Project vision, values, and statement

This place
1

i have a feeling we need a stronger statement about vision, values, concept.. how is this different from a forum like lines ( https://llllllll.co ) and others. from my pointof view its about digital autonomy, away from centralized big tech and streaming platforms that keep us at ransom both as social network and middlemen between music-maker and their audience.

1 Like
2

Yes, I fully agree the current statement is bland. Let’s improve it!

“Autonomy” is a good anchor. Should we talk about “collective autonomy”, appealing to the " network" part, given that any alternative to the big corps requires social collaboration?

Also, which areas of autonomy for musicians do we want to cover here?

  • online music publishing is a given, and we already have Music platforms.
  • online outreach is also a clear factor, we count on the Fediverse but maybe not only? For now we have Fediverse instances and we offer an additional corner in Musicians

Is that it, or are there more musicians’ autonomy areas within scope?

3

I’m gonna beat my little drum again. I reckon “discoverability” is the main thing to brainstorm. For me, at least! I want to help break the corpo monopoly on discovering and supporting new music.

5 Likes
4

The Social Music Network

Collective autonomy for music makers and friends.

How does this sound?

2 Likes
5

I would say some of the core values are:

  • fairness
  • transparency
  • digital autonomy / agency
  • distributed networks
  • cooperation (vs competition)
  • federation
  • open source / free software
  • trust and safety
  • diversity
  • community
  • mutual care

“Collective autonomy” as such sounds.. hmm.. i think when I’m thinking about autonomy it’s more about self-determination of an individual, who is nevertheless deeply integrated into the community

i feel like everyone would agree under the fairness as the first value of the punchline.

2 Likes
6

@Mel @prinlu I agree all these concepts are important and must find a place in the intro. We also need to find the very few words that make the punchline.

I added the “collective” bit having in the back of my mind the feminist critique to the idea of individual freedom or autonomy that ignores all the invisible / ignored / dismissed people working hard so that the privileged individual can enjoy the individualistic dream. But I know you know all this better than me, you also makes a reference to the community context, and we will find a way to express all this.

About “fairness”, how do you see it in the punchline? One observation is that “fair” has been commoditzed/co-opted as a word, which I can even find in bananas at the supermarket. Another observation is that many people find fair to pay a monthly fee to Apple, Spotify, Alphabet, Amazon, etc in exchange to access to music streaming.

7

yes, of course there are many instances of fairness - some are more “true”, some are exploitation of the term. i still always felt the “fair music ecosystem” or “environment” or “networks” which was somehow manifested in putting the artist at the center of all features on Bandcamp, is still something very clear. i feel like everyone who are rotating in this ‘neighbourhood’ could stand behind this idea that the music industry is unfair to the artist - so, fair music economy or ecosystem for artists should be somewhat clear.

but yeah, people find also a ‘fair’ price to pay spotify 10$ per month, but at the same time, we know system is exploitative and therefore unfair to the artists. how can we center the artist, their wellbeing, their self-determination, embededness in community, moving towards fairer and better conditions for work and life in digital economy in two or three words?

i totally agree about bringing in the collective modes of working and exchange, sometimes these were also termed as “peer” economy (as in peer production licence), but collective autonomy is foregrounding something else in my opinion, perhaps it’s too definitive into resonating that this place is a collective as in artist collective. To be part of a collective means to kinda belong under an umbrella. I feel TSN could be really more of a network of collectives, projects, publishers, developers, and individuals, it’s a small nuance, so i might be nitpicking.

EDIT: how about something like
“(towards the) cooperative, fair, and federated future of music”

instead of federated, rather ‘decentralized’ (too block-chain-y?), ‘distributed’ (too geeky)? well, autonomous

“digital autonomy for cooperative and fair future of music”

“Digital autonomy, cooperation, and fairness in music”

any feedback, ideas, argumentations, more then welcome!

1 Like
8

Not ignoring all the nuance of your comment, which I agree with again. But is this punchline better?

Musicians and journalists know that removing is more difficult than adding, yet most of times the tune sounds better with less. :slight_smile:

“Network” encapsulates cooperative, federated, decentralized, distributed…

“future” and “digital” can be assumed, and also we might want to leave a corner open for non-future and non-digital fairness and autonomy.

Also important: the question is whether this is better than the current version on Welcome to The Social Music Network! 👋, not to commit to this punchline forever. We can continue the discussion and improve as needed.

2 Likes
9

I think that’s much better! We could go with this. Well argumented too!

1 Like
10

The grey box shows one thing and then if i hit the little downwards pointing arrow, it shows something else.

From what i see, my preferred one is “Fairness and autonomy for music makers.”

“Collective autonomy” is an interesting oxymoron, and i get it. But i think it will trigger language pedantics and confuse large portions of everybody else.

Granted I’m still wrapping my head around the purpose and meaning of all this, so my 2 cents might not be worth much.

1 Like
11

“Fairness and autonomy for music makers.”

I don’t know to what extend this place is welcoming listeners, but can there be too much love? Ergo:

“Fairness and autonomy for music lovers.”

4 Likes
12

Ok, please check: Welcome to The Social Music Network! 👋.

1 Like
13

I feel yes, all kinds of music lovers are welcome, and connection between those who dabble in making sonic art and their audience is in fact the one that is at stake here, absolutely. But this is not a reciprocal relationship. For listeners since the napster age it has never been easier to access music. For workers - artists - in this have been a struggle - with Spotify all more so.

So I feel this place is (or at least could be) dedicated to network between these projects, efforts, individuals, developers, artists, indie labels, arts collectives, even artist-run promo agencies, who are looking for ways how to be autonomous in creating direct connection with their audiences or using tools and even platforms that are dedicated to music ecosystem that is fair to their work.

Again, this is not to shoo away audences, listeners, and all kinds of music lovers. But, I feel like we need to atract primarily those who are looking for ways how to facilitate spaces, tools, and knowledge, with whose artists can find their audiences, and “can be fairly compensated for their work.”

If music makers is too narrow and we cannot find a better term, perhaps it can just be “Fairness and autonomy in music”?

2 Likes
14

Sorry, as I was thinking a little further and reading what is currently written in the welcome text, I had another thought - and I want to make sure, it’s just my perspective on what we somehow really need here: I think this space should not be a place for audiences, and it also isn’t to promote people’s music as such (or at least it shouldn’t be central focus), but it really is about “empowering workers”, where everyone who has this as a goal - that those who spend helluva lot of time working on that sonic output, should be fairly compensated for their work, should have a stable income, and have an audience too. I see current development by various different initiatives that are moving in that direction - or have this at their core of their mission, and I think Bandcamp was one of the early first projects to try to do that with their Fair Trade Music Policy in 2008.

I think this place should have this focus.

3 Likes
15

@prinlu Yeah, I was also thinking that “music lovers” is lovely but too broad and shapeless.

I think it is ok to make the punchline around “music makers”. For these reasons:

  1. “music makers” is a fresh and flexible concept, and there are 1000s that will feel represented, or close.
  2. If the music makers, the ones who actually make music, aren’t happy, then forget about the rest, who ultimately work with, for, or because the music makers.
  3. In the current draft, right below we describe who we are, who we want to reach out, and there we can name as many profiles as we want.

This is an updated version. Please propose specific changes: add / edit / remove.

Fairness and autonomy for music makers

We are music makers, music performers, DJs, developers of music-related platforms, admins of music-related projects, creators of music-related media…

Then…

Yes, I have been hesitating about this but I think you’re right. Anyway, if a pure music listener wants to sign up, read, participate, nobody will show them the door. On the contrary, it’s going to be useful and add more diversity spice. But this shouldn’t distract us from music makers and the other roles listed above.

Also agreed. In fact, in my initial proposal there was this idea of a “Musicians” category where everyone could have their own topic and post new songs, etc. I scrapped it because there are other platforms focusing on this. I imagine a social “between music makers” topic where people casually share their new albums but as one more community activity and not as a promotion activity.

Agreed again. :slight_smile: I’ll review the intro again tomorrow after a good sleep. Specific suggestions add - edit - delete are especially welcome!

1 Like
16

maybe we reconsider ‘friends’ addition? it’s not bad - as in

Fairness and autonomy for music makers and friends

since projects like Mirlo, Bandwagon, jam.coop etc, are friends of music makers. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
17

Updated: Fairness and autonomy for music makers and friends

Also the first two paragraphs. Everything ok there?

Tomorrow I want to rewrite the second part (Here are some things…), which still come from the Discourse default texts.

1 Like
18

Join the Social Music Network! rewritten with a draft initiated by @prinlu. :folded_hands:

The scope and main audience of the Social Music Network should be clear now. What do you think?

Tonight (probably) I will remove the second part about things to do when you start. That belongs to a page on its own (or more).

1 Like
19

I have added “multilingual” to Join The Social Music Network! and I have cut the “next steps” (moved to What we offer).

Yay us! :slight_smile: I consider this page stable now. Suggestions to improve it are still (and always) welcome, but any changes must be discussed and agreed.

1 Like
20

Seems like more people are confused about the scope of this forum. I would urgently suggest this change to the first paragraph.

The Social Music Network is a community for projects, initiatives, and individuals, that work towards fair music distribution and discovery by considering the music artists’ work as an indispensable part of culture.

The forum’s aim is to foster a discussion and exchange between different endeavours, open source platforms, and educational resources, that strive to contribute to artists’ autonomy, agency, and control over direct connections with their audiences.

We want to discuss the artists’ right to be fairly and transparently compensated for their work in order to live a decent life, and how to contribute to fair ecosystem to build a better future for artists.

and add it to About page?

2 Likes