All creative endeavor is built in the spirit of freedom.. it is the freedom of expression, of exploration, without caveat, without expectation.

In the last decade I have watched the music industry from the unique perspective of one who is both within and simultaneously an outsider. Because I have never aspired to be a pop star, I've never directed my efforts towards what is popular, and as such it's made my product difficult to place in a mainstream audience. This, among other reasons, has excluded me from being a real "insider" in the industry - although I have maintained many professional affiliations, I'd never been interested in "signing with a label" and going about a "successful career" that way. Instead, I formed my own label, which I called Splendid Imaginings (a catch-all name which could encompass any of the disciplines I work in), obtained a distribution contract, and fought the system from within.

Eventually, though, I realized that although I had avoided the traditional "sell-out" pitfalls (such as signing ownership of the songs over to the label), I was still subject to the same mechanisms which had wrecked such havoc on the artists of the last generation - namely that big companies were making more off the product than the creators were. Despite a good relationship with my Splendid's distributor, Believe (formerly MTunes), the contract terms that were dictated by the retailers (iTunes, Napster, Virgin, Beatport) were such that right off the top, before my distributor ever even got a chance to take their slice of the pie, on average some 40% was being gobbled.

Now, there are some strong arguments in support of the case for retail markup. However, in the digital realm, where shipping, storefront and warehouse meant almost nothing, the need to effectively steal nearly half of the proceeds of an artist's product is a tough sell. Worse, these retailers are truly dictators in the worst sense - self-satisfied, bloated, unapproachable and unwilling to communicate in any manner besides the decrees which are handed down by their legal department. iTunes has helped make Apple bigger than Microsoft. And I run websites and know just how much effort goes into designing and maintaining servers and systems, but come on, not billions of dollars worth.

Soon the retailers were harping on my distributor about my sales. Since I had founded Splendid with the philosophy that marketing is a cultural poison and that rampant consumerism will destroy us if our thirst for blood and oil doesn't first, the sales of my releases paled in comparison to my "competing" labels. Thing is, I never felt that I was competing. Other labels are not my enemies. Other artists are not something I need to defeat in a race. Artistic merit can not be measured with a stick or in dollars, and I was comfortable simply making my music available to the world without feeling that I had to "pimp" it.

This is the catch-22 of the music industry - now-a-days any kid with a computer can download a music making software program and start making his own beats. Hell, that's how I'd started. Sadly, the vast majority of the music available for free download is not really of the standard that people want to hear. It's a sea of mediocrity, the same sound library loops fit together at four bar intervals. This is where the elitism of the iTunes and Beatport's of the world comes in, for being available on these sites gives you a certain credibility.

This, I had known entering into my contract with Believe, but had rationalized it in my mind by telling myself that I wasn't marketing it and contributing to the cacophony of advertisements that is our western culture.

Suddenly it became obvious to me that this was all idiocy.

Just like everyone else, I download music. I'll download an entire discography of an artist I've just learned of. And, if I like it, I buy their CD. But so much of it is wasted! The cost of manufacture, the retail markup, the environmental impacts of the physical product and shipping it and all that goes along with it... I wished that I could just go to the website for Massive Attack and donate $20 to them directly, rather than having about $2 of that $20 CD filter down to them through the traditional channels.

Rather than crippling digital downloads with DRM (Digital Rights Management) and punishing legitimate supporters by the limitations inflicted upon a technology which is by it's very nature free, rather than trying to coax or trick people into handing over their money, rather than criminalizing the poor but passionate, why not just make it available?

I'd held onto my catalog all these years on the pretense that "I am a father and these recordings might be the lottery ticket that puts the kids through college". And yet, was it? In all the years in the industry I'd never paid my rent with my music. At most I've harvested a few grand combined between digital sales and the physical products I'd managed to hawk on eBay and in local record stores and at shows, and I've spent at least ten times that.

Besides, if you talk to any professional musician, you'll find out the only way to really make money in the music industry is in playing live.

So I was resolved: be the change you wish to see.

As it is, I have a day job that I love (I work in robotics) which provides me with enough income to pay my bills and feed the children and go fishing. I'm comfortable. Sure, it would be great to be able to buy some new music gear, or live in a house big enough that each of my kids could have their own rooms (I have four children and we live in a two bedroom basement suite), but we are a close family and I don't really desire material comfort. We are happy with what we have, and I'm happy to teach that to my children as well.

In a few years, when the kids are a bit older, I plan on touring. For now, I'll keep on loving my life the way that it is.

So, if you enjoy the music I have made and wish to show your support with a donation, I am grateful. But if you can't afford it between your own bills, then consider it my gift to you.

Be the change you wish to see.