The Couples at Ikea

No seriously, where's my »local« boyfriend? Really, I'm 21 and never dated anybody withing a 100km radius of where I live. That's kinda pathetic if you asked me.

This paragraph is where I'd angst about being too immersed in a sub-culture of sexuality and my need to expand my repetoire of men's body types but I'll spare you that dryness.

New music business model

I wonder if a subscription model on a per-artist basis would work for digital distribution? Something like $1-5/mo right into the artist's pockets for rights to all the music they release, maybe a quarterly publication and other perks. Small indie's could have a cost for access to all their artists or something. It'd be like becoming an artist's proprieter only on a large scale nearly micro-payment basis.

It'd be like automating the fan club such that the band can get immediate and hopefully consistent cashflow. It wouldn't work well for new artists but established acts could possibly reap some hefty rewards sans-label.

But best of all it cuts out the middle men and creates a direct peer-to-peer relationship with the artists and fan. Much the same way eBay brings the seller and buyer together. Largely most artists already do this with the aspect of communication but tying the commerce and communication relationship of artist and fan could be really powerful if it's a good deal for both parties. If there's anything the internet and modern organization theory in practice is about it's disaggregation such that the path of least resistence can be found. This seems to be the most logical model in my mind.

Sharman Networks (aka KazAa) has already tried this but unfortunately their name is synonymous with illegal file sharing. A legitimate independant endevour implimenting the concept could work at least on a smallish scale.

There's loads of details to work out of course. Just an idea.