No one speaks for me.

Recent developments in the music world following the SXSW music conference and festival, have led me to think about my self-portrayal as an independent musical artist, the rise of the internet, all its broken promises of digital freedom, and why the musical long-tail have no one representing their interests - our interests - as independents. These days I find it hard to think in a linear fashion, so over the last couple of nights before I fell asleep I have done some thinking. And then woke up and did some more thinking and recapping. And several realizations dawned upon me, quite literally, overnight.

First, I recalled an interview in which Patti Smith mentioned that her son was an artist but that he also worked - and that all artists SHOULD work lest they lose track of what it means to be human. This, obviously, is a load of bollocks for the likes of the mega-stars who, arguably, do little more than just BE mega-stars, with arguably little talent beyond their fame. I can think of a few examples, and so can you. But to the vast majority of artists that I know and admire, they are not work shy - although it sure would be nice to make a little bit more of a living being an independent artist.

Why is it so hard for those with some degree of talent to make more fans, sell more records, and yes, even make a better living with a little less work (believe me, 80 hour work weeks are standard for many I know here in London - we are NOT that far removed from the chimney sweepers of the Victorian age, either) in this digital age of net promise?

Another recent article came to mind: Kevin Kelly's blog on the 1000 True Fans. In it, Kelly writes: "A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans."

Of course, this all rings perfectly true to me. I am well on my way to achieving this goal, even if I get distracted, side-tracked and derailed once every couple of years by other things that get in the way - namely, and largely, running Fading Ways Music, which ironically I started back in the 90s as a means of ensuring that I could even BE an artist in the first place without having to compromise creative control, my artistic vision, or, in fact, just about every other facet of my life. However, in the new century and with our label's pioneering move to use Creative Commons on physical products (Red Orkestra's "After the Wars" was, to the best of my knowledge, the first physical-product CD to be sold under the CC By-Nc-Sa license) and our Share sampler series, my side-trackings took increasingly larger detours that in many ways led me AWAY from being an artist.

With the starting up Fading Ways in the UK, a lot of new responsibilities came with the new business, and as we joined trade organizations like AIM, I quickly ascertained that for all their great intentions, folks in the independent music sector in every country were quite similar in terms of being protectivists, rather than able to think outside the box, when it came to the new opportunities presented by the internet and file sharing. I recall an hilarious meeting with HMV Digital, for example, who insisted on selling DRM-heavy tracks that were incompatible with iPods and could not possibly understand why we would not, as a label, offer ANY of our catalogue for download sale without DRM. My partner in Fading Ways UK, at the time, got into a fairly heated exchange with the disingenuous HMV rep, who first tried to mislead us on the DRM issue saying it was for technological DSP reasons why they could not sell tracks sans-DRM, then admitted it was corporate of course, and finally just wouldn't understand, and called our business model stupid. She told him he would be out of business in under two years. Or he told her that. I forget. Anyways, this sort of activity (teaching other folks in the music world, arguing with lawyers, talking at conferences like Popkomm and various schools including the U of Toronto's Law School) started taking up more and more of my time... now I have nothing at all against educating people, even if often, in the reactionary and retrogarde world of the music industry, it does feel like you are trying to convince pigs to fly. But if there's one thing I cannot stand, it is disingenuous double-speak. And there's been an awful lot of it in the music biz ever since they shut down the original Napster - and often I would spend entire days online just trying to explain new realities to people. That took me away from playing guitar, writing songs, and just... being.

But no more. Today I go back to just being an artist. I do not intend to step away from Fading Ways, but to tell the truth it has become a community of its own, with Tina Siegel at FW Canada and Mikko Jokela at FW Finland, as well as our growing FW Artist Collective, which to be fair is much smaller than CD Baby but there are similarities, for sure. Anyways I am not stepping away from Fading Ways - but whereas a couple of years ago I enjoyed talking to great luminaries like Peter Jenner about the future of music and how badly the PRO's need to be reformed in order to become more accountable to artists, I am now convinced that the people that rise to the top in the music biz, like in politics, are by and large not altruists in any sense of the word. No one will offer you 'a seat at a table' of whatever negotiations might be coming down the industry pipeline in the near future just because, well, it is the right thing to do, to invite long-tail independent artists who are, after all, rights-holders over their own works, to discussions on the legalization of p2p or proposed internet blanket licensing.

There's not much new in what Warner are trying to accomplish: they are finally realizing that the proposals (years old now, not new!) by people like Gerd Leonhard or the French Audionautes could actually save rather than sink the music industry, and are now taking swift steps to make this happen in such a way as to guarantee that any future pools of money will be firmly under the major's control - once again shutting out the long tail.

A week ago I was actively making my voice heard on the Pho list, and off it, discussing matters with a few individuals around the world that I respect very highly in order to try and assure that that seat at that future table of negotiations and disbursements of any such collected funds would make it directly to the hands of the artists, and not the usual intermediaries who pocket it. But no more.

The reason why altruists and idealists don't succeed more often is, we are NOT WILLING TO STEP ON OTHERS to succeed. Purely and simply, good people aren't very good at being ruthless. We have, as a people, let our capitalist freedoms deteriorate into a corporatist world where governments, the supposed representatives of the people, now have less power than the multinational corporations who, increasingly, get court decisions affording them more and more power, since the 1800's. This is why the work of NGOs is ever more important - someone has to step up to the corporatist challenge and voice social concerns, environmental concerns, privacy concerns, cultural concerns (ie. the free exchange of information, music, etc. on the net) and many other valuable rights that the human race has learned to cherish in theory, but that in practice are actually being eroded - taken away from us. Artist's rights PALE in comparison with other problems in our world. That I can live with - what I CANNOT live with is multi-nationals and their lobbying representatives who claim to speak for artists.

No one speaks for me. I am a long-tailer, a fiercely independent artist who produces his own records, runs his own label (with over 50 released titles and ten years of operation) and thinks his own thoughts. And does not make more than $100 a year from SOCAN, who supposedly collect my radio and live performance royalties around the world. And before you ask, yes I fill out my paperwork most of the time. And yes I get airplay in Germany. And yes the German clubs I play at pay GEMA its live performance fee, which in turn SOCAN supposedly gets - as a result many German clubs (and others) pay the artists LESS just so they can afford the copyright fee. That is MY money. Where does it go?

Why should ANY independent artist put up with even one more day of this broken system? Peter Jenner and others like him tell me that the PRO system should be improved from the inside. Bollocks! It should be torn down and dismantled once and for all. I shall rescind my SOCAN membership. I might join whichever European PRO can tell me that they will pay artists in a transparent, clear way and advocate true artist freedom, not locked-down publisher's interests. Or I will join a new one, yet to be created, artist-run MAGIC organization that will deliver the promise of the internet to the long-tail. My friend Samantha Murphy has some thoughts on a new long-tail p2p system that sounds interesting to me, too. Many other pholks on the Pho list have also taught me an awful lot over the last few years, and I thank them...

So, when you hear of this new system whereby the majors will collect, "on behalf of artists", fees from ISP's, mobile companies, or any other new means of making more money on the back of music, keep in mind that your money, which you would hope reaches artists at some point, very often, more often than not, does NOT reach all of them. For example, in the case of the Canadian Copy Levy, shamefully divided according to soundscan sales (largely ruling out small shops and independent mail-orders, etc.) and commercial airplay (ignoring college stations), the same fans that are copying our Share samplers on CDRs are paying more to Celine Dion or whoever SOCAN mysteriously deems should receive the funds. Surely, in the digital age of information, there is a better way - and let's not even bring up the Sound Exchange fiasco!

Anyways, the point of this rant is: I no longer want to rant about it. I want to just be an artists, and let these complex chips fall where they may. May the wolves in sheep's clothing run their show, set up their new schemes, and line their pockets on the creativity of others. It has always been the way, and probably shall always remain the way.

I shall continue to do what I do, and seek out those 1000 true fans. This April I shall make a lovely return to Goteborg to play an acoustic warm up show leading up to the next German tour in May, in support of my latest album, 'A Reckoning'...

And then I shall move back to Portugal. I will spend an awesome Summer in a brand new apartment by the beach, mixing my next album, Elite Nylon. I will do some freelance translation work to pay the rent when the money from the tour runs out. I will continue to work on the Fading Ways labels and the FW Music Store. I will plan new ways of getting my 1000 true fans to support me and get the great FW Music roster out to more people, and find new and creative ways to monetize the internet so as to not let down our roster, our business partners, creditors (people, not banks - you know who you are!) and continue doing what I do best - being a human being.

And I will NOT endure any more wolves. Nor will I take a seat at any table where I might be persuaded to becoming one myself. No one speaks for me - and I speak for no one but myself.

Love n wine,
NL