MyGigNet Virtual Site

GENERAL INFORMATION

MyGigNet offers a full-featured one-stop complete-service web portal for the entire musician universe. It is an end-to-end, "cradle to grave," solution for anyone in the music realm to connect, collaborate, create, and do business. MGN is a true "Web 2.0" solution not only for musicians seeking to learn how to manage a successful career, but for anyone with aspirations in any facet of the music business.

MGN offers complete transparency across all transaction types whether from educational pursuits, licensing contracts, performance fees, collaborative efforts, accounting and banking. The value of transparency is crucial to build trust across the musician universe--a sorely needed commodity particularly in this realm.

The Profile is the key to the entire site. When a member completes the profile survey, we will know what the member is trying to accomplish in the music universe and approximately how they want to do it. We can then recommend specific tools to help the member accomplish their goals. MGN also includes a psychological profile to determine how the member likes to work and what the member looks for in compatibility with others.

For example, the profile survey will be complete enough to give us this:

Anna, a 25-year old female guitarist from Detroit wants to form a band around some original songs she's written in the folk-rock genre, and she likes cover songs by Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, and John Mayer. She wants to record an album of MP3s and sell downloads, and wants to tour with her band within 300 miles of home. She prefers to create by herself, but is open for others to change what she's created.

So, this tell us which services to focus in on for Anna. Once she's completed the survey and we've configured her profile, a MyGigNet website is created on the fly that provides access to these services. For example, she would be automatically entered into Musician Finder service so she can begin to meet potential players in Detroit in her age group, genre preferences, and complimentary psych profiles. Anna is provided with access to professional songwriters who can offer coaching, workshops, one-on-ones on songwriting (maybe even an online webinar with John Mayer); she would also be given access to recording resources and lots of tutorials on the best way to approach her music for recording and within her stated budget; offering tour booking and itinary tracking when she's ready for that-- etc., etc...

Then, after a few months, Anna, decides she wants to take advanced guitar lessons, and is interested in teaching kids beginning guitar. She adds these two desires to her master profile, and instantly, MyGigNet adds services/modules to support this on her MyGigNet site.

MyGigNet becomes a sort of super-personalized "cyber butler" of the music business. If Jason joins MyGigNet, and all he wants to do is find a blues jam in Denver, his MyGigNet website will cover only that, giving him all the latest updates to blues jams in the area, access to people who have gone to the jams, and info on local blues societies, blues radio programs, MP3 downloads, etc.

It is important to realize that ALL areas of the music business are serviced by MGN, therefore, an MGN website tutorial about how to use MGN to go pro, is offered. Everything from contacts, promotion, contracts, accounting, taxes and even banking can be done through MGN modules. Each module extracts its own micro-payment for every transaction which is the fundamental revenue model for MGN, probably above and beyond ad sponsorship (which is really only workable within generic, non-specific, and non-personal online environments. This means that text ad sponsoring will only be workable across the first tier of General Public resources. After that, a subscription and commission fee structure represents the core revenue model.

Although MGN is really only about Musicians, I believe we should consider getting in on the current research in the Music Recommendation Technology field, as it has broad and stunning implications for new artists. What if you could recommend a new MGN-based band who sounds like Led Zeppelin to consumers who want to hear new bands that sound like Led Zeppelin? It's an instant consumer base. I'm discussing this here, but it really should be considered for Top Tier General Public Services, as a fan gathering function of MGN.

So MGN trains, inspires, publishes, promotes both musicians and venues, pays them, and would be able to come full circle by providing an instant fan base for new bands.

An another important area is the emotional tone set by MGN. There is a tremendous amount of negativity, cynicism, and defeatism associated with the music business--mostly, it is believed--purposely created by vested interests in the Old Days to create a slave mentality. This cannot be underestimated as being probably the biggest obstacle to MGN's initial success. Not only will the collective frustration of battered musician syndrome be assailing us, but the remnants of the slave-owning corporate interests will be attempting to undermine at every turn.

The remedy for this is cooperation over competition. We do not compete. We recruit. We recruit interest, partnerships, affiliations, and friends. Everyone wins in MGN, and if a person or entity insists on competition, it is our job to find somewhere, somehow a cooperative tone and carry out our agenda accordingly.

REVENUE SHARING
A significant feature of MyGigNet is a revenue sharing plan, that rewards members for making any contribution to MGN that can be shared by others. This "participation reward" could be "points" or even a proprietary MGN currency, redeemable within the MGN universe.

The idea here is to reward participants for contributing to the creation and maintenance of sub-products, or the information, services, and time expended that goes into creating a tangible product or service for MGN. For example, members could earn points for handing out fliers for a show at a venue, or finding and verifying new venue information, or offering a review on a guitar teacher, or participating in producing a benefit show for a non-profit.

The overall effect of this, is member participation in the organic creation and growth of MGN. MGN becomes a true economy made up of members who contribute what it is they are capable and love to contribute. Long term (and less), this will save MGN millions of dollars in employee costs, while virally growing the MGN organization quickly.

Point values can be assigned to types of tasks, and suggested to the member within their profile based on their designated preferences. There would also be a link to a list of all the ways to earn points, that a member can check off as being interested in or willing to do.

The main job of official MGN staff is quality control, and filling in the blanks where volunteer members haven't contributed. What is being created with the revenue sharing system is in effect an "ad hoc" staff, and although they are getting paid, the rules and best practices of managing volunteers (such as in a political campaign) will need to be robustly adhered to. Possibilities for cheating the system will need to be predicted and policed effectively, and eliminated, so it's fair for everyone--and, that becomes the word on the street.

MGN will need to work with vendors and other 3rd party partners in providing discounts, exchanges, or even direct MGN currency transactions, so that the Points earned have practical and desired value so members will look for opportunities to contribute and get their points.

ACCOUNTING
(Also SEE Venue Performance Accounting)
Each member profile is linked to the MGN accounting system "back office," that shows the member's account in points and cash, MGN commissions, charges, and other debits and credits, and is tied into a sales and income tax program. The member has the option to direct deposit cash into their personal or business accounts at their bank, from this MGN Profile Account.

This member profile accounting feature is crucial in providing financial transparency when it comes to transactions among members. The advantage of this kind of transparency is that everyone in a transaction knows who got paid what and when, and what MGN got out of it. In this way, trust is built and professionalism is encouraged.

For example, Joe creates a bass & drum track, puts it into public archive for others to use. Jane's band decides to use the track to finish out a song that they then record and sell as a download. Joe automatically gets paid a percentage of the download sale, which is indicated in both Jane's Profile and Joe's (the percentage is pre-agreed via the contract wizard when Joe's track is downloaded to Jane's Profile). Additionally, should he wish, Joe can collect points for posting his track to public archive.

This transparent system is what will allow license fees to be paid across venues to artists, media outlets to artists, etc. It can be visualized that MGN licensing systems will solve the live performance licensing dilemmas faced by such agencies as SESAC, BMI, ASCAP and others. Because MGN services the entire creative chain of an artist, it is possible for a songwriter to get a residual on one song being performed by an artist in a venue on a specific date.

REVENUE SOURCES FOR MYGIGNET

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