Had a thought… what if all music was free to the general consumer. By this is mean the individual, not the company or broadcaster. So free music to individuals, broadcasters etc would still need to pay their PPL to play music to the masses as they do now. If you want to use a piece of music for a commercial purpose you would need to license the track. How is this sounding?

We change the model from ‘music being the product’ to ‘music being the tool’. Artists then make money from gigs, merchandise and still publishing. They could produce limited edition CD’s (if still around) and their own merchandise. The record label would also then need to change their revenue stream from making money out of record sales to a percentage of revenue from the artists live performances and publishing (if not already). Does this work? An example of a model like this is something like RCRD LBL.

Well for bigger artists this probably could work, but what about the up and coming or the smaller artists? Even the smaller record labels? Could they move from being a distributor of music to effectively an agent? Do we need record labels if this is the case?

Would there need to be a community element asking fans for donations to keep the smaller artsists producing?

The record labels will save money in one sense as distribution channels like bit torrent and P2P networks could be used to get the music out to the world, for free! Think of all of the distribution costs and anti-piracy costs that would be obliterated.

Could this model help unkown artsists break through? If music is free users will sample more, seek out artsists, new bands, new tracks, could this help encourage creativity?

Do labels become hubs instead? Money through creating events, sponsorship and display advertising?

Lots of questions, a raw thought.