Sorry, it been so long since I have posted, not that I have any constant readership.

Anyway, I wanted to share the best idea since Virb. It's called NoiseTrade.com. Derek Webb (one of my favorite singer/songwriters and former member of Caedmon's Call) and some friends have started a free trade music website, where artists can sell and give away their music. Derek based the business model on his trial offering of the Mockingbird CD for free last year. He saw an increase in sold out shows, merchandise sales and, oddly enough, Mockingbird CD sales.

The basic concept is that as music consumers, we want cheap or free music, though if we like it and had an easy avenue to give the artist money, we probably would. Musicians on the other hand, as blue collar laborers, need a fan base, to know where that fan base is and how to inform them of the real money makers, shows and concerts. To put the two together go to noisetrade.com.

There you will find around 55 albums for download. When you decide to download the album, EP or single, you provide your name, email, and zipcode. Then if you want the song for free, you provide the emails of 5 friends who you think would like the music. If you want to pay, you decide what you think the album is worth, between $1 and $25. Then Noisetrade sends you an email with the music download code. If you provided emails, you go to the site and download a zip file with the album. If you decided to pay, you provide your credit card information to a secure site and then download the zip file. Easy as that. Fair music prices finally.

The artist then gets your email to let you know about upcoming events, knowledge of where you live so they can plan more effective tours, and either 90% of your purchase price or free publicity. Sounds win win to me.

I hope it takes off. It would be great to see the business model put the big record companies and terrible fake bands (see Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, et. al.) out of business. If I was going to start in the music business seriously, this is how I would do it.

Any artist can sign up for $250 per album (up to 20 songs) and 20,000 downloads. After 20,000 downloads, it is $75 per 5,000 downloads. The artist and fans can even post a widget on their personal sites to encourage album downloading and sales. When you think about it, that is a great deal. If you get 20,000 downloads, you might make no money, but you would know the hometowns of 20,000 fans and 60,000 others would know your name. If you didn't get an additional publicity, you would still know where 20,000 fans lived and would have made between 15,000 and 250,000 dollars. The biggest upside to all this, is that you still own your soul and didn't have to sell out to the man.

I think it is brilliant. Share with everyone.