our
goal
to change the way fans get their music as well as the nature of
the relationship between musicians, their record companies and their
public. our goal is to offer a unique service: music at a more than
fair price, in fact, basically free for anyone who helps us with
the distribution.
first think about this ...
- major record companies spend zillions every year promoting
a few favoured artists while the rest go begging. the sums often
stand in no real relationship to the talent of those concerned.
- to maintain market strength, major record companies squeeze
out independent competition, block-buying their way into airplay
time and shelf space. the budgets they are ready to invest in
the clips of their favourites could float a third-world economy.
- however, the majors are in deep trouble, burdened with an outdated
industrial structure (manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, retailer,
consumer) that cannot compete with “free” music from
the internet, file “sharing” and pirate copying.
- as a result companies cannot afford to invest in new talent,
trapping most musicians in a "no future" relationship
with an aging industry while the fans destroy the very music they
love by stealing it online, making it ever more difficult for
artists to earn a decent living from their meagre record “deal”.
... and now this:
an industry that thinks “star academy” is the future
has definitely lost the plot, an industry that clings to TV reality-shows
like a life-raft, is already dead in the water.
realizing this, two bright minds decided to use the emergency exit.
once outside, the combination of fresh air and long walks in the
forest soon gave them the idea for a viable alternative, and blutopia.networks
was born.
three basic principles
blutopia.networks maintains three basic principles:
- no promo! (we distribute and market
only through our own opt-in networks, so we don't need to promote
through the media)
- no video! (they are stupidly expensive,
often distract from the music itself and, given their failure
rate, represent an immoral choice in a world where people are
starving)
- no frills! (we market high quality,
no-nonsense cds, of about 45 – 55 minutes playing time,
in an environmentally responsible cardboard sleeve, retailing
at a civil price)
to put the 3 "NOs" into practice - we
devised a system we call “give forward, pay back”
capable of delivering quality and volume and featuring an unbeatable
incentive. basically, our networkers get their music for
free.
here’s how it works:
- let’s say you have ordered a cd from blutopia.networks
on the basis of a sample you received from a friend. when you
get your order, you will find that it includes a few such samples
for you, in turn, to share out among your friends.
- all you need to do is give away (“give forward”)
these sample cds to those of your friends who would be most likely
to enjoy that particular kind of music. that’s all!
- these friends, if they decide to order the cd from which the
sample is taken, will fill out the enclosed order form and send
it, together with the required sum (our more-than-reasonable retail
price) to blutopia.networks.
- once they receive their order they are asked to “pay back”
a small fixed sum (5€) to you, the person who originally
gave them the sample. if everyone orders, and if all your friends
are honest, then you will have effectively got your cd for free.
- included with your friends’ orders will again be a few
sample cds to pass on to their friends ... and so it continues!
after this operation has been repeated at about a dozen levels,
and assuming that two out of every five people like the sample enough
to order the cd (and why not? after all, they have nothing to lose)
there will be an awful lot of cds out there, enough to look like
serious competition for the big record companies, thanks to you!
now as soon as we start to notice the first signs of demand slowing,
we stop production and just work from our stock. at the same time
we will start to replace the free samples in the outgoing orders
with other samples taken from cds of the same artists, or others
similar in style.
so with blutopia.networks, individual music fans
replace distributor and retailer, helping to bring the music they
like to people like them. the simple fact that our customers are
also our distributors means that the margin we would otherwise have
lost to a conventional distribution and retail structure can be
spent on pressing the samples.
this is not your typical multi-level structure. there is no ranking
list to climb, no difference between level six and level sixteen,
no obligation to buy, and nothing to prevent you from opting-out
and just enjoying your free sample, or ordering the cd but leaving
the samples to gather dust! though we think you’ll probably
be happy to share something you like with others.
at blutopia.networks head office ...
once our production costs (glass-master, pressing, copyright, sleeve
design, litho, printing, packing, storage) and our admin costs (logistics
and sales staff, website, value added tax and postage) have been
taken care of ... the small profit that remains is divided equally
between the directors and the artists.
our task is to get the sounds out there. you, as music-lover, are
the unique key to it all. that's why your share (the 5€ “pay-back”
from your friends, remember, the distributor’s percentage?)
is by far the largest. our share is far smaller, relying on high
volume to generate income for our artists, our employees and ourselves,
all of whom are only paid per unit. no one draws a salary here!
this doesn't mean that we're angelic idealists who intend to wear
hairy shirts and sandals for the rest of our lives, we'd like to
get rich, too. but we have principles. that's why we created this
structure. our gamble is that the volume of sales will be sufficient
to make this worthwhile. so that one day, thanks to you, we too
will be able to behave like real rock-stars and tycoons, to the
embarrassment of our friends and families!
take a stand against fraud and piracy!
as with any cd, you are free to make copies for your personal use.
however the moment you hire or sell or lend to others knowing that
they will make copies, you are committing a crime which may be punished
by excommunication from the church of your choice! in short, we
don't like it, and “we” in this case should mean “you”.
as regards cd crime from outside the network, we try to protect
ourselves and you from fraud and piracy by having a policy of strict
legality, also by publishing any news of such tricks on our website.
so if illegal copies and counterfeit imitations are circulating,
we will let you know about it on the site as soon as we find out.
distribute only genuine blutopia.networks products.
watch out for our postal address (we have one for distribution in
EUPEN/Belgium and one for storage in HAUSET/Belgium, anywhere else
is not us) and check that the product you are being offered features
on our website. if it’s not there, then it's not one of ours
and we can’t vouch for the honesty of our imitators or the
quality of their products!
bringing music you like to people like you
blutopia.networks |