I PLEDGE MY ALLEGIANCE TO THE PACK AND TO THE MUSIC COMMUNITY FOR WHICH IT STANDS
The Pack Music Co-operative's Living Lab research project, seeks to address the financial and mental health impacts of globalised music streaming on the unsigned music sector, by applying a new business model to music streaming and testing it within a contained research environment (the living lab).
The project will see Western Australian, original, unsigned (only) music played in Fremantle, Vincent and Subiaco venues and businesses, promoting local artists in local spaces, and to local listeners, with the support of local government - connecting local music communities.
To create our 'Living Lab' research environment we will work with 40-60 businesses, 300+ musicians (content creators) and 300+ community listeners across 3 local governments, to test the flow of data (financial and social) across a complex and interdependent music ecosystem, to make sure that the co-operative model we co-create is one that will benefit everyone!
Businesses will receive space-sensitive, curated playlists through our existing streaming prototype consisting entirely of Western Australian, original, independent music, which they will test in their premises over a period of 9-12 months, with assessments at three month intervals.
Community listeners (you) will also be recruited to participate in the project, interacting with the music both 'in-store' and independently, making playlist recommendations and supporting local musicians.
The model will simulate a direct per play payment model to individual artists (a consumer-creator transaction - NOT a pro-rata / pooled transaction), based around a simple subscription model, underpinned by our novel platform co-operative business model.
Researchers will collect and analyse the data, assessing the model and making recommendations at each milestone gateway on improvements to the model for whole of system benefit, engaging with all stakeholders (musicians, businesses, listeners and local governments) along the way.
We're inviting you to get involved! We need at least 300 listeners who live in or frequently visit the Cities of Fremantle, Vincent and Subiaco to listen to incredible local music, both via an app for individual listening, and in local businesses, for a brief period of time, for us to test the best way to get musicians paid fairly and equitably for their work.
To do this we need to test and learn, and refine the system with the help of our 'Living Lab' participants - our musicians, businesses and local listeners before we launch the platform commercially in mid 2022.
We won't be connecting this project to 'real' money payments at this time (so this project will be free for you to participate in) - but we will model all the money flows and resulting interactions between you, the musicians you listen to and the businesses you support, giving you real data around whether localisation through The Pack can support our wonderful local music and business communities - and can bring joy to lovers of local music!
Of course, we hope that if you love the project enough, you'll want to sign-up and become a member at the end of the Labs - but there's no commitment asked or expected!
The Living Lab will run for around 12 months in total from April / May 2022 (funding pending), where local music will be profiled in local businesses, for local listeners like you to hear and engage with.
If this sounds like a great way to get involved in a groundbreaking project for the music industry - we'd love to have you on board! You can sign-up in the form below.
The only T&Cs to note at this time are these:
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You must agree to download The Pack's music streaming platform and listen to local music for the period of the project (and no - that doesn't mean you ONLY have to listen to local music).
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You agree to visit Pack Member Businesses for the period of the project and interact with their on premises playlists.
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You acknowledge that, during the Living Lab trial, no exchange of physical currency will occur between any party.
If you're happy to participate on those terms - you can sign up below! And welcome to the Lab!
