True to its role of providing debate on key issues facing the music industry, MidemNet is running a blog with comments and talking points from innovators. One of the posts concerns the group Marillion’s decision to release its upcoming album “Happiness is the Road” to the web as free downloads – a rather brave initiative. As band member Mark Kelly says, “already it’s all over the internet, and file-sharing sites are offering it for download to anyone with a copy of Limewire, Bit Torrent or and any other P2P software. Normally this knowledge would make me angry or fill me with despair but not this time. We have teamed up with a new company called Music Glue in an attempt to get something back from all those people who like our music but don’t seem to want to pay for it.”
The basic idea is that people can download tracks from the album in exchange for giving their e-mail address. They will then be kept informed about the band’s activities and “we might rattle the honesty box in your direction sometime in the future”.
MidemNet is held just before Midem (January 17-21, 2009 in Cannes).