[linux-audio-user] Collaboration

[Daniel James]

> I was a web-developer (php, apache - you know the drill) for a few years so
> I could defnitely lend a hand on the web side of things.  I have some ideas
> for how a site-map would be organized.

Thanks for the offer!

> As far as paying for bandwidth - I am dirt poor.

I wouldn't want the cost of bandwidth to be met by the site developers alone - 
that would seem unfair. Wherever you make your music files available, it's 
going to cost you bandwidth somehow. 

> In my experience (dealing with non-profits,
> associations) the site is usually financed through membership dues - which
> works amazing well.  Of course, this is not even a remote possiblity in
> this case - everything should be free.

I don't see that necessarily follows - free software is not free beer. I think 
you could offset some cost by selling CDs, but inevitably there would have to 
be some kind of membership scheme for musicians. This could work out to be 
quite good value if bandwidth is being bought in 'bulk'. 

I guess we'd be talking about:

1. a co-lo box with plenty of bandwidth available
2. decent sized web space per member
3. apache with defaults set up for ogg file mimetypes, an icecast server
4. content management system

>  Perhaps linux distributions could
> contribute to the financing if their product is plugged on the site.

I don't think any of the main distros are either focused on multimedia or 
cash-rich enough to fund this sort of thing at the moment.

> Also is the case where there just isn't enough music being made to justify
> the expense

I think the music is out there, but we'd have to survey the likely demand for 
a contribution-based service. I'm thinking along the lines of a web-based 
collaborative record label where Linux is the common factor. You could build 
in a system of peer review as a form of quality control, or just offer space 
to anyone who could contribute - time or money.
 
Cheers

Daniel