Selling digital art in bulk through prepaid URLs.

Summary: Suppose a major donor anywhere in the world could sponsor tens of thousands (or any number) of copies of a song, video, or any other digital "content"--letting tens of thousands of people in social networks just click to download free, with no registration ever, instantly paying the artists or a cause by the act of free downloading itself. And each sponsor can deliver a message to the thousands of anonymous end users who download from his or her contribution. We show how independent artists could market globally at no expense if people care about their work--offering an alternative to corporate monoculture.

Here is a way to allow anyone to buy as much or as little prepaid access as they want, to online music, videos, or other art or information--and share their access free through social networks of their choice, or publicly with anyone interested. End users will just click to download free--instantly paying the artists by the act of free downloading itself. Most users will not need to spend any money, have any account, register, sign up, log in, or learn special instructions, ever--yet their free downloads will automatically transfer funds among other parties. And anyone who liked a song or other art, the artists, or the cause raising money with the song, could pay whatever they wanted to sponsor the work, to their own social networks or to public groups of their choice.

Combining ecommerce with elements of a gift economy, instead of demanding that everyone pays, allows arbitrarily low prices per download (or streaming, Web visit, or other access) online. A song might be priced at 50 cents, five cents, or even less than a penny--whatever works best in the situation. (The price could also be high.)

Donations Charge Up URLs with Prepaid Copies for Free Downloads

For example, a donor might contribute $50 to buy 500 downloads of a song or other art, priced at 25 cents each if sold individually but discounted to 10 cents each in large quantities. The donor will receive a new, unique URL (Web address) that knows it has 500 copies of the uploaded file to distribute. This short, simple URL (usually about half a line of text, with the donor allowed to make up part of the name--see [1] for a likely format) can give up to 500 people free, authorized download or other access to art or information that would otherwise cost them money.

The donor can email the charged-up URL to friends likely to be interested in the art or the cause--and let them know that they can share it with their friends, post it on blogs, etc. Blogs are likely to welcome such comments if relevant, since they will encourage traffic by giving visitors free access to art or other online content that would otherwise cost money, with no need to watch an ad. Web sites could specialize in free access to a particular genre--including art that is usually free to the end user, but does insist on being paid for by somebody, somewhere in the world, in order to support the artist.

When empty, the URL will require payment before releasing more free downloads. But anyone who ever receives a copy of that URL can pay it for additional downloads--clicking to select a payment page instead of a free download (whether or not the URL was empty at the time). This new payment will instantly recharge all copies of that URL throughout the world (trivially, since all the copies are identical and all reach the same server). Therefore multiple copies of the URL could circulate through social networks indefinitely, being recharged as needed, for as long as people are interested in the art it sells or the cause it benefits.

Meanwhile, other donors can buy new URLs that sell the same art for the same cause--and start multiple copies of them circulating in other social networks as well. These swarms of copies of different but closely related URLs will continue to pay the artist or the cause as they travel--until most people have lost interest in that art, or have already downloaded a copy if they want one. Successful fundraising campaigns might continue to raise money for the cause, years after organized efforts had ended; funds could keep showing up in a PayPal account, or be sent periodically by check. (These URLs are actually smart financial accounts, which can decide on their own to mail paper checks or otherwise make payments, deciding when, to whom, and for how much, with no human attention required--according to instructions the account owner created, approved, or accepted in advance.) Alternatively, the organizers could end the campaign, by making all its URLs totally free and unable to accept any more money.

If you happen to hear a song or find other art you like (or like the cause it is supporting), you will be able to call or click to pay a trusted party for any number of prepaid free downloads. Then you can either give them to a suggested group, or request your own URL to share your prepaid copies with anybody. Either way you can include a message with your gift if you wish (see below). This large-scale, meaningful way to donate is unlike any today

Donors can be in rich countries or anywhere; artists, organizations, and free end users can be in poor countries or anywhere. And language can be no barrier, as explained below (online). Thanks to social networking, there is no upper limit to the number of downloads or other accesses that each donor can purchase and meaningfully use. 'For example, a donor could buy 10,000 prepaid free downloads without needing to know 10,000 people to give them to. That wouldn't work easily with 10,000 copies of a CD--nor with a high-priced digital original. The proposed URLs will enable artists to donate digital work for mass distribution.

Donors can send recognition, personal, political, religious, advertising, or other messages with their free donations, if allowed (see below, online).

We designed this system to help independent artists get paid for their work, and/or to use it to benefit a cause.

Note: The second half of this article was cut due to limited space. The full article is at http://www.aidsnews.org/2007/07/fundr-url.html

Footnote 

[1.] The URLs might be in the form http://art.server.com/any-name-you-want where 'server.com' is a Web site that manages this fundraising service, 'art' is a fundraising project's account on that server to sell particular art or other content in a particular campaign, and 'any-name-you-want' is a name that a donor can choose or make up, as long as it is not already in use on that 'server' to sell that 'art'. 'Any-name-you-want' can usually be chosen to be easy to remember and use. But for other purposes (not discussed in this series of articles), it could instead be chosen to be hard to guess.