For now, we will not be getting transparency into the existing system by the major players. As Niko pointed out there is direct push-back for this idea. My interpretation of education is publication of the current process, via blogs, articles, interviews, podcasts, etc. This may be considered creating transparency into the industry and we are just using different semantics. For me, transparency is created by the people in charge and education is information being distributed by 3rd parties. I could be totally off on my terminology, but this is how I perceive it.

After reading both of your comments, I agree for the need of “transparency” across all boards, for both my company and for the entire music industry. We are starting this at FS by being very clear that 60% over every sale goes to the artists and as I mentioned we are internally looking at all kinds of ways to open this up. I am curious about what you and anyone else that uses FS would like to see? What can we open up and show to the public to help create transparency in to what we do here?

So not a curriculum, but more like a reality tv show or a game about the financial realities of creating music.

The problem is not one of education – it’s a completely broken system. Until people know that they’re paying the artists, not the labels, it’s going to be a problem. Through Napster, older youth didn’t just get music for free, they learned how much music is controlled by labels and MSM. They know that they have to listen to things to be a part of social culture, but it doesn’t mean that they want to pay for them. Love of the artist doesn’t start for a while – it’s more about being “in” and a huge part of it is music sharing.

I don’t know if you grew up with mixed tapes, but i certainly did. We didn’t buy many CDs in middle school – we copied our friends’ tapes and recorded from the radio. It wasn’t until high school where we started appreciating individual bands but even still, we copied tapes as much as possible. We spent our money seeing all-ages shows LIVE.

For me, it’s not about “education” in some sorta condescending manner. It’s about transparency. People need to know where their money is going and they need to know the effects that payment has on things. Arts industries need to move in the way of non-profits in this way. Reports that show how the money is being spent, what costs for production are, etc. People donate to non-profits because they believe in the services. And non-profits who spend less money on fundraising and overhead costs are perceived better. It’s even AOK to have a high-paying CEO of a non-profit if the non-profit is doing well. But all of this is visible.

One of the things that i used to love about the Ani DiFranco community is that everyone believed in buying her albums, supporting her directly. As she got bigger and the songs became the way to be “cool” in dyke world, people stopped feeling the need to pay. It was an interesting transition – the feeling as though you were actually supporting the artist to the feeling that you were supporting business. I wonder what that transition is all about.

But seriously, you want to change things? Don’t start with “education” – start with transparency.

Anyway, I’ve started mapping it out, mainly as a reaaally slowly evolving hobby. Drop me an email if you’re interested in hearing more.