a2f2a Hopes To Close The Artist Fan Divide

LONDON (Hypebot) –
UK musician and activist Billy Bragg and Jon Newton who blogs at P2PNet have launched a blog that they hope will foster discussion between artists and fans. a2f2a.com (artists to fans to artists) was started with a single underpinning principle: "Artists need to be paid, and fans want to pay them".

Is Direct Payment The Answer?

"Start your own revolution -cut out the middleman!" declares the site's sub-header; and an initial blog post lays out the basis for the discussion:

"The internet has huge potential for artists to make a living on their own terms. Previously, they’ve been forced to rely on the recording industry to fund recordings, manufacture and distribute their art and collect money for them. Without industry help, it was almost impossible to find enough fans to support a career.

Fans have also had to rely on the corporate recording industry to provide the music they wanted to hear. They listened to the radio in the hope of hearing the artists they loved, they bought weekly music mags to find out where and when their favorite bands were playing, and they went to record shops to get the music they wanted.

But fans can now do it all with the click of a mouse – and significantly, increasing numbers of artists are learning to do the same. Fans can get all the information they need about their favorite artists, and artists can find their fans online, without the scattergun approach of putting product into every record store in the country — and then keeping their fingers crossed.

But most important of all, fans can now support artists by paying them directly."