The Boston Globe writes up the local band Jim’s Big Ego because it encourages people to share the band’s files. In September, they released an album under a Creative Commons license and it’s been their biggest seller. In fact, Creative Commons and the band are holding a contest to find the most creative remix of their paean to mixing, “Mix Tape.” One of the band members, Jim Infantino, talks about “community-based art patronage”: “When you as a band act in good faith, you invite your fans to act in good faith.”

I love all this, but I so don’t believe that patronage — a fancy name for a tip jar — is going to be the way we keep our artists alive. There will be some successes that way, but I think we need a more structured way of paying, such as the EFF’s suggestion that online music adopt an ASCAP/BMI model. But I ain’t no stinking economist so, thankfully, I don’t have to pretend to have a real opinion about this.

(BTW, the group’s site let’s you stream all of their music. The first item on the playlist when I tuned in was a track that archly raises the musical question: “After all, isn’t God an angry white guy?”)

Categories: Uncategorized dw