The people who actually made it chose to sell exclusive rights to one person instead of releasing it like a normal album. They've got no room to complain.
Laurence Lessig, Creative Commons founder in Code 2.0 (1999) identifies four elements that regulate behavior online: Laws, norms, markets, and technology
- *Code/architecture* – the physical or technical constraints on activities (e.g. locks on doors or firewalls on the Internet)
- *Market* – economic forces
- *Law* – explicit mandates that can be enforced by the government
- *Norms* – social conventions that one often feels compelled to follow
So even if you sell something, you can still complain about it. Unless of course they explicitly signed a “I won’t complain about this” clause.
I think the reason the commenter was pointing out that Wu won’t be getting paid is that the average person might not know that. And the people making money not the situation aren’t exactly incentivized to raise awareness.
Swift could make a killing. Anyone who is loved and disliked could novelly monetize the dislike.
Also, fun smart contract. The $0 condition drops some decryption key for pre-released-but-encrypted content.
The linked website is the official site of the Album owner. The homepage simply shows a countdown clock to the release date of the album originally scheduled for 2103, but the release date/clock is being reduced in real-time based on album purchases.
This Album is the highest selling album of all-time, it only had 1 physical copy made, and the ownership history is just as interesting. For more info on the Album here is the Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Shaolin
after all is it a real wu-tang album if it isnt produced by RZA?
RZA should of pulled out his old SP1200 and made something that sounded like 36 Chambers.
I imagine it's more of a novelty thing at this point.
Although I'd love for the industry to have experiments like this. Something like a decade of exclusivity.
Anything aside from competing to get Spotify pennies.
In regards to a top-earning artist with a secure position, "devaluation" here sounds a lot like "demonetization".
So was WTC protesting how the internet negatively impacted gatekeeping and artist anointing - and how the internet allows more small artists to get a foothold?
In addition to what you quoted it is said it was also inspired by musical patronage in the Renaissance. I’m sure there is some truth to all of the above but also just marketing.
It originally sold at auction for $2M, and I would imagine/hope they could have made multiples that through a standard release.
It is my experience that once folks achieve wealth thru copyright, they fixate on controlling their IP. Both money and control override nuance-based sense and social good but control will commonly trump money.
I don't know WTC and am not speaking to their specific motivations - beyond suggesting this copyright profile could be in play.
i think i can hold out
wonder what format it's going to be encoded as at that time
I get they are trying to make a point, but the idea of music being exclusive, just seems wrong. They want to make it like art… I don’t have to go to France to see the Mona Lisa, there are pictures of it online. I only have to go to a museum to see the real thing. It seems like a concert would be the museum of the music world. There shouldn’t be listening parties at museums, Wu-Tang should go on tour. If people want to hear the new songs, they can see them performed live.
True but the Mona Lisa was painted around 1500, so it was about 500 years before the work was digitized and widely available online. There were prints before the internet, but that’s not exactly the master’s work.
I think the music/art should be freely available, but I’ve also been talking about this album for 10 years and until yesterday hearing the 5 minute sampler for the first time, I had never heard a second of it.
There is a very poor quality recording of Shkreli playing it on stream available on a shady file sharing site near you. Sounds interesting but probably not worth the flight to Tasmania (as per article, there are listening sessions available at MONA) or waiting 79 years for the crypto crew to cash in.
I’ve found everything about this album frustrating and unpleasant. At this point, I don’t think there will be anyway for it to not be a disappointment.
