Rockbites: Discipline Global Mobile blazes music distribution trail

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Discipline Global Mobile blazes music distribution trail
18 September 2000

While the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) threatens to clip the wings of music sharing service Napster, Inc. through an extremely high profile lawsuit, a growing contingent of artists are choosing to encourage fan-to-fan copying of their work either through Napster or by other means. The Smashing Pumpkins, in protest of Virgin Records’ refusal to distribute their new album Machina II/The Friends And Enemies Of Modern Music, encouraged fans to create and distribute MP3 and CD versions of the LP through home conversion from the original vinyl disks. The Offspring are releasing their new album Conspiracy Of One in MP3 format (free in exchange for your email address) from their official Web site.
    Now indie label Discipline Global Mobile has announced a trail blazing approach to music distribution in which the signed band retains 100% ownership of their master recordings in exchange for a percentage of revenues earned from various sources including Internet music distribution. DGM is co-owned by guitarist/futurist Robert Fripp and David Singleton. Just signed under the new deal is The Rosenbergs—who chose DGM after refusing an offer by Farmclub.com—a Web-based label that ripped off Jerry Harrison’s garageband.com concept and is owned by international conglomerate Universal Music Group. DGM has secured The Rosenbergs a featured slot on the Napster site along with other promotion on Napster.
    DGM’s David Singleton said “As a company, we fully embrace the concept of sharing. Radio is a form of sharing where one DJ can share music with many people, but it works best with established music with a large audience. The Internet is a wonderful tool that allows fans to share music with each other. Most people discover new music because a friend puts the music in their hands. Why would we not encourage people to do this?”
    The marketing value of sharing, of course, disappears when the freely shared items are more desirable than the items that cost money. For now music in the MP3 (MPEG I layer 3) format remains sonically inferior to CDs and doesn’t include a tangible, collectible artifact—e.g. the CD jewel case, printed disc, and artwork. As widespread broadband looms, and as other technologies advance, the desirability of freely sharable music could exceed that of the commercial product—imagine a free 24 bit, 96 kHz studio bootleg with poster size high-res art via Napster II. We expect such changes will de-leg at least some of the arguments raised in the hard fought Napster/copyright legal battles over the next year or two. | The Smashing Pumpkins | | The Offspring | | Discipline Global Mobile | | RIAA legal page | | top of page |

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