He also wrote an interesting book named “The 20 things you must know about music online”‘.

Digital Central interviewed Andrew and the article is worth reading.

Of course you can buy this book “in dead tree format” on lulu.com but Andrew got a better idea. You can download this ebook free of charge from here.

While you are on Andrew’s blog do not forget to subscribe to the RSS feed (like we did)… and before leaving our own blog subscribe to our own RSS feed (click here).

This first CD manufactured was “The visitors” album from Abba .

In November 1982, in Japan, the first musical CD had been put on sale. Wikipedia explains that (in Japan), “the first album available was a compilation of 16 japanese-made titles from CBS/Sony”. Japan was also the country where the first compact disc player had been marketed (with the Philips CD100).

Of course, we will soon publish the “terms of use” on our main website. Within these boundaries, each label manager will have to freely define and publish their own “terms of use”.

Artists willing to collaborate with any of these labels will compare the different labels’ offers and then will be able to register free of charge with the label chosen freely.

After registration, the artist will have access to a control panel allowing to update the information and multimedia files that will be showcased on the artist’s public page. You’ll have a blog to write about you, a place for your videos, another for your songs in mp3 format, a place where you’ll announce where and when your next show will be.

If you record more songs or have new video clips, publish them. There is no limit…

Some label will use a business model that will eventually allow you to record some more songs or even publish a CD. These new songs will also be added to your personal showcase as mp3 files.

All your work will be freely accessible from your own personal artist showcase. But it will be free only for non commercial usage. That means that if anybody tries to make money from your work, he owes you a part of it! This is a common point of all the business models we will support: everything is free as long as it is for a non commercial usage!

The Terms of use of our web site will apply to all label managers and all artists.

The Terms of use document, will address the commercial use, the publishing rights management and the copyright management. The copyright can be subdivided into three distinct categories covering the uses of the artists works. They are known as performance rights, mechanical rights and graphic rights.

We worked hard in order to provide a better deal than what is currently offered by the music industry. Of course the profit sharing methodology depends on the business model used by your chosen label. All detailed information will be published and always available on our main website soon.

The basic principles are as follows:

• All artists must own all rights regarding all artistic materials they publish.
• The artist bears all responsibilities regarding any claim or legal action of any kind regarding these artistic materials.
• The label and our company will have no responsibilities and no liabilities regarding the material published by the artists.
• Immediately after publication on the website, the artist enter de facto and immediately in a publishing contract with our company regarding the commercial exploitation of all rights and derived rights related to all published materials.
• If an artist, after publication of any material, withdraws it from the website, the publishing contract continues to exist without any change.
• When, due to any commercial exploitation of any artistic material under management, any rights or derived rights generate any revenues, they will be paid directly to our company and then shared between all interested parties. The “split” will depend on the business model used by the label where the artist is showcased.
• The artist grant a free global unlimited license for all material published by our company on the internet.
• By uploading any material on our website, the artist, using its moral right, agree definitely that without any limitation the label, our company and our partners have the right to use its artistic work without any limitation.

Based on this contract, we will be able to help you focus on your artistic career while we do our best to help you get a financial reward for your hard work.

For example, we will manage the relationship with MCPS-PRS alliance. Quarterly this UK based agency will pay the performing rights it collected on behalf of the artists we represent.

Within days all the accounting will be done and audited by an external and well known accounting company. The label’s and artist’s internal account will be credited and the audit published on our website.

Then, each of you will be able to use your internal account balance the way you want.

The good news is that you will be totally free to use the business model that suits you.

What we will offer is to support all possible business models that are legally acceptable somewhere in the world.

This does not mean that all business models are acceptable in the country you are living (and where you operate your business). You already know that laws and business regulations are not the same everywhere in the world. You will have to check with your lawyer, accountant and/or tax adviser what is possible for you before to make a final decision and use it for your label.

We will begin to support four different business models.

Here they are with a small presentation:

• Classic: the label fund everything using their own money
• Believer: The label defines the budget that is splitted in a defined number of parts that the believers will buy before the CD is recorded.
• Subscription: The label sale by subscription the CD before it is recorded
• Free_CCAnCnD: The artists allow free download of their work for non commercial use based on a Creative Common license (Attribution + Non Commercial + No Derivative Works)

As you might already know, we did not invent these business models.

The “Classic” is used by nearly all existing record companies… The “Believer” is used by Sellaband… We are not aware of any website using the (sale by) “Subscription” business model but know that it had been in use for books edition at least since 1750 (when Diderot published the first known encyclopaedia)… The “Free_CCAnCnD” is currently used by Jamendo…

This is just the beginning and if you request it, we will support more business models when and if required.

As always your comments are more than welcome.