Future Music Portal

Open Studios is a project, which started as a response to efforts by corporate special interests determined to perpetuate obsolete business models, using the Internet. Open Studios is a 501(c)(3) organization, recognized in the United States as a charitable organization. The mission is to replenish our precious public domain. One project called, SONG STORM, helps to accomplish that mission by providing a music portal for artists, authors and musicians seeking to enlarge their fan base.

By creating a model of what our small group envisioned as a future music portal, the project called, SONG STORM, relied on a philosophy that focused on driving listeners to independent musicians’ web sites. The small group behind the SONG STORM project felt that music portals provide an opportunity for artists, authors and musicians to market their works to a global audience through the Internet.

The business model for SONG STORM rejected the idea that visitors to the site needed to stay at the site, thereby giving the site an opportunity to make money. It was believed that the site should provide a service, much in the way search engines behave. At some point, the site would reach a threshold based on attracting a large enough audience, that it would become self-sustaining. The site has been in operation since 2002. It has not reached that threshold as of the time of this writing. Is the model then to be considered a failure?

The answer is simply, no. The model is quite successful. It represents the building blocks needed to be successful. What seems apparent, however, is the lack of community interaction. To address this obstacle, SONG STORM is now in the planning stage of coordinating with Open Studios to add an additional feature called, The Tin Can Antenna Project.

Music needs to be heard by an audience, and to reach that audience, the audience needs to be able to download and listen to large audio files. Without access to high speed Internet access, the cost of gaining an audience is raised beyond most people.

Technology exists now, in the form of wireless community networks that offers a low-cost way for everyone to enjoy broadband access. However, it is apparent that special interest groups are determined to control the wireless community networks through “gatekeeper” methods. That approach inevitably will raise the cost of such networks, and restrict the opportunities which artists, authors and musicians might otherwise have available to them. Wireless community networks don’t have to provide access to the Internet. To achieve such a wireless community network without access to the Internet, all that is needed, is a cheap tin can antenna on every roof. At that point, the entire community can enjoy local access to audio files, video files, local tv and radio shows, videoconferencing and anything else requiring broadband access. Once in place, SONG STORM becomes an attractive addition to the selection of things to do with such networks.

SONG STORM as a business model, represents a vision based on giving away a service. In return, support can be received in the form of donations, gifts and purchases of premium fund-raising products. However, the success of this project lies not in how many dollars are received, but rather by how large the audience is for the participants.

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