Artist Account
 their fans about themselves. Artists have the opportunity to post their genre(s), geographical location, members, contact information, and upcoming concerts & events, along with videos and downloadable music. Artists can upload pictures of themselves that fans can access by clicking on the artist's main photo. Unfortunately, Fight The Power is not a functional website based on the template above. However, if Fight The Power becomes a success and gains more technical support, users will be able to access all of the artist's content. Fans can purchase the artist's music at the price that the artist sets. The artist can also let their fans pay what they want for their music, like what Radiohead did with "In Rainbows". There is a risk that fans would pay nothing for the music, but this is a risk that would be explained to the artist before choosing such an option. This pricing model allows artists to guarantee themselves a certain amount of money for each purchased song or test to see how much people are willing to pay for it. Better known artists could be successful just like Radiohead was with "In Rainbows" by using their large fan base to illustrate that the "pay-what-you-want" model can indeed work. Getting a popular band to post their content exclusively on Fight The Power would almost certainly ensure the business's success because it would draw all of their fans to Fight The Power and encourage other big artists to post their music here as well. For this reason, considerable efforts should be made to acquire popular artists and have them publish their content exclusively on Fight The Power. If Fight The Power takes off, there is no stopping its success. Fight The Power takes a relatively small percentage of the revenue generated (50%) when compared to all other competitors in the web space. Fight The Power deals with money differently than every other music company, and the music community will no doubt realize the potential for sharing of artists' music and finally a way for artists to make good money for their hard work without the hassle of dealing with record labels. Not included in the template above is the Fight The Power wall, which allows for instant communication between fans and artists. Fans and artists alike can comment on each other's walls, allowing for more of a Web 2.0 experience. Because almost of the content will be user-created on Fight The Power, it is difficult to offer more than a rough sketch of an artist account without the technical expertise to create a functional website. Fight The Power is one of the few services that promises artists a way to make money for the content that they provide. Rather than giving away one's music on mySpace or letting a record label take the majority of the profits, Fight The Power gives half the money earned straight to the artist. Fight The Power truly gives quality artists the opportunity to make a living off their music simply with the support of their fans. If an artist can generate a strong and loyal following through concerts and Fight The Power, there should be no reason why the artist could not achieve success while maintaining their artistic freedom. Something also needs to be said for how Fight The Power deals with music piracy. Fight The Power gives the artist the choice of whether or not to encrypt the music. Using Fight The Power's encryption technology would simply cost the artist an added percentage per song. Without the technical experience to employ DRM (digital rights management), Fight The Power will have to hire people to design a way to encrypt the audio files. DRM would make it more difficult for songs to circulate over the Internet, but it is not impossible to break the encryption if a hacker is smart enough. Such risks are unavoidable and, should an artist wish to employ DRM, an added layer of protection from piracy is created. last updated: 10 June 2008 © Craig Dabney |