Yep, you heard me right. We need to MARKET our free music. Just because it's free doesn't mean we don't have to work to make it acceptable to the general public. And, we've got to convince people to press those donation buttons once (preferably twice) a day. Right now, as Cesare pointed out in a previous post, CDs are looked at to have enough added value to pay 20 bucks to get a booklet and liner notes. Clearly, it's not the booklet and the liner notes. It's a ritual. a 'CD' is kind of like a diploma... We live in a culture where people just don't believe in themselves anymore. They need proof that an external authority has approved this whatchmahallit and hence it is 'good' (ie they may judge it 'good' and trust a lot of people will agree) College degrees. Course diplomas. Organic food. Plastic toy safety. Certificates, certificates, certificates, everywhere you look. It appears people somehow have this mysterious 'them' in their heads and believe they must appease them. As soon as you act like an authority you become a part of the mysterious 'them' and hence have credibility. Sad, but true. Of course there's a bunch of people out there with a mission to change that... There's Serge Kahili King (http://www.huna.org) and Neale Donald Walsch (http://www.cwg.com) to name two. They're all about 'What do YOU think? It's about you! Start thinking!' (actually speaking of thinking there's also Bob Proctor (http://www.bobproctor.com) but watch out the guys a REALLY GOOD salesperson. So these guys are all working to create a free society and that's what we should do to... A free society is one where people actually work to find out what suits them, what they want in life, their personal taste, etc. In other words, freedom of mental SERFDOM. But I do find it helpful to work with what people believe NOW in order to lead their minds somewhere. So we should create just that... logos, logos, logos. Brands. Marketing. We find our short, catchy message and then repeat it til the sun goes down. And up. And down. And up. And down. "Downloadable music is superior to store-bought CDs" "The OGG Vorbis file format is a sign of quality." "Music that costs something is worthless." "You are under a moral obligation to donate when you download music for free and listen to it regularly." OGG Vorbis needs a logo. "VORBIS Seal of quality." Kind of like 'Intel Inside'. People don't exactly know what this 'Intel' is that is inside but simply assume they need it. People don't know exactly what this 'VORBIS' is but assume it stands for freedom, love, good feelings... I believe the best 'brand' and 'credible authority figure' we can create is simply 'Free Music'. You get some free music and you know what to expect, and you know what is expected from you. Like in a well-known kingdom in the middle ages (some things never change). So we have just created a music label that is truly free, that anyone can participate in... That's pretty Sweet :) Now we're REALLY replacing the middleman, not only in terms of distribution but in terms of authority! Anyone wanna gimme a hand? What do YOU think of this long-ass post? :) ;) Carlo