Masspire - Designed to Help Small Artists

[wakestyle]

I presume your contract will preserve the artist copyrights? Otherwise it would be a sham and a waste for any aspiring small artist. They would be better off keeping there original works, unless of course you are playing cover songs... which could become tricky to legally use other artists samples or composition, but still possible.

[DSpec1]

Originally Posted by wakestyle

I presume your contract will preserve the artist copyrights? Otherwise it would be a sham and a waste for any aspiring small artist. They would be better off keeping there original works, unless of course you are playing cover songs... which could become tricky to legally use other artists samples or composition, but still possible.

From the web site...shady.


"Q: What if I'm worried about protecting the copyright to my work?

A: A work of art becomes copyrighted the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to do anything special to protect your work."

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by DSpec1

From the web site...shady.


"Q: What if I'm worried about protecting the copyright to my work?

A: A work of art becomes copyrighted the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to do anything special to protect your work."

Not shady. True.

Still, I dunno about this service.

- c

[Squarejaw]

Also from the website,

Q: So you're not doing anything to the rights to my work?

A: While you're on Masspire, we can sell your work, we can promote it, and we can showcase it in our promotions. If you delete your content from Masspire, all our rights go out the window.

So no, we don't do anything strange to the rights to your work. We make money when people sell their music, and there's nothing funny going on beneath the surface. Interesting to know there's so much concern about it though. I have to think of way to explain the "no cost" thing faster and better. It's harder to do than it looks.

[Empty Planet]

Yes, the bit about copyright is true, at least in the US, but what about publishing, does this figure into your model? I think fleshing out your stance is a great idea, the site seems very opaque right now.

Is your site's model designed to create revenue from advertising, site traffic, or that in combination with licensing? Don't really mean to be so invasively inquisitive, I'm actually not curious, but modern artists, most of them anyway, are a bit of a suspicious breed about these sorts of things, and these are natural questions from a musician's perspective.

Don't mean to rain on your parade though! If it is indeed a mutually beneficial model you've worked out, I wish you great success.


Cheers and good luck.

[Squarejaw]

Yes, the bit about copyright is true, at least in the US, but what about publishing, does this figure into your model? I think fleshing out your stance is a great idea, the site seems very opaque right now.

Sort of, we're planning on releasing "Best of" collections at the end of the competitions, but it's your option whether to appear on them or not. It's just an extra goody that comes to the people who win.

We also promote people we like on other sites, but I'm not sure if that's what you meant.

[Ruud Unit]

Kudos for applying your brains to a real problem

Usually these things turn into a contest to see who can get the most of their family and friends to upvote them. Which is annoying on both sides, really, and defeats the point of the service in the first place.

How are you guys addressing that potential issue?

[DSpec1]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Not shady. True.

Still, I dunno about this service.

- c

US and Canada have different laws. Sorry folks, I am backing gracefully out of the discussion as I am not a lawyer.

Cheers all!

[Squarejaw]

Originally Posted by Ruud Unit

Kudos for applying your brains to a real problem

Usually these things turn into a contest to see who can get the most of their family and friends to upvote them. Which is annoying on both sides, really, and defeats the point of the service in the first place.

How are you guys addressing that potential issue?

Sorry it took me a while to respond to this. I thought the thread had got all the responses it was going to get. We do two things to keep the competitions fair:

1) A Success Rule. We don't let people into the competitions if they're so successful that they have an "unfair advantage" over relatively unknown people. Doesn't really protect against a band that has an absolute ton of friends and family, but if someone is already in an established band they can't just swamp you.

2) Masspire Staff. In Round Two of our competitions we toss out half of everything that qualified. This way we can exercise our judgment and get rid of someone who doesn't have very good music but does have a ton of friends. That may be a bit controversial, but frankly I think that's the only way to keep things really fair. There has to be a balance between professional critic and audience.

PS - I also don't really know about Canadian law. I know it's accurate in the States.

[BlackBackDrop]

Originally Posted by Squarejaw

Sorry it took me a while to respond to this. I thought the thread had got all the responses it was going to get. We do two things to keep the competitions fair:

1) A Success Rule. We don't let people into the competitions if they're so successful that they have an "unfair advantage" over relatively unknown people. Doesn't really protect against a band that has an absolute ton of friends and family, but if someone is already in an established band they can't just swamp you.

2) Masspire Staff. In Round Two of our competitions we toss out half of everything that qualified. This way we can exercise our judgment and get rid of someone who doesn't have very good music but does have a ton of friends. That may be a bit controversial, but frankly I think that's the only way to keep things really fair. There has to be a balance between professional critic and audience.

PS - I also don't really know about Canadian law. I know it's accurate in the States.

This is a joke right? "In Round Two of our competitions we toss out half of everything that qualified. This way we can exercise our judgment and get rid of someone who doesn't have very good music but does have a ton of friends."

What is the point in anyone voting in round one if you "toss out" HALF of everything that qualified? This statement is VERY BAD FOR BUSINESS, online for EVERYONE TO SEE!

Who gives you the right to judge what is 'good music'? Music is so subjective, you could end up "toss" ing out a trending band cause YOU DON'T LIKE THEM (LOL) and because they have too many friends. - COME ON!

and if you are trading online you need to understand GLOBAL copyright not just USA else, (like a few post have mentioned) you might get in hot water?

[Squarejaw]

Originally Posted by BlackBackDrop

This is a joke right? "In Round Two of our competitions we toss out half of everything that qualified. This way we can exercise our judgment and get rid of someone who doesn't have very good music but does have a ton of friends."

What is the point in anyone voting in round one if you "toss out" HALF of everything that qualified? This statement is VERY BAD FOR BUSINESS, online for EVERYONE TO SEE!

Who gives you the right to judge what is 'good music'? Music is so subjective, you could end up "toss" ing out a trending band cause YOU DON'T LIKE THEM (LOL) and because they have too many friends. - COME ON!

and if you are trading online you need to understand GLOBAL copyright not just USA else, (like a few post have mentioned) you might get in hot water?

We're only open to residents of the US at the moment by virtue of the fact that we can't really research the laws in every country everywhere.

As for everything else you said, I still feel like a balance between professional critic and audience yields the best result. It's possible that if that approach angers everyone as much as you we'd switch it up, but for now I still believe that's the best way to keep everything fair. It means that Masspire isn't a pure popularity contest.

If that doesn't work as intended, we'll do something new in the future. We're trying to create the most fair and rewarding platform for small musicians that we can, and we just started. I doubt we're going to get it pitch perfect on the first try.

[Tui]

What is a "small artist"?

[Squarejaw]

I think the appearance of mini-me might be my sign to bow out.

If you like the idea, I'd love it if you stopped by and helped us grow. Otherwise, I wish you all the best.

[eigens]

"Usually these things turn into a contest to see who can get the most of their family and friends to upvote them. "

Agree - the ableton soundcloud contest as example is a joke.



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[Ruud Unit]

What are the credentials of the "professional critics" doing the judging? Are they professional critics in the sense that they write about music for a living, like, say, at dustedmag.com? Or are they professional critics in the sense that you pay them to disqualify music that they consider bad? Are you transparent about who is doing the disqualification, and do you provide an actual critique with analysis to the artist when a song is disqualified? Or is it just "sorry, an unnamed employee of Masspire thinks your song sucks." ...

[BlackBackDrop]

Originally Posted by Ruud Unit

What are the credentials of the "professional critics" doing the judging? Are they professional critics in the sense that they write about music for a living, like, say, at dustedmag.com? Or are they professional critics in the sense that you pay them to disqualify music that they consider bad? Are you transparent about who is doing the disqualification, and do you provide an actual critique with analysis to the artist when a song is disqualified? Or is it just "sorry, an unnamed employee of Masspire thinks your song sucks." ...

We will never know, the chap "bowed out"....

Can I just take this opportunity to say to any young aspiring band or musician who might come across this thread some advice:

Please don’t get sucked into the internet for the be all and end all of your music careers. Yes! use it to ‘research’ then pick up the phone, write a letter(s) and make real appointments, travel and go and show people how much an opportunity would mean to you and most of all never stop believing.