music, the digital divide, and pervasive poverty
My wife has been encouraging me to write more. Writing has been a battle for me in the last few years as I’m sure it has been for many others due to the incapability of escaping media in all it’s form at our very fingertips.
People consume music and music-based items in a variety of different manners but the basic experience is the same and the drive of the fan to depart with dollars for an item or experience - physical, digital, or metaphysical - is the same.
For nearly a hundred years people have been able to consume or listen to recorded music and I’m not about to give a history lesson, but for the last 30 years it’s been mainly via vinyl round discs, cassette tapes, compact discs & packaging, mp3s & digital downloads, and digital streams. These formats have been sold as items, subscriptions and sometimes free with support from an advertiser. In addition to recorded music there has been a continual streak of fans desiring to signify they’re connection to an artist by owning and sometimes displaying an item with the artist’s name and/or likeness.
Furthermore fans have ever enjoyed the original experience of music as in a live performance. Fans will always want to experience an artist and possibly their music in a real-time in person setting. Though Webcasting performances is a neat little add on it’s by no means anything like the real thing.
Enter why I joined Chris Teso and team at Chirpify - a Portland based startup with some brilliant people working to disrupt and solve pains in online transactions by simplifying everything. In a sense making it so simple the transaction disappears. The technology and philosophical concept behind it is applicable to any industry however music just happens to be my expertise and I think the bridge it creates is just plane cool.
I get excited helping artists and their partners engage with their fans, grow their audience, promote, and sell music, merch, and experiences.
I get excited making it easier for fans to buy from their favorite artists and receive digital content and merch items with a simple reply ‘buy.’
I’m also excited about the application of simple money transfer technology to lesser developed parts of the world. Imagine a man selling fruit via tweets in Les Cayes, Haiti. It’s possible and it’s coming.
This is part 1.
Then a 40 year old couple took their clothes off and went for a skinny dip #byronbay #tallowsbeach #byron #australia @kesliefelton (at Tallows Beach @ Byron Bay)
