Let’s just consider concert production as a commons. 

In western Massachuetts, where I live, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares represents a creative mashup of the CSA farm model (community-supported agriculture) with concert production. Instead of paying upfront for a season’s supply of vegetables, people pay for a September-June season of ten jazz concerts. It’s like a subscription model but it’s more of a community investment in supporting a jazz ecosystem. Talented musicians get to perform, fans get to experience some cutting-edge jazz, the prices are entirely reasonable for everyone, and a community spirit flourishes.

As the group explains:

Our members purchase jazz shares to provide the capital needed to produce concerts with minimal institutional support. A grassroots, all-volunteer organization, we are a community of music lovers in Western Massachusetts dedicated to the continued vitality of jazz music. By pooling resources, energy and know-how, members create an infrastructure that is able to bring world-class improvisers to our region.

Cofounders Glenn Siegel and Priscilla Page decided to launch Jazz Shares after realizing that there were many more jazz musicians in the region than there were commercial venues to support them. As a longtime concert producer at the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Siegal lamented, “Each season I would receive many more worthy gig requests than I could honor. With a limit on how many University concerts I could produce each year (six), and without the personal resources to just write checks, I got tired of saying ‘Sorry, no’ to some of my musical heroes. I knew there must be another way to bring these great musicians to town.”

As an economist might put it, there was a market failure (demand did not induce an adequate supply). So commoning came to the rescue! 

Approximately 95 fans pay $125 to underwrite ten local jazz concerts a year in a variety of regional venues – colleges, clubs, performance spaces. Business sponsors and single-ticket sales augment these revenues. But it’s not just about the money. It’s about building a community through mutual aid and money-lite commoning. As reported by New England Public Radio, Siegal and Page have been known to cook for visiting performers. Sometimes Jazz Share members pick up musicians at the train station and make food for the artist receptions following each performance. 

The share-model is arguably the secret to presenting sometimes-challenging music. The shares enable performers to be artistically authentic and venturesome. They can improvise in bolder ways than would be possible in conventional commercial venues, and fans can enjoy the results. For example, one quartet included a bassoonist, which is not usually heard in jazz performances. Other artists report that they feel free to explore their artistic frontiers.

The whole setup also changes the audience. As Siegel explains, “Although many of our shareholders do not know who Karl Berger is, most have an open mind and an adventurous attitude. Because our audience expects to be surprised, we can expose them to new experiences. Although we attempt to have balance in our programming, the dilemma facing most presenters of not wanting to offend or get too far ahead of audience tastes does not affect us.”

Now in its seventh season, Jazz Shares has built a sociable community of jazz fans who might otherwise remain isolated at home. Local saxophonist and composer Jason Robinson credits Jazz Shares for creating a very special musical culture in the region: “Jazz Shares does special things for our local community that [don’t] exist in Boston. It barely exists in New York. It’s something that’s quite unique across the country.”

Glenn Siegal explained how Jazz Shares has engendered a very special cultural ecosystem: “Just as plants are dependent on the sun, clean water and healthy soil to thrive, the music needs paying gigs and an appreciative audience to reach full flower. Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares is helping to build that rich inch of topsoil that stands between us and a barren cultural landscape.”

Sounds a lot like commoning to me!

The post Using the CSA Model for Jazz Performance appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Pat attended Glastonbury University and obtained a degree in English and Media Studies

An array of different topics with Pat Kane and how they intertwine with music

We also discuss different topics about reading books and how they’ve played a key role for Pat to use alternative thinking with a more open mind. He discusses Future Fest conferences and enables people an affordable place compared to Wired or TED conferences.

Also, discussed in the interview is some political talk and activism within music and how it has certain messages to purvey to it’s audience. Pat discusses with us how people can network in the music industry and the best methods to selling tickets to your community to drive sales up.

Pat is the ultimate activist for musicians and making sure they have a platform in Future Fest to make sure they have knowledge within their industry. Future Fest is a space where people can be themselves and grow in inspiration as musicians.

Links from the show:

• Future Fest
• Follow Pat Kane on Twitter
• Please subscribe to Ouishare Radio

The post Pat Kane on Future Fest, Play, Music and Activism appeared first on P2P Foundation.

“Cultural Commons: (How) do we put it into practice in Medellin?” was a workshop held in Medellin, Colombia on 21 and 22 of June 2018, co-organised by Penny Travlou, a cultural geographer / ethnographer (Edinburgh College of Art/University of Edinburgh) and Platohedro, a local Medellin non-profit organization. The report (below, in English) reviews the two workshop days.

Context + What inspired us

The idea for these two workshops originated in earlier research and collaboration with Platohedro in the project Medellin Urban Innovation: Harnessing innovation in city development for social equity and well-being (MUI). MUI was a two-year (2015-2017) research collaboration between academic and non-academic institutions in the United Kingdom and Colombia, funded by the Newton Institutional Links Grant from the British Council and led by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with Heriot-Watt University, UK. The findings from the MUI scoping study suggest that there is indeed a thriving art community and emerging creative practices in Medellin. By merging traditional Colombian cultural values (buen vivir, buen conocer), participatory pedagogies and new media art values (Do-It-With-Others, free libre knowledge, open source, peer-to-peer learning), these grassroots art collectives and communities are instrumental in the making of new cultural heritage in Medellin. Looking at the ways different groups and initiatives within the network work together and, also with the local communities (comunas) and disaffected youth, makes it evident that their practices are based on creating collaboratively in a non-hierarchical manner.

From the initial MUI findings, it is also clear that this collaborative practice is a rather novel approach to cultural production, particularly as this is performed within and across a network. However, although this makes their practice of great interest across their international peers, recognition of the cultural values produced through these collaborative practices by local public art institutions and the municipality in Medellin is still lacking. This may be due to a failure to communicate this work to a language understood by public art institutions and municipal authorities. The MUI project also found that all these art collectives, organisations and communities that form a network of collaboration in Medellin face the same limitations: their collaborative work is primarily based on affinities; it is still informal and lacks of tools to become self-sustainable. The initial work identified a clear interest in co-creating cultural commons. By this term, we mean, a) something that participants create together, such as Wikipedia, Report: “Defining Cultural Commons in Medellin” Workshops, 21-22 June 2018 2 which participants research, write and manage together online, or ancient indigenous practices forged and passed along by a particular group e.g. Minga (‘communal work’ in Andean indigenous cultures) and, b) a way of creativity that embraces values such of sharing, community and stewardship as opposed to privatization, enclosure and exploitation.

The Cultural Commons workshops stem from these initial findings and represent a new line of investigation engaging with a network of local art producers and independent cultural initiatives to co-design a methodology that, a) can look at, reflect upon and evaluate individual organisations within an ecosystem i.e. network of collaboration and, b) become a tool for the collaborating network to communicate their practice and production of cultural values to public art institutions, other local authorities and funding bodies in Medellin. During meetings and discussions between the art collectives and Penny Travlou in 2017, the group agreed on the importance of developing together a methodology that can enable them to reflect on their practice(s), collaborative ethos, sharing values, common goods production as well as weaknesses. Co-designing a methodological toolkit is a good start to understand the position of the various art collectives, initiatives and groups in the cultural production ecosystem in Medellin and to establish a dialogue with local public art institutions and city administration.

The two workshops were based on a collaborative methodology where all participants worked together to define and explore key concepts: “cultural commons” in Workshop 1 and “intangible cultural heritage” in Workshop 2. For the exploration of “cultural commons” in Workshop 1, the Purpose Statement of the Coalition for the Cultural Commons (https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Coalition_for_the_Cultural_Commons) was presented in the first part of the workshop to engage participants with the term, followed with examples of commoning practices. For the cultural commons methodology toolkit in Workshop 2, a series of key terms from the Arts Collaboratory Network (http://www.artscollaboratory.org/), a translocal  ecosystem of 25 international art organisations including Platohedro, was used to develop the tools. Then, to explore the concept of “intangible cultural heritage”, we followed the official one by UNESCO (https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003) focusing particularly on the characteristics of the term: inclusiveness, representation, community-based co-creation and bridging traditional together with contemporary everyday cultural values and practices. Overall, we were interested in finding out whether and how we can re-define “intangible cultural heritage” as a “cultural commons” where cultural values are co-created, shared between groups and communities, support openness, collaboration and peer learning and thus become a common good.

FULL REPORT:

ENGLISH Report Cultural Commons Medellin share by the P2P Foundation on Scribd

The post Cultural Commons: (How) do we put it into practice in Medellin appeared first on P2P Foundation.

ArtFarm: Since 2013, when we bought 1300 m2 of land and small stone house, Artfarm has been our international project combining art and organic agriculture on the Croatian island of Hvar.

It is situated in the Starigrad Plain (in Greek: “Hora”, in Roman: “Ager”), a UNESCO protected agricultural area, close (2km) to the fisherman village and the beaches of Vrboska.

SEE THE MAP.

Our main art activity is the “artist in residence” program, where invited artist come to Artfarm, stay there a minimum of 10 days and interact with the physical and social environment.

Our organic garden and orchard produces vegetables and fruit during the whole season from May till October.

We enjoy a special position of importance on the island, as we are the place promoting the alternative culture and at the same time staying out of the tourist industry.

In 2017 we established the “1010 Festival”. “1010” is for 10 artists (or academics) who stay on Artfarm for 10 days. We had 2 monthly events from the 1^st of May through the 6^th of October: acoustic concerts, “megaphone” lectures, performances and debates, with an audience combining local and foreign visitors.

stone festival poster

“1010 FESTIVAL” 2017 LINE-UP ARCHIVE

OMFO (German Popov)- musician, Ukraine

2 weeks residence, 4 concerts

Takako Hamano– visual artist, Japan

2 weeks residence, paintings

Nina Targan-Mouravi– visual artist, Georgia

10 days residence, performance, painting

Nova Yorke– performer, Netherlands

1 week residence, performance

Maja Vodopivec, academic, University of Leiden, Netherlands

3 weeks residence, lecture

Duro Toomato, artist, Netherlands

5 months residence, signs and installations

Marta Petrinjak, painter, musician, Croatia

3 months residence, exposition “Hora”

and 1 concert

Kingalita, singer/dancer, Hungary

5 months residence, singing lessons,

8 concerts, Hvar and Vis Islands

Otoji & Rai, music duo, violin, double bass,

Japan, 3 weeks residence, 8 concerts, Hvar

and Vis Islands

Martina Matkovic, percussionist, Croatia

2 weeks residence, 7 concerts

“Goulash Disko”, we were part of the music festival, 5 concerts in Komiza, Vis Island

“Dancing Street”, 3 concerts in Stari Grad

(co-produced with “Gallery Fantazam” and

“Music Room Paiz”).

WHAT ARE OUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

To improve facilities on Artfarm:

– make a more powerful solar energy system to be able to project art movies and documentaries

– improve the walls/fence around our land to get better garden protection from wild pigs, rabbits and pheasants.

– improve sleeping facilities for the visiting artists

– build a dance floor/stage and cinema screen

– increase our budget for hosting “artists in residence” and produce “1010 Festival”.

“Mr.Fixer” services:

– develop further information/advice services to help our visitors to stay out of tourist industry and experience the island from the inside.

Start initiative to end the use of (Monsanto!) pesticides & herbicides in the Starigrad Plain:

–“Cidokor” (glyphosate, Round-up) is still used by many local people to kill grass and weeds. We plan to end its use as much as possible. One way is to offer to locals (mostly winemakers) to manually (4-6 times per year) cut the grass in their fields as substitute for using herbicides.

Produce “1010 Festival” 2018 – here new ideas for residenties (to be confirmed)

Visual art, performance, lectures:

Gerindo Kamid Kartadinata, performer and environmental activist, Netherlands

Elica Grdinic, lawyer, European Court of Human Rights, France

Stefan Halikowsky, historian, University of Swansea, UK

Judith Witteman, visual artist, Netherlands

3D street graffiti artists (in contact)

Music:

Baba Zula, music group, Turkey

Levent Guzel, percussionist, Turkey

Evgeny Suvorkin, accordionist, Russia/Belgium

Stefanos Sekeroglou, violinist, Greece

Tlazolteoti Orkestra, music group, Mexico

Gypsy band from Hungary (in contact)

Small music sub-festival, (3 days in September).

Dance workshops (tango, belly dancing).

Singing lessons (Gypsy style, Turkish traditional)

And more.

As a non-profit foundation (NGO, charity), for presenting our programs we depend on the donations of our supporters, members and sponsors.

WHAT ARE YOUR BENEFITS AS OUR DONOR?

10 Euro or more

– you can visit Artfarm, meet the artists, have a free pancake lunch (with goat cheese and/or vegetables),free drink and get informed about public events.

100 Euro or more

– You can visit Artfarm, feel at home, meet the artists, and have free drink and lunch.

– You are invited to attend all the events on Artfarm and get free drinks (audience number

is limited to maximum 50 invited visitors).

OMFO concert

– You get the music of the musicians we host.

– You receive Mr. Fixer advice to be able to stay on Hvar Island outside of the tourist industry.

– You get all the local tips and translations:

from booking accommodation to hand made maps of best private beaches & biking and hiking secrets.

– You get secret tips for local pesticide-free (organic/bio) wine and food.

– You get all of our knowledge and contacts for travel around Croatia and the Balkans.

For donating via PayPal, credit card or IBAN (specify “donation for project Artfarm Mola Blaca”) visit our website:

starwingartists.com

Questions before and/or after donating? Staying informed? To receive our program updates and reserve lunches and events? Contact us via email:

[email protected]

Our NGO foundation details:

László Kinga, Djuro Grdinic (board members/art farmers)

Stichting Starwing Artists

Overtoom 301

1054 HW Amsterdam, NL

Chamber of commerce registration number:

41214620

The post ArtFarm Mola Blaca: a call for donations appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Civilisation trusted databases

It might help to think of blockchain as a distributed database, that nobody owns, and everybody trusts.

Then you think about all the trusted centralised databases that make society work today. I’m thinking basically anything to do with money: transactions, insurance, finance, the stockmarket… and lots of government functions too, like who can vote, tax, benefits, laws, citizenship…

So much of our identities, interactions, prohibitions and affordances are regulated by these trusted, centralised databases.

So people have a good reason to get excited about blockchain: we’ve figured out how to make a trusted database that is decentralised: nobody owns it. Surely this innovation is going to change a lot. The explosion of cryptocurrencies prove we can already print our own money, and we’re just getting started: probably we can write our own laws, hold our own elections, build new markets with new values… basically replace all the old slow corrupt institutions with shiny new ones we make ourselves… yes! all of that is exciting! But…

How can we decentralise power?

If you take a step back from the technology, if you look at the challenges we face in wider society, and you look at the history of social change, if you step back and just consider for a minute: “how can we decentralise power?”, then “build a better database” feels like a pretty weak answer. To me, it seems obvious that some of the most urgent power imbalances fall on gender, race, and class lines.

In the project of decentralising power, blockchain is mostly a red herring, distracting from the real work: dismantle patriarchy, make reparations for colonisation, end wage slavery. (ps. we have to kill fascism again too.)

I’m really excited about how decentralising technology is going to help decentralise power. My challenge to the blockchain entrepreneurs and the funders is simple: if you’re going to claim your project is decentralising power, please explain it to me in terms of justice, rather than just efficiency and disintermediation.

It’s fun to think about how technology can decentralise power at an epic scale. But if you get 10 people trying to work together, you’ll see how power really works.

If we can solve these human coordination problems at a small scale, then I’m much more hopeful that our large scale interventions will bend towards justice and equality. But if we can’t figure out how to share power at the scale of 10 or 100 people, I don’t have much hope that the cyber-institutions we build are going to be any more just or equitable than our existing ones.

Show me the #feminist #blockchain #startup and I'll stop being such a skeptic about how #blockchain will automatically #decentralise power.

— Richard D. Bartlett (@RichDecibels) May 31, 2016

What happens when we empower social movements with fintech?

If you’re working in decentralisation tech, please don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you’re working on these projects, and I don’t expect you to fix all the problems all at once. It’s exciting to imagine how much good could come from reinventing money, law, and citizenship. All I’m asking is, if you are serious about decentralising power, please make friends with some folks working on decolonisation, workers rights, feminism, or other social movements, and see what you can learn from each other. Imagine if #Occupy or #IdleNoMore or #BlackLivesMatter or #WomensMarch graduated from a social movement to an economic movement.

Decentralisation tech projects that are designed to decentralise power

In this public Facebook post I put out a call, asking for pointers to any decentralisation projects that are explicitly justice-oriented or commons-oriented. Here’s the list I’ve gathered so far, please suggest additions:

• faircoin: cryptocurrency w/ cooperative, social justice, democratic, ecological ethics
• osm-p2p: mapping tools supporting indigenous resistance to extractive industry
• scuttlebutt.nz: gossip platform w/ great community
• economic space agency: for commons-oriented decentralised programmed organisations
• social.coop: democratically governed microblogging
• redecentralize.org: community + app directory
• duniter: cryptocurrency with built-in Basic Income

Thanks to the P2P Foundation Wiki for tracking projects like this 

p.s. If you want to encourage me to keep writing: please recommend this story, and if you’re able, give me dollars on Patreon or Bitcoins on 1G6ab4aiYA42zauY4jBJDWY6xz64CepKrE 
p.p.s. This story is in the public domain: you can do what you like with it. Different formats are available on my website.

Photo by moonlightbulb

The post Patterns for Decentralised Governance and why Blockchain Doesn’t Decentralise Power… Unless You Design It To appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Pixelache Festival in Suvilahti cultural complex, Helsinki, 22nd-24th September 2017

Pixelache Festival happens in and around Oranssi‘s Valvomo building, in Suvilahti cultural complex Helsinki, 22nd-24th September 2017. The festival activities aim to reflect on decentralisation of power by collectively designing the programme and building its venue in 2018.

After the 2015 festival that travelled through public and private Living Spaces, and the 2016 festival delving deep into Interfaces for Empathy, Pixelache Helsinki festival 2017 gathers stories of local & decentralised governance. Tapping into the shift from centralised-capital based economies to decentralised peer-based resource distribution, we offer the festival as a meeting point for local initiatives working on similar experiences, as well as a forum to plan a future together. In this way we build and expand upon our experience of Camp Pixelache past events, where the festival content was shaped together, and Open Source Festivals project, where knowledge about production was shared.

The 2017 festival edition is titled Local & Decentralised and it hosts an assembly to reflect on decentralisation of power in different fields. Local and decentralised governance seems to happen when collective design and a tangible group effort come together. In order to materialize the festival theme itself, reflecting perhaps on the current construction of Helsinki city and how buildings relate with their environment and the needs of inhabitants, during the festival in 2017 we aim to form an assembly inviting the local community into the collective design of a public venue and the content for the 2018 edition of the festival.

In 2017 the festival activities will happen in and next to Oranssi premises from 22.9 to 24.9. The role of Oranssi organisation, of Suvilahti permanent tenants, and of Pixelache members’ contributions is an important as part of the main program in 2017, for the identity of Local & Decentralised, and as a trigger for the activities in 2018.

The 2018 iteration of Pixelache festival is also committed to take place again in Suvilahti, featuring a collaboratively-built venue next to existing DIY areas such as the skate-park. The new spatial and conceptual configurations, made together with the festival participants over two festival editions, aim to create fluid places where collaborative knowledge is applied, and where new ideas emerge for future cooperations.

Major developments of decentralization can and do occur: currency, energy, resources, and feelings are being decentralised and distributed. These developments bring about problems that cannot be solved on a purely conceptual level; they need to be embodied and lived through for a shift to yet different models. Thus fear of the unforeseen and unpredictable must also be addressed.

From the festival activities stories emerge that depict how governance functions between civil society, individual initiatives and government, and also how citizens themselves connect into structures where governance happens locally, and where we can come to terms with inefficiencies, passivity, interests, time, jargon.

How is it possible to express a multiplicity of will, is the present practice of a State effective enough to convey it? Often the movements towards local and decentralised structures are related to privatisation in economical models, how can diverse collective interest meet on economical terms? Can we be local and decentralised and yet be connected globally, micro-organisms breathing within a vast complex macro system?

Local & Decentralised festival does not let you down, it will be your local event to differentiate consensus from silence: talking of ecological issues, promoting visual culture as a shield against pessimism, presenting how democracy benefits from digital media -or not, playing games to prove that we are as connected as we are, offering workshops to learn again the pleasure of learning things together, finding music and contemporary art that make sense more than science, and divulging science as creative as drama.

The festival is free entrance and suitable for families, you are welcome to share food and bring your towel for sauna.

VENUES, PLACES AND SCHEDULE

— Local & Decentralised festival program at Oranssi and MUU Galleria

From 22.9 to 24.9.2017 – Festival and Public Assembly at Oranssi, Valvomo building in Suvilahti.

From 21.9. To 26.9.2017 – Exhibition ‘Pixelache and Koelse 15 years’ curated by Antti Ahonen, at MUU Galleria, Lönnrotinkatu 33, Helsinki.

— Pixelache Helsinki 2018 festival preliminary program at Suvilahti

From 13.9 to 19.9.2018 – Construction site for the Decentralised venue at skate-park, next to Valvomo building in Suvilahti.

From 21.9 to 23.9.2018 – Festival activities both at Oranssi, Valvomo building, and at the Decentralised venue, close to skate park
next to Valvomo.

Consult map of Suvilahti area.

CONTACT FESTIVAL DIRECTORS

Egle Oddo, egle [-ät-] pixelache.ac

Local & Decentralised festival is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the City of Helsinki Cultural Office, and Svenska kulturfonden.

The post Pixelache Helsinki 2017 Festival Announcement: Local & Decentralised appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Playing for Team Human is author, activist, ethnomusicologist and singer Kyra Gaunt Ph.D. Kyra’s research on the harassment of young women and people of color has recently focused on the YouTube phenomenon of twerking videos and trolling. In today’s episode Kyra and Douglas talk about invisible audiences and their effect on social media interaction. Kyra warns how persistent media disproportionately stigmatizes marginalized communities. She offers strategies to reclaim “full spectrum humanity,” both on and off-line, celebrating the nuance and complexity of identity formation in safe spaces.

Learn more about Kyra and follow her work at kyraocity.wordpress.com 

and visit Kyra’s TED profile.

The post Team Human: Kyra D. Gaunt Phd on Full Spectrum Humanity appeared first on P2P Foundation.

How does a country go through a renewable energy transition? Well, no country has done it before and there is no blue print to follow, but Germany is leading the world in this front. In this episode Patrick Graichen provides a comprehensive picture of the situation and explores future developments.

Patrick Graichen is executive director of Agora Energiewende, a think-tank and policy laboratory working towards the success of the energy transition or Energiewende.

This podcast series presented by Colin Webster explores the recently published book A New Dynamic 2: Effective systems in a circular economy. Each programme features an interview with authors of the book’s chapters. These leading experts on architecture, agriculture, design, business or engineering, provide unique insights that reflect on the necessity to develop a whole-system approach to re-think our economy.

Listen to the previous episodes of A New Dynamic podcast series 

Lead image by Adrian S Jones

The post The renewable energy transition – insight from Germany’s energiewende appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Perhaps more importantly how would that soundtrack be licensed? Since I attended Mutek Montreal last year, I’ve been listening to electronic music. Their magazine features some videos, but I need tracks I can play on my tablet at work.

I felt ecstatic when I stumbled onto Ektoplazm. When I saw the Creative Commons license I knew I’d use some of their tracks in a video I was making.

Ektoplazm offers a vast commons for psytrance fans (and filmmakers).  But reading the blog reveals that keeping a commons alive isn’t easy for one person. Those of us who benefit really need to support the commons. We can offer value through services or even through tips.

Perhaps a commons based reciprocity licensing system is the way to go.

Extracted from http://www.ektoplazm.com/about

The Ektoplazm Web Site

Ektoplazm is a site devoted to psychedelic trance (psytrance), a distinct form of electronic dance music and a vibrant global counterculture. Founded in 2001 by Basilisk, Ektoplazm is now the world’s largest distributor of free (and legal) psytrance music specializing in high-quality Creative Commons-licensed content from netlabels and independent artists, all released in MP3 and lossless CD-quality FLAC and WAV formats. More than 50 million tracks have been downloaded by music lovers all over the planet.

In 2012 Ektoplazm successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo to fund a massive redevelopment of the web site. Ektoplazm is currently in the midst of it’s metamorphosis; expect a fresh new look and feel as well as a dramatically improved service sometime soon.

The Ektoplazm Netlabel Group

Following the immense growth of the Ektoplazm distribution platform, DJ Basilisk established the Ektoplazm netlabel in 2008, aiming to promote unconventional talent with a professional approach to releasing free music in MP3, FLAC, and WAV format. The label has no defining sound; instead, it is dedicated to showcasing the range and diversity of the global psychedelic trance movement, always with an ear for quality. The Ektoplazm netlabel group now includes Drumlore (for techno) and Omnitropic (for downtempo).

Extracted from http://www.ektoplazm.com/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-ektoplazm

After digesting countless books and articles about free culture I relaunched Ektoplazm in 2006 with the intention of promoting free music licensed under the Creative Commons as aviable alternative to the traditional music distribution system in the psytrance scene. I meant to agitate for change, lead by example, and disrupt the status quo. I aimed to provide artists with another choice beyond conformity or obscurity: massive exposure, artistic freedom, and good karma. At first there wasn’t much of a response to the concept; no one—not even the free labels and artists—took free music seriously in those early days. “You get what you pay for” was a common refrain. To address this sentiment I became a tireless advocate for higher quality standards in free music. My vision: free releases every bit as good as what could be bought in stores. This called for high-resolution album artwork, lossless/CD-quality audio files, and proper mastering. Gradually this vision became a reality as more and more labels and artists came on board with the concept. Nowadays there are many examples of free albums that rival the quality of their commercial counterparts.

Ektoplazm fulfilled its primary mission to legitimize and popularize the distribution of free music in the psytrance scene sometime in 2010. Since then I’ve focused on adding more and more releases to the site to keep up with surging demand for new music—and for access to the platform. By now (summer 2012) Ektoplazm has served more than 6.7 million full releases and 30–35 million tracks to millions of listeners all around the planet. This is rather impressive given that Ektoplazm has catered to such an obscure niche market. To put this in perspective, Bandcamp, the most comparable distribution service for independent musicians of any genre, claims to have served up 34 million downloads to date.

Extracted from http://www.ektoplazm.com/blog/ektoplazm-update-winter-2016

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I posted my last update but, as always, there’s plenty going on behind the scenes here at Ektoplazm. 2015 was another great year and I ended up posting 296 new releases—down a bit from the previous year but still a huge amount of fresh music graciously donated by Ektoplazm’s label and artist partners. Another milestone was hit when we surpassed 17 million downloads—and that’s for whole releases! Multiply that figure by a conservative estimate of 8 tracks per release and you get something like 136 million tracks downloaded since 2007. Not bad for one guy with a blog and a lot of help from underground musicians keen to spread the vibe!

In other news I will be putting a temporary freeze on processing new release applications for the wintertime. I have to take some time away from managing the day-to-day affairs of the site for a little while. I will say more about this in the next update. Thank you for your patience and understanding!

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“For many Africans, the phone is not merely, or even principally, a communications device. You can see this on the sun-blasted streets of Bamako, Mali’s capital, where a new kind of merchant has sprung up along Fankélé Diarra Street. Seated practically thigh to thigh, these vendors crouch over laptops, scrolling through screen after screen of downloaded music. They are known as téléchargeurs, or downloaders, and they operate as an offline version of iTunes, Spotify and Pandora all rolled into one. They know what their regulars might like, from the latest Jay Z album to the obscurest songs of Malian music pioneers like Ali Farka Touré. Savvy musicians take their new material to Fankélé Diarra Street and press the téléchargeurs to give it a listen and recommend it to their customers. For a small fee — less than a dime a song — the téléchargeurs transfer playlists to memory cards or U.S.B. sticks, or directly onto cellphones. Customers share songs with their friends via short-range Bluetooth signals.

This was the scene Christopher Kirkley found in 2009. A musicologist, he traveled to Mali hoping to record the haunting desert blues he loved. But every time he asked people to perform a favorite folk song or ballad, they pulled out their cellphones to play it for him; every time he set up his gear to capture a live performance, he says, “five other kids will be holding their cellphones recording the same thing — as an archivist, it kind of takes you down a couple of notches.” Kirkley has since released compilations of music from what he has called “digital Bamako” and other places across the Sahara, as well as solo albums by artists who appeared on them.

What make its existence possible are not smartphones but so-called feature phones, which do little more than make calls, take highly pixelated pictures and play music. And yet they are indispensable. In 2013, when French troops intervened in Mali to help fight Islamic militants and Tuareg rebels, I arrived in Timbuktu not long after its liberation. The cellphone network had been down for days, so I did not bother to charge my phone. But every night, when the gasoline-powered generators in town rumbled to life, a long line of people formed to charge their cellphones. Why, I wondered, would anyone need a cellphone without a network connection?

It was a question as dumb as my simple Nokia phone. A cellphone is a digital Swiss Army knife: flashlight, calculator, camera and, yes, audio player. Mali’s homegrown, offline digital music has created a space for sharing songs that is in many ways more vibrant than the algorithm-driven way music is so often experienced in the United States — more personal, more curated, more human.”

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