Ad Supported Music – Part 2

This is the second part to an earlier post in which I discussed the increasing use of advertising in business models to supplement or replace income from individual consumers in the digital music environment. Moving on from the worst case scenario, this post considers the ways in which an ad supported business model could be employed in a beneficial way.

The Most Favourable Model
Ad supported business models for music could create opportunities for the diversity of culture, free speech and democracy if developed in a way that took account of the potential negative implications and sought to overcome these. Ad supported music services offer an enormous potential for the reception of culture, enabling any person with access to the internet the ability to enjoy and explore an essentially unlimited range of material. Under the right conditions, business models of this nature also offer the potential to level the playing field for the entry of new creators. Again it is important to consider the nature of the enterprise offering the music service, the equality of access for speakers, the mode of communication and its influence on audiences as well as the independence of the opinions of creators.

In contrast to profit seeking entities, non profit associations or formal cooperatives allow a much greater opportunity to accommodate goals of an abstract nature such as the pursuit of a diverse and fair music industry; allow for democratic decision making and mutual ownership. While not all corporations possess objectives of extreme and unmitigated capitalism, any structure other than these would, if not from the outset, then certainly in time, allow for the worst case scenario as described earlier to develop. Employing an alternative structure does not mean operating without creating revenue but that this is not the primary objective. Any profits are returned to the members or used to enhance the service itself for the ultimate benefit of the public.

By employing such a structure there is a far greater opportunity to secure equality of access for creators thus promoting active public participation. In discussing an alternative compensation model for open peer to peer file sharing, Professor Terry (William) Fisher suggests that rather than just considering the number of times a track is downloaded or streamed from a digital music service, that an alternative or hybrid satisfaction determinant may be achieved through a public voting or rating system. Media corporations could continue to operate in such an environment but would be no more powerful to control the direction or development of the service(s) than any other member.

The democratic structure also provides for an open and transparent division of advertising revenue. By ensuring that independent, particularly politically motivated artists have equal access, enhances the likelihood of this genre of music to be created reducing the present commercial preference for emotive and dance music.

The mode of communication is also a fundamental determinant in the ability to secure free expression to the benefit of democracy. Unlike the closed internet architecture models discussed in the previous post, and while again a matter of degree in each instance, open peer to peer file sharing networks, particularly those written with open source code, offer no limitations to participation and unlimited file formats. Whilst the issue of digital rights management for individual files is not directly prevented by this model, typically it has been the case that unprotected files have been uploaded to open networks. If the remuneration of artists were to be facilitated on open networks there would more than likely be a need to track downloads or streams in some way, for example, through the use of non-invasive watermarks or other software. The non profit nature of the structure would therefore aid in limiting the incentives to implement digital rights management technology to the extent used in closed networks, allowing far greater reception, interpretation and mediation of culture.

The independence of the expression of creators would also be ensured to a far greater degree if an advertising model were adopted within a democratic/non private structure. There would also be less incentive to exclude or favour particular advertisers and the potential to allocate a quantity of advertising space to non profit or socially beneficial endeavours.

Conclusion
In the end the adoption of ad supported business models may not be identical for each music service presently in place or developed into the future. Nonetheless there are conditions in which political music and a diversity of culture will thrive over others. Left to the interests of powerful corporations it is far more likely that the potential for creativity, free speech and democracy will not be realised. Some parallels may be drawn with the implications of commercial television compared with the more liberal programming of public television. In order to enhance the quality of music and to create the conditions in which deliberative democracy can take place, there must be equity between creators, an open communication model and expression independent of the overbearing influence of capitalism.


Further Reading
ArsTechnica, Report: ad-supported content will soon dominate digital media (5 May 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080505-report-ad-support-content-will-soon-dominate-digital-media.html> at 6 May 2008

TechDirt, Advertising is Content; Content is Advertising (19 March 2008)
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080318/004136567.shtml> at 6 May 2008

TechDirt, Content Is Advertising... On TV (23 April 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080422/022513915.shtml> at 26 April 2008

Digital Music News, We're Number Three: SpiralFrog Claims Third-Place Download Crown (28 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/032708three> at 30 March 2008

CNet News, Ad-supported SpiralFrog finally launches music site (7 August 2007) <http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6201315.html> at 12 August 2007

Digital Music News, SpiralFrog Grabs $2 Million...With Serious Strings Attached (2 January 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/010207spiralfrog> at 11 January 2008

Digital Music News, MySpace Scores Gold Record (In Ad-Supported Terms) (24 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/032308pennywise> at 26 March 2008

Digital Music News, Back from the Brink: Qtrax Licensing Deals Emerge (3 March 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/030308qtrax> at 5 March 2008

Digital Music News, Details Bubbling on Major-Backed, Ad-Supported Venture (19 February 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/021708ad> at 21 February 2008

Digital Music News, Gabriel Pumps Serious Cash Into Ad-Supported Startup (22 January 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/012008gabriel> at 30 January 2008

William Fisher III, Promises To Keep (2004) <http://www.amazon.com/Promises-Keep-Technology-Entertainment-Stanford/dp/080475845X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210219722&sr=8-1> at 5 May 2008

Christopher J Sichok, The Free Market: An Erosion of Free Speech, eLaw - Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Volume 7 Number 3 (September 2000) <http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v7n3/sichok73.html> at 6 May 2008

Wikipedia, Deliberative Democracy (7 February 2008)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliberative_democracy> at 6 May 2008

Wikipedia, Public Television (25 April 2008)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_television> at 6 May 2008

Free Press <http://freepress.net/> at 6 May 2008