GreenPirate422

Green Pirate

Dan Bull is perhaps the most innovative artist of our time when it comes to producing and sharing free licensed music on the internet. Not to mention talented.

Unlike artists who began with some celebrity status and took advantage of their already large sphere of influence to self produce and distribute their works online, Dan Bull’s roots and the bulk of his growing fan base are almost entirely on the internet. He recently made history by breaking into the top 10 on the UK Independent chart and ranking #35 on the UK R&B chart which, at the time of this writing, is currently held by Rihanna.

As Dan told CreativeCommons.org, who points out that this is the first time a musician has broken top charts in the UK without copyright restrictions, “It’s up to the individual musician what they want to do and it depends on their principles. In the past I have gone the way of having no licensing on my music at all, or where licensing is necessary, I make it known that I have no problem personally with people copying or remixing the music. If you want to encourage fans to engage with your music, re-interpret it and redistribute it on your behalf, then Creative Commons is a good direction to look in.”

In his latest pioneering move, he is auctioning his song writing and performance skills on ebay where he offers to create a song based on the highest bidder’s topic of choice. With 1 day and 17 hours left, bids have reached £310. Not a bad price for royalty free music, but you know how ebay is. Some high rollers (probably McDonald’s) are likely waiting to throw down a fat pile and trump the competition at the last minute. After all, those bidding might just be as interested in getting their message out to tens of thousands of people as they are about having a song written and performed by the unique hip-hop artist.

It will be interesting to see what the auction closes at as there probably aren’t many previous examples by which to gauge the value of such a service (are there?). Perhaps what is most valuable here is the live demonstration that a musician who is will to branch out and try new things can get some financial compensation for creating and sharing their work.

Anyone interested in following or bidding on the auction can do so here.