The Qualia Recordings Business Model

Qualia Recordings is a company formed to enable the internet promotion and distribution of the audio recordings of Alien Headspace, FutureRetro and the Trancendental Anarchists. 

These bands are recording entities. They do not perform live.

While the means of production (home recording technology) have been accessible to artists since the early 1980s, it has only been since the advent of the internet that the means of distribution have been widely accessible to artists. The disruptive nature of the internet combined with digital replication and compression technologies on the traditional record industry is well known.

The potential for new promotional and distribution business models is being explored by many artists and aggregators on the net.

Recording and Performing

For the purposes of this text, creators of recorded music are classified as primarily recording artists or performing artists.

Recording artists, employ recording technologies to compose and produce music from scratch, they may not perform at all, when they do, it is to promote their recordings. Their recordings may be built up over long periods and many sessions. They operate like producers, composers or arrangers.

Performing artists, employ recording technology to record or document their performance. Performance is their primary mode, they use recordings to promote their performances. They attempt to capture the live quality of performance in their recordings.

Traditional record industry business models make it necessary for artists to perform, as their income from recordings is generally insufficient. The star system, entrenched in the record industry, ensures that artists that don't attain star status, make a pittance from sales of their records. This has meant that even artists that are primarily recording artists may be forced to perform their recordings to promote them. Such performances may be aesthetically inferior to the original recordings. Conversely, for performing artists, their recordings may be aesthetically inferior to their performances.

Of course, collaborations between recording and performing artists can capture the best of both worlds. The performance of vocalists over electronic music is a common example of this hybrid approach.

Implications for Artists

For performing artists the disruption created by the internet and compression and replication technologies has created powerful opportunities, enabling them to break free from the traditional record industry, their constrictive business models and the star system. Many have taken the opportunity and are using the internet very effectively to promote their performances at which they sell recorded CDs of their performances.

Recording artists are entranced by the potential of never having to perform. If they do perform, it is often an attempt to recapture or replicate the recording in a live setting. It is hardly surprising that this is rarely a satisfying experience for the artist or the audience. It is an aesthetic reversal.

If recording artists effectively replicate the recording they may be accused of miming or faking the performance. Compositions may be adjusted for the live setting, extended in duration, made more repetitive or dramatic. DJs dispense with the illusion of performance, replacing it with the performance of selection.

There is the potential, particularly in electronic music, to dilute a recording into a showbiz performance. The artist may also need to provide something for the audience to look at so they don't expire from boredom! Why should recording artists need to perform at all when they can promote and distribute their pristine recordings on the internet?

It is notable that the clear distinction between cinematography and theatre in the visual arts is not yet widely acknowledged in the equivalent audio arts. It seems unreasonable to expect a gifted cinema actor to also be a gifted theatrical performer, although those which are both are doubly celebrated and appreciated for their rarity. However, there is still at large, the notion that a gifted musician is necessarily a gifted performer. This illogical notion significantly impacts the viability of emerging online business models for the distribution of music as it fosters the assumption that all serious musicians must perform their music.

It should be possible for recording artists to promote and distribute their music on the internet without relying on live performances. However, this business model may tend to undermine traditional business models that rely on performance and the star system.

Qualia Recordings is one of many entities proposing the promotion and distribution of the work of recording artists, without the use of performance.

Media

The ubiquity of consumer replication media creates the network effects underlying the online music revolution. CD-R and compression technologies are the most significant. The latter (particularly mp3) has worked in conjunction with the internet to challenge traditional record industry business models. This leads to the possibility of a totally virtual, online promotion and distribution business model, devoid of live performance and physical media.

Pure data!

This is what Qualia Recordings is pursuing. We provide high quality mp3 files of our recording artists for download.

Free Music

An important feature of the online music revolution has been the increased availability of high quality free music. While free music has been previously available through radio and TV broadcast channels and analogue replication, the introduction of digital replication and information technology and network technology has magnified the amplitude of the free music channel. This is simply an obvious outcome of these technologies. It is pointless to attempt to oppose this trend.

It should be acknowledged that free music has long played an important part in the promotion of recordings. What has occurred is the extension of the role of free music from the broadcast networks to the internet.

Qualia Recordings understands the importance of free music on the internet and offers a some tracks as free downloads.

Intellectual Property

Traditional record companies are increasingly exploring technological and legal means to protect their intellectual property rights over recordings. That these rights are largely held and defended by distributers rather than content creators, is of course significant. Artists, generally appreciate the importance of unremunerated exposure.

Qualia Recordings does not employ technological Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures. We do not believe that technical interoperability should be threatened by attempts to protect intellectual property.

Qualia reserves all rights, but will consider licensing our material to other publishers or artists on request, we do permit our customers to make personal back-up copies. We believe that most music fans believe that artists should be adequately compensated and will support them. There will be some free riders but they may recommend it to their friends.

So this is the Qualia Recordings business model. We are artists who produce, promote and distribute our own music. We offer mp3s of our music over the internet. Enjoy.