Waterhouserock dot com

was born out of the following observation of the  music industry:

* emerging reggae artists hardly get played  on Radio, a situation that is even more difficult  if you are an electronic dub reggae musician that is not of  Jamaican heritage.

* As a niche market music reggae CD often sell in the thousands but expensive distribution network and physical costs make traditional CD pressings expensive and a very risky investment. This format cost too much, and artists only get 20 cents to a dollar for each CD sold. And, most CDs quickly go out of print.

* Online sales (such as over Amazon.com) often cost the artist 50% of their royalty (due to a common record contract provision). International sales and mark-downs often net the artist no royalties.

* Record labels lock their artists into legal agreements that hold them for a decade or more. If it's not working out, labels don't print the band's recordings but nonetheless keep them locked into the contract, forcing them to produce new albums each year. Even hugely successful artists often end up owing their record label money.

* Napster, Gnutella and Kazaa proved that people love music, and they want to share it. There's a huge public demand for Open Music.

* Using the Internet to listen to music is usually tedious: there are too many ads, too many clicks, and the sound quality is usually bad. It's too much work, not enough reward. A well run Internet radio station (such as Shoutcast, or Spinner) solves that, but the entrenched record industry wants to kill that too, with onerous licensing terms and odd "rights limited" playback schemes.

*Most internet reggae radio  sites have little  quallity control , hence it is very difficult to find good music.

Our Approach:

* Aggregate enough emerging reggae artists on one web site so that it becomes a destination. Offer a high quality internet radio  that is supported by an online record label that helps artists get exposure, make at least as much money they would make with traditional labels, and help them get fans and concerts. We are into file trading, musicians' rights, internet radio, easy music browsing over the web, Internet communities, mp3-file-trading as distribution mechanisms. We do not print CDs, instead offer music as perfect-quality WAVs or high-quality MP3s that buyers can burn to CD themselves.

All our 128k mp3s are available under the "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike " license from Creative Commons to promote these goals. Specifically, this means:

* You can listen to our Internet radio stations, download our free music, and share with anyone you like.
* Derivative works (for example: remixes, cover songs, sampling) are explicitly allowed. Some of our artists publish the "source code" to their music so you can rework and improve it. This includes scores, lyrics, MIDI files, samples and track-by-track audio files. If you make a great new version of our music, we'd love to know so that we can promote it!

* Non-commercial use of our music and its "source code" is free. However, if you make money ("commercial use") with our music, you'll have to "share the wealth" and give us and our artists a share.

What's in it for musicians

Bands don't usually make money from their record labels. The press has written for decades of top-selling, major-label pop stars forced to live on $15,000 per year.

Musicians typically make money from:

* Live performances (i.e.: concerts)
* Selling CDs, posters and t-shirts at concerts

What does Waterhouserock dot com do for you, the musician?

* We sell your music online. How much money does this really mean? We don't know yet. One thing we do know: the 50/50 split we offer means that a $5 album sale yields $2.50 for you, the artist. A typical record label will pay you 25 cents to a dollar in royalties on a CD sale after they recoup their expenses (if that ever occurs). That means we have to sell 1/10th as many albums to give the artist the same revenue.

* We help you get heard. Internet Radio, Kazaa, Napster and Gnutella have proven that people want to listen to music and share it with their friends. We provide all the technology to enable widespread Internet distribution, and we do it legally, without violating anybody's copyright.

* We keep the quality high. One big reason good music has trouble getting heard is that there's too much junk out there. We filter it out, by selecting music ourselves, recruiting artists directly as well as listening to submissions. We have an audience who comes here to listen to the great artists we've signed.

* We can help you network with other musicians, promoters and fans. This will help you get more gigs and sell your stuff to them.

* The big money is in licensing music for games, movies and commercials. The contract you sign with us helps us make money from your music from a variety of sources, and we split any money we  receiv 50/50 with you.

* Your contract with us is totally non-exclusive and limited only to the music you send us. 

* Besides getting your music heard, we provide a forum, blog ,  a distinct webpage  for  each artist, help get merchandising together, and talk to the press about you.

What we are NOT about:

* NOT ABOUT big promises: we can deliver technology, an audience, and maybe some money. We'll do our best, to promote your music.                                                                                  

* NOT ABOUT limiting the artist: the contract you sign with us lets us find money for your music, provided we split the money 50/50.

* NOT ABOUT getting you a major label contract.

* NOT ABOUT buying you studio time. However, we can help you network with others so that you can get a super-good deal on studio time.

* NOT ABOUT printing CDs. We think the future belongs to MP3s and its successors. When a CD burner costs $70 and CD blanks are less than a quarter, shipping pre-printed CDs no longer makes sense.

The bottom line:

  We are here to help you make money and get exposure fo ryour music.  We won't limit your future options. We hope you'll consider working with us.

REGGAE: THE STORY OF JAMAICAN MUSIC 3 OF 4
by Top-Notch112

REGGAE: THE STORY OF JAMAICAN MUSIC 4 OF 4
by Top-Notch112

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