Patronage in the Modern Era

Jack Conte, probably best known for popularizing the VideoSong music format with his catchy, clever songs, has launched a new service that might change the way artists of all kinds bring home the bacon.

For years now, the issue of easily copied and distributed data has been plaguing artists and other copyright holders.  The arrival data and media sharing systems like BitTorrent and YouTube have been alternately heralded as the death of the music industry as we know it, and as field-levelling tools that would allow new artists of all kinds to connect with their fans.

Either way, many people in film and music have been struggling with the problem of creating new funding models that don't rely on every fan paying a fixed fee for a CD or DVD, and that allow for fans to freely share media (because they're doing that anyway) while still letting the artists pay the rent.

I've often thought one potential solution, however amusing it may sound, is to return to the centuries old practice of patronage.  In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and earlier in Japan and other Southeast Asian countries, it was common for a wealthy individual to support an artist (or two) allowing them to produce plays, music, books, poetry, or paintings that wouldn't otherwise generate an income for the artist.  The model worked because artists could create art for art's sake without having to worry about whether it could be easily sold, the the patron received recognition for supporting a vital part of society.

Conte seems to agree that this could work again, and has built a service to make it possible.  Patreon allows fans to pledge an amount of money they choose, to be paid to their favourite artists every time the artist produces a piece of content.  It's crowd-sourced patronage that Conte likens to an ongoing Kickstarter for smaller projects, and several artists are already using it to get funding that would have been difficult or impossible to get before.

Share The Pain

Ze Frank is working on yet another cool collaborative, creative project. If you're into music creation at all, consider contributing to the Pain Pack. I've just downloaded the audio sources and will be having a listen to see if I have any inspiration of my own.

Thru You: Kutiman Remixes Youtube

A couple of days ago a link started going around for Thru You, a musical project by Kutiman, an Israeli musician and producer. What he's done is take several dozen Youtube videos, chosen for their audio content, and cut and splice them together into a collection of seven brand new, original pieces of music. It's an amazing technical feat to begin with, but the music he's created is incredible in its own right.

The first and last time I saw anyone do something like this was in 1998 when Coldcut and Hexstatic got together to release the Timber EP (Timber remixes video of logging operations, and has a strong anti-clearcutting message). But even Coldcut/Hexstatic didn't quite commit to the concept the way Kutiman has; Timber contains several audio tracks that clearly aren't from the video sources, including some synthesizer sounds.

Thru You is also an incredible mix of styles; funk, dub, R&B, and even big-beat electronic. All seven tracks are excellent, and if I can get my hands on some clean mp3s they'll be going into high rotation on the home stereo. The first track, The Mother of all Funk Chords, is the best demonstration of the video remix concept, but my favourites are probably This is What it Became, an awesome dub track, Babylon Band, which is a bit like an Eastern-European Prodigy meets Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Just a Lady, a nice slow R&B tune.

The Thru You web site has gone down at least once, probably due to its popularity, so Katiman has posted some alternates on Youtube itself. The videos on the main site seem to be better quality, so it's probably best to view them there (you can also see the original video sources that way by clicking on the Credits link). But, just in case, I'm including links below to the Youtube postings.

The Mother of all Funk Chords
This is What it Became
I M New
Babylon Band
Someday
Wait For Me
Just a Lady

Throwing Hack Weight

The song stuck in my head today is Tournament of Hearts by The Weakerthans (you can sample it at Amazon). Aside from it being a solid, up-beat, alt rock track, I just love the idea of using curling as the metaphor in a love song. It's pretty uniquely Canadian.