Ten Tracks: To the Future

This month sees the launch of Ten Tracks, a new platform for the marketing and retail of music for which ten bands provide a track each per month. All ten are available to listeners for £1 per month (or £10 per year, with the added option of buying single tracks). So far, the site has signed up esteemed acts such as The Aliens, King Biscuit Time (Steve Mason's dormant project revived), Black Affair (another Mason vehicle), the ever-fantastic Optimo, Broken Records, and the Joe Acheson Quartet among others. Musicians are paid 60% of the value of each of their tracks downloaded, and don't hand over any of the ownership rights of their music. It is, according to its founders "a response to online music listening culture in a way that has not been achieved to date by the major music industry".

Well that sounds interesting, but what exactly does it mean? Ed Stack, co-founder, explains further: "The signing of bands that labels do not even intend to support long-term points to the idea that the musician, like anyone else, cannot and should not primarily rely on anyone but him/herself to 'make it'.. The terrain has changed; a successful service would have to be one that embraces and supports the success of 'collective' working, something that has worked well in Scotland and in various lively pockets around the UK, facilitated hugely by the social networking revolution."

So, Ed and the legendary Talking Heads frontman are in agreement: the terrain has indeed changed. It's been a tough few years for the record industry, ever since they refused to deal with Napster and the threat of illegal downloading all those years ago, preferring to pursue their own methods of copyright protecting the work of their rostered artists. This approach has come to bite them on the ass, as they scrabble for ways to make their outdated model work for them in the face of compelling evidence that things will never quite be the same again. In the melee that's followed the online revolution, the question of how copyright laws can work in the face of new technology is proving difficult to resolve. Yet some simple facts remain. Firstly, the internet is here to stay, and that major fact should not be forgotten when trying to devise new business models of music distribution. Secondly, almost everybody likes to listen to music (duh…allegedly it's genetically entrenched in us and we're probably not going to evolve away from that any day soon). Thirdly, artists and copyright holders need to be rewarded for their endeavours, otherwise, what's the incentive?

So, despite noble intentions, the question remains as to whether or not such a model, despite the low sums involved, can compete in a download environment where countless people have amassed huge record collections for nothing? Ten Tracks' other co-founder, The Skinny's Editor Rupert Thomson, acknowledges that this may be a problem, but feels the service is pioneering a new direction and, importantly when it comes to music, a spirit of community. "I think it's a strange stage we're at - caught on a bridge between that time when people were happy to shell out on music, and an internet age where everything is potentially 'free'. Ten Tracks is designed to work in both environments. It works versus the old model, because we give such a generous proportion of our takings to bands it's still worth their while to release music with us. And it works in a hypothetical future where all music is free, because our selections are so shit hot - and our price so low - that we'll be worth it as a curatorial service alone. It feels like an everyone-wins situation."

Tim Simenon (he that is Bomb The Bass) in a recent interview he gave to The Skinny (read the full article on p.44), advocated such curatorial sites. "I shop online for my electronic music on Boomkat and Bleep.com. They have already taken out all the stuff I'm not interested in and they pay a percentage of royalties to the artist. I think it's about finding portals where you are really into what these people are already selecting. Ten Tracks sounds like it's heading in the right direction". Having dallied with the major labels, local favourites The Aliens have reverted to producing their music independently, and are keen to advocate any service which can offer both creative control and a respectable slice of revenues generated. "If anyone can come up with a way that's slightly different, so the money goes back into bands, we'll support it." According to John Maclean of the Fife-based trio. "I think if they realise any money they part with is going to be spent so bands can make another record then I think they will do so happily. Fans on our messageboards all buy a couple of the records because they know we're getting the money and they feel like they're buying into the whole cause."

So can Ten Tracks succeed in getting the general public to realise that free downloading will ultimately be detrimental to the quality of musical output available? BBC Radio 1's Vic Galloway has made a career out of spotting the next big thing, and he has this to say about the project. "In these days of diminishing sales within a crumbling music industry, the innovative idea is king! How do musicians earn money, and music-lovers get a good deal? It seems like Ten Tracks have one kind of solution... and only absolute misers would complain about 10 tunes per month for £10 per year! I'm looking forward to the range of styles and genres Ten Tracks will provide each month, with established names sidling up to fresh, under-the-radar acts. To kick things off, they have those masterful 'selectas' and possibly the hippest DJs in the UK, 'Optimo Espacio' curating the first batch. What a great start - all hail the new idea!"