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Last Updated: Oct 12th, 2007 - 21:58:21 
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Music-MusicLink
What is MusicLink? The new way to appreciate music
By MusicLink Staff
Jun 14, 2002, 23:14

MusicLink is the leading community and marketplace for the financing of the music experience.

MusicLink provides tools and instruments which enable, prompt and enhance the appreciation of music and artistry through direct payment from audience to artist. It builds and extends relationships among artists and their customers. MusicLink defines the relationship -- rather than the music -- as the value exchanged.

MusicLink also provides the technology to facilitate transactions -- primarily focused on "democratic patronage" -- the direct support of artists through MusicLink.

In so doing, the appreciation of music, or other art forms, becomes the service, and the object - a CD or MP3 download - merely a byproduct which, lacking the service, has little or no value. Control and sale of the product becomes secondary to control and sale of the service, and the maintenance of the customer relationship.

By controlling the relationship in partnership with the artist, MusicLink, takes the appreciation of music to a new level over (a) the record labels -- which own product but no direct customer relationships -- and (b) music retailers, who "own" direct customer relationships but have no control over the product they sell.

MusicLink shifts the focus of economic value from reproduction and record-company marketing to production and artist creativity. It allows the artist to subsume the last vital role of the record company -- that of financier.

"Success" for an artist in the mainstream recording industry is ephemeral. Of the 32,000 new releases yearly, only 250 sell more than 10,000 copies, and less than 30 "go platinum" -- sell more than a million copies. MusicLink's service is design to change the ratio of success for struggling bands by cutting the cost of success to a level where more musicians can succeed.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, there were 273,000 people employed as musicians, singers and related workers, with the figure projected to grow 24% over seven years to 338,000 in 2005. The American Federation of Musicians claims 230,000 members, of which 65% rely on their music as their only source of income.

With statistics like that,the need to change the financing of music -- and provide a new path to success -- is evident.

MusicLink doesn't force consumers to pay to enjoy the benefits of our website or a relationship with MusicLink artist members. But the goal of MusicLink is to convert freeloaders to a new sense of appreciation for the music they enjoy.

The tolerance of free-loaders undermines the determination of everyone else to be responsible.

For that reason, with MusicLink, a user who doesn't pay suggested amounts periodically may be gradually prompted with increasingly less subtle messages to adopt a more responsible attitude leading, ultimately, to being locked out.

MusicLink is not an artist promotion company. Rather, we empower the artist to build a direct, personal connection with their audiences.

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