SliceThePie.com - tune in and get your slice
Attention all music lovers... 'canned music' has left the building - Slicethepie.com has arrived
A revolutionary online concept for musicians and music lovers alike.
Slicethepie.com offers music lovers a slice of the all singing, all dancing musical pie. Before your mind conjures up scenes of 'band camp' and literal pie love, let me explain what 'Slicethepie' is in a bit more detail.
The Slicethepie concept
Anyone with a passion for music has most likely dreamt of either being a professional musician, or scouting and breaking the next big artist. Slicethepie is going to make that dream possible. Musicians can promote themselves and find funding. Fans on the other hand can become their own record labels - scouting and buying into the bands. In addition you can make money reviewing tracks or trading artist contracts.
A closer look at the ingredients
The Slicethepie.com site offers a platform to connect musicians and their fans. The musicians promote themselves in order to entice the fans into funding their professionally recorded and released album. In return the fans are able to make money, have their say in the process, and ultimately form relationships with the artists they support. Additionally there are traders who trade artist Contracts for real cash. Their money is made (or lost) by speculating on future album sales. It's a bit like trading stocks and shares, but is essentially speculative gambling (so be warned!).
Why Slicethepie?
As they point out on Slicethepie.com, the traditional music industry business model is far from efficient. It seems that around 90% of signed artists lose their record label money. Slicethepie enables fans to pre-finance their favorite artists album. Everyone involved reap the rewards - these include increased royalties for the bands, and various kick backs for the contributors - including money, free album copies, exclusive access to the bands etc.
In conclusion
The concept of individual user contribution and buy-in has been around for a while now. Various sites have sprung up, enabling fans to buy into anything from football clubs, to film production companies. What makes Slicethepie truly innovative and exciting is the care and thought put into its execution. The site for example is excellent - well designed and very user friendly. Couple this with the various ways you can participate, and actually be rewarded for it, and you have a winning combination.
As a music lover, I see this concept giving rise to a new era in the music industry. Music picked, funded and supported by the enthusiast, will hopefully kick-start a re-emergence of original music. At the same time, may it kick the current deluge of 'canned' artists to the curb.