorded a song in a nightclub it would be the worst sounding recording you could possibly imagine. You probably wouldn't even be able to identify the song. That seemed like nonsense to me.
Instead, he notes, that wonderful things happen when you stop focusing so much on control, and let creativity and innovation flow:
My approach is to not try and control it at all. I really like the idea of not just giving people finished content. It's giving them something that if they choose to they can manipulate and play with however they want. There's absolutely no restrictions on it and that makes me happy. When people try to control content in the digital world, there’s something about that that seems kind of depressing to me. The most interesting results happen when there is no control. I love the democratic anarchy of the online world.
This kind of stuff is very refreshing after the latest round of artists on the wrong side of history trying to hold back creativity, culture, innovation and progress.
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Filed Under: bittorrent, business models, control, free, moby, music, recording industry, sharing


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  • identicon
    Rich, 21 Nov 2013 @ 10:52am

    I LOVE the music he did for the Bourne Identity movies.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 23 Nov 2013 @ 5:52am

      Re:

      He only did Extreme Ways - everything else is John Powell. That guy is next level, no real comparison. All his Bourne work is fantastic. Just FYI.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 21 Nov 2013 @ 11:06am

    No, Itunes isn't "giving away works for free"...

    Mike keeps trotting out selected but already popular artists as examples for his "give away and pray" notions*. This guy, like perhaps most, got known and popular by being promoted in the old fashioned way, and now that he's comfortably well off, just doesn't watch every penny. That's RARE and commendable virtue, but it's not the way that the music industry does or even can work.

    A real test would be for Mike to bankroll complete unknowns**, spend big money promoting them, while giving ALL the tunes away: NO paid outlets! That's FREE. This is just same old "loss leader" PAID model with varied proportion of "free as on radio" and "PAID as in money changed hands".

    [ * That's what Mike claims, so I'll continue to use the phrase: but in fact as I point out, Moby is actually in the usual selling channels.

    ** As has been done. Several totally inorganic groups, brought together out of the blue by promoter who advertised in trade mags, have been QUITE successful. Off top of head: Monkees, and Expose. -- The latter was even GOOD! ]

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Rikuo (profile), 21 Nov 2013 @ 11:15am

      Re: No, Itunes isn't "giving away works for free"...

      What about Dan Bull?
      https://www.youtube.com/user/douglby

      AGAIN, Mike has NEVER said "give away and pray". AGAIN, you will ignore this, and will continue to attack this strawman.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 11:41am

      Re: No, Itunes isn't "giving away works for free"...

      Mike keeps trotting out selected but already popular artists as examples for his "give away and pray" notions*.

      His "give it away and pray" notions are that he says it's not a business model one should rely on, contrary to your claims here. Do you EVER get anything right?

      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080522/1545021204.shtml
      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/200 81026/1928532642.shtml

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      silverscarcat (profile), 21 Nov 2013 @ 12:05pm

      Re: No, Itunes isn't "giving away works for free"...

      You DO realize that a lot of hip hop and rap artists who made millions gave away mixtapes for free, right?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 12:57am

      Re: No, Itunes isn't "giving away works for free"...

      "got known and popular by being promoted in the old fashioned way"

      DJ promotion of a b-side which blew up in clubs, leading to an unexpected chart hit (Go - Woodtick mix) despite some legal concerns over its initially uncleared sampling of the theme to Twin Peaks and another that remains uncredited to this day (from jocelyn brown's Love Is Gonna Get You). Said club promotion typically happening via free promos and bootlegs rather than any corporate marketing. Said successful single leading to

      Not what your tiny uninformed mind expected, huh? Oh let's be fair, maybe you're talking about Play, his breakthrough international success, but let's check out some Wikipedia quoes about how the major labels were behind this work:

      "According to Moby, he shopped the record to every major label (from Warner Bros. to Sony to RCA) and was rejected every time. After V2 finally picked it up, his publicist sent the record to journalists, and many of them made a huge production of saying they weren't even going to listen to it."

      Yeah, let's just depend on that industry to promote successful artists! It's obviously foolproof!

      If you're going to spout crap about record labels, it's best not to pick up on those that rely on free promotion and non-corporate play. Definitely not those that rely on flukes despite the industry, not because of it.

      "Several totally inorganic groups... Off top of head: Monkees"

      So, your answer to the record industry's problems is to manufacture fake groups to cash in on the success of other more talented musicians (yes, I know the group changed over time, but they were a product to answer to The Beatles when first formed)? In other words, your idea of innovation is to continue doing what the major labels have been doing for decades. Brilliant.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    bobmail, 21 Nov 2013 @ 11:07am

    wow, an artist that actually doesn't make me want to puke and punch babies with their over-inflated ego and sense of entitlement.. an artist that's actually inviting to fans instead of looking for peasants to suck up to them and give them cash 'look but don't touch'

    i always loved his song 'southside' maybe it's time i checked out more of his music

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      jupiterkansas (profile), 21 Nov 2013 @ 12:38pm

      Re:

      An artist that doesn't think that just because he's made a little money that he's better than everyone else.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Wal-Mart, 21 Nov 2013 @ 3:19pm

      Re:

      ROFL That name!

      If you're a TF reader you'll get it.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 1:18am

      Re:

      "i always loved his song 'southside' maybe it's time i checked out more of his music"

      He's a pretty eclectic artist, having had a career ranging from early hardcore rave stuff in the early 90s to punk rock to ambient to movie soundtracks. I say check out as much as you can, Southside is on the more commercial end of what he did, although you've almost certainly been exposed to more of his music through it being used as the background for marketing for many years. There's more to him than that though.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 11:27am

    he comes from the dance/club/house scene it trives on sampeling

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 12:06pm

      Re:

      Yea, but don't forget his story about the legacy industry and what it was trying to do to him:

      "It was about 7 or 8 years ago when I was on EMI, and someone at EMI business affairs contacted my manager and told him that I wasn't allowed to play my own music when I DJ'ed because they didn't want people in the audience pirating it."

      All musicians thrive on sampling. How many artists would sell anything if no one could "sample" their work before they bought it?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 12:33pm

    Moby probably will be around no matter what the market environment is, the MAFIAA will not.

    These attempts to claim ownership rights beyond the boundaries of your own home will always, always backfire badly.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 12:48pm

    Moby made all his money already, via licensing his music for advertising. A whorish business model that's been around for almost a century. His artistic worth is zero.

    He can say whatever dumb shit he wants at this point. He's probably just trying to get laid.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 21 Nov 2013 @ 1:01pm

      Re:

      via licensing his music for advertising


      You mean just like nearly every other popular musician? Including almost all of the classic ones that are considered musical geniuses?

      His artistic worth is zero


      I.E., "I don't personally appreciate his work, therefore he is utterly without worth and should be ignored."

      Great argument you have there.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 4:31pm

      Re:

      Thanks for verifying that the original business model propped up by out_of_the_blue and the RIAA is "whorish".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 1:33pm

    I love this. He should take it one step further and release the original multitrack work files to allow real remixing. That would be really cool.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 2:31pm

    I like Moby.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 3:26pm

    what else can you say except 'woo hoo' thank you kindly!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That One Guy (profile), 21 Nov 2013 @ 4:42pm

    CWF + RTB done right

    And just like that, suddenly I want to check out his latest offering and throw some money his way.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 21 Nov 2013 @ 5:37pm

    If Itunes takes his music and sells it, is that okay?

    Or would unearned profits by a giant corporation trigger his outrage and a lawsuit? If so (as I believe), then punctures Mike's notions: this is NOT "free" music, it's just looser concern under existing copyright.

    I've just read the Mashit "interview" closely and that's not addressed, nor is whether okay for persons selling the album as-is, whole and unmodified: he states only for remixes.

    By the way, he mentions that many people are using the same software and making nearly the same sound, SO that's another important point: his music is low cost for time and effort -- particularly no pesky and difficult lyrics. It's generic. So would he say same "take it for free" if spent months or years perfecting unique tunes as only he in history of the world could? -- Of course not. Cheap music can be given away with little psychic loss to the artist.

    Besides, point I should have made: he always has copyright available! SO if he chooses for whatever reason to not worry about thefts, that's his privilege: a lot less wearing on one's self-esteem than having products literally stolen.

    No matter what this fellow does with HIS products, copyright is still valid for everyone else under simple common law: "I made it, therefore I own it".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 1:11am

      Re: If Itunes takes his music and sells it, is that okay?

      You moronic statements become particularly stupid when your only defence for your beloved major label system becomes to attack the artist. I won't go through the other stupidity here (which is abundant), but just note that you have to personally attack the very people you pretend to care about.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 22 Nov 2013 @ 4:23am

        Re: Re: If Itunes takes his music and sells it, is that okay?

        You know you lost this whole pirate war you were waging, right?

        Right?

        If not, wow. Just wow.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          PaulT (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 4:42am

          Re: Re: Re: If Itunes takes his music and sells it, is that okay?

          "You know you lost this whole pirate war you were waging, right?"

          Why do AC morons have to lie to try and score points against fictional representations of who they are addressing? Does reality scare you that much?

          Two points. First of all, I've won the "war" I was personally fighting. DRM has been removed from purchases, legal access to digital music is easier than ever before, the market has shown that people are willing to buy music even if piracy exists and innovative and interesting music services are available at reasonable prices to all. It's not a perfect system and there are still problems, but most of what I was demanding a decade ago while assholes like you lied about me have come to pass. I expect it to improve, I'm now trying to get the same treatment from other media industries.

          Secondly, in case you're too stupid to notice, this story is about torrents being used to legally market music. You know, the thing you people claimed could never be used for legal purposes while you were insisting that no method of promotion outside pre-approved corporate methods would ever work? Yet again, an artist shows that it's only the idiots in charge of the whole sorry industry that stands between them and their future, and less of them are buying the lies. While you were lying about people who opposed the major labels being pirates, honest people were working on real solutions. Sorry you missed the boat.

          Did you have any other fictional realities to construct so that you can attack them? I'll wait.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 22 Nov 2013 @ 8:27pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re: If Itunes takes his music and sells it, is that okay?

            average_joe just deplores it when due process is enforced.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Nov 2013 @ 6:58pm

    You're just like an old guy yelling at fast trains

    "You're just like an old guy yelling at fast trains." - Moby

    That's awesome, right there. He should make a song based on that. Reminds me of "Old man yells at cloud",

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Landpaddle, 22 Nov 2013 @ 7:42am

    Moby is parroting a gimmick already employed by other musicians.

    To elaborate, other artists have knowingly put their discography on torrents before, claiming that the resulting publicity would result in enough donations to compensate for the loss of direct revenue.

    In many cases this was a flop, but in others, such as Benn Jordan's famous stint in 2008, the resulting appreciation of those who couldn't otherwise afford their music ended up generating a net profit and earned respect for years to come.

    Releasing music for free has become a legitimate, albiet equally risky, business tactic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous, 22 Nov 2013 @ 5:48pm

    He can get stomped by Obie.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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