The Future is Now

Mr Wonton 681: what do you think about bands screwing labels and being publicly traded entities?
Morrow: y not
Mr Wonton 681: ppl can buy stock in a band and then they own a piece of the band
Mr Wonton 681: they can buy/sell/trade their shares like stock
Mr Wonton 681: and when the band makes money the ppl see a return
Morrow: who does it
Mr Wonton 681: shareholders = free marketing/street team
Mr Wonton 681: there's a company trying to start it up on the internet on a small scale and i think for non-popular bands
Mr Wonton 681: but why couldn't it work for the U2's of the world
Mr Wonton 681: on a much larger scale
Mr Wonton 681: the investors pay for the studio time, etc. and a CEO makes sure they stay in budget
Morrow: maybe too many pitfalls
Morrow: drug addictions, arrests, stop working on music, become politcians
Mr Wonton 681: companies go under all the time
Mr Wonton 681: it would take a lot of creativity out of it tho
Mr Wonton 681: not that labels don't do that anyway
Morrow: It only takes one overdose to Bono to kill u2, it takes thousands of heroin overdoses to kill GM
Mr Wonton 681: enron?
Mr Wonton 681: .coms
Mr Wonton 681: any number of things can kill a company quick
Morrow: those are exceptions to the rule
Mr Wonton 681: look at elvis, he's dead and his albums still are on charts
Morrow: bands dont have near the longevity or profitability of a publically traded company
Mr Wonton 681: they wouldn't have to
Mr Wonton 681: sell and buy somebody else
Mr Wonton 681: or stick w/ em and get album residuals and royalties
Mr Wonton 681: there wouldn't be a ton of shares available for each band
Morrow: i wouldnt invest in a band
Mr Wonton 681: b/c Metallica doesn't make as much per yr as google does
Mr Wonton 681: i would b/c u could do it cheaply
Mr Wonton 681: and then blog about them and whatnot and have an impact on the sales
Morrow: k
Mr Wonton 681: when u invest in Chinese currency what impact can u personally have on if ur money goes up or down?
Morrow: lol, ever shopped at wal-mart?
Mr Wonton 681: I would think u would buy some Tokio Hotel
Mr Wonton 681: not for free
Morrow: im not seeing how that is a positive arguement
Mr Wonton 681: i buy a share in The Verve b/c their last album sucked and i get it for cheap, then the new album comes out, does well, and i get a percent of album sales
Mr Wonton 681: verve is happy just to exist for another album
Mr Wonton 681: they may not disappear forever like they would if a label drops em
Morrow: so you are saying its a good idea to keep bands together or to make money off them?
Mr Wonton 681: it's a different business model
Mr Wonton 681: labels may not exist in 10 yrs
Mr Wonton 681: who knows what will replace them
Mr Wonton 681: maybe this?
Morrow: i think the bigger issue is distribution
Morrow: making albums aint cost as much as back in the day
Mr Wonton 681: distribution comes out of the budget
Mr Wonton 681: if a band sucks too bad nobody will invest or the shares will go too low to make anything good w/ and they'll eventually go away
Morrow: i dunno, have to look up case studies first
Morrow: bowie has been doing that for years
Morrow: but with bonds
Morrow: called bowie bonds
Mr Wonton 681: and that's a great idea
Mr Wonton 681: i would buy one

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