OpenMusic: WebLP - redefining the way music is sold

Introduction

Now that is a bold statement so I'll try my best to justify it.
OpenMusic should hopefully be the next step in music networks in the sense that it glues things and notions already scattered elsewhere into an integrated music solution, that should eventually comprise a big cohesive network with a potential for redefining common concepts, one of which is the way music is being distributed. It sounds too grandiose, but I say we should aim at the mountain to hit the lake, aim at the moon to hit the mountain, or aim at Mars to hit the stars.

Existing ways to sell music

In the apparent demise of the CD-selling music industry and it's current loss of orientation, music artists, and I am here as a musician too, therefore we, are free to adopt whatever new-born technology is promising to deliver our music to a wider audience - and as the myspace phenomenon suggests - regardless of whether we make any money directly out of it.
This situation introduces a fundamental problem. Do we really need to sell our music or not? Should people pay for it or be labeled as pirates for downloading it for free? The world is left disorientated. At itune you get exactly what you get at emule - a file. The only difference is that on one hand you are legal, on the other you are guilty. In essence you are paying for something that has more to do with moral issues than with art.

Taking a glimpse at the past, music was distributed as a bundle of art, consisting of more than just songs, making for a collection of side-art called the record sleeve. People were used to paying for this supplementary art, everything worked well and millions of artists paid their rent by producing art to enrich the music product before it hit the stores. What people buy right now in the music stores of the future is but a shadow of what they used to get, what music used to be.

The present state is - I presume ( and hope ) - a temporary state, the quiet before the storm, as the web centric convergence of media is going to bring about a great deal of a storm, I believe. Now is a chance to embrace innovation and let Drupal introduce the world to a new means for music distribution that acknowledges the past and uses it to shape the future.

Websong and WebLP

Websong: a audio node (audio.module) that contains an audio file that can be downloaded or streamed for free by everybody. It imposes no limitations to the quality of the recording whatsoever. It is not a demo version of the original music, it is the real thing, but free.
WebLP a node that has websongs attached to it (audio_attach.module?), together with an extended set of complimentary media (), making for a virtual record sleeve for our digital LP. These media consist of:

• websongs revisions: each websong can hold a chain of revisions for the song it contains. This way the artist is not tied to a definite, final version of his song, but can publish differently orchestrated versions of his songs whenever he choses to release them. On a parallel note, versioning provides added value to the WebLP, since it constantly adds updated content to it.
• photos
• interviews of the band
• drawings
• music videos
• short films
• in general, fan crew submitted content

Selling access

A WebLP is dissimilar to the current music products, both physical and digital in the sense that it is a an active place in the web, it is not a file, neither a set of files that can be downloaded. It doesn't make any sense to download a set of files that are being constantly updated, and it's not only the songs that can be updated. A user is granted access to a WebLP by purchasing an access code. Access codes are easily marketable products, can lead to many interesting product combinations and they are hard to pirate - one can easily spot an access code that is being used by many different users.

The circle is complete

The WebLP intends to unite artists and fans in a circle where offer meets demand. OpenMusic provides the structure for artists to ask for content (fan crews) and for fans to generate it. Fans are rewarded with recognition (they become members of the artist's fan crew with elevated access rights) and artists have a means to add value to their WebLP without any actual cost.

Drupal Modules

So far I haven't got my hands on implementing a WebLP , therefore I cannot be clear on that part. Certainly for such advanced functionality I think we will need the bigger part of the ecommerce module, where parcel.module comes to mind when talking about combining nodes in a sell-able product. With audio.module things looked tougher, last time I checked it (June 2007) it was being reorganized into sub modules. It is a bit difficult to keep an eye on it, however I'll be trying both modules within this month in my sandbox.

Issues to be discussed

A lot apparently! First of all I would like your opinion on the term "WebLP". How does it sound? Do you have any other suggestions?