MUSIC IS THE VIRUS.
AND THE VIRUS IS AIRBORNE.
ALL YOU NEED IS THE MUSIC,
THE MUSIC, THE MUSIC.
Simply, there are two truly important people in the music industry: the Artist and the fan. All we need to do is find a way to connect them. Without any awkward on-stage concert hugs.
We produce and consume more music than at any other point in our history, yet revenue from music sales has plummeted more than 60% in just a decade. The music business is running on a model that has failed us all, led by seven or so businesses conglomerates unable to adapt to fundamental changes in how we create, communicate and consume media.
Why go Airborne?
Airborne is the antidote to the business of music. For just $1 a month, any fan (we call them Carriers) anywhere in the world gets unlimited access to the Artists they love. And 70% of that goes directly to the Artist. No smoke and mirrors - you love the music, now you get to love the people who make it.
It takes more than -
FOUR MILLION PLAYS ON SPOTIFY,
TWELVE THOUSAND TRACK SALES ON ITUNES,
OR THREE THOUSAND ALBUM SALES
/ MONTH
to make the U.S. minimum wage.
... or just
1,658 Carriers / month
FOR LOVE AND MONEY
Signing up to Airborne instantly transforms a fan into a Carrier and guarantees them access to all the content an Artist has at their disposal. Minutes after it is released, any track (Strain) is available to you, to be consumed and shared any way you like.
That’s a whole lot of love for just $1.
Airborne was created in the spirit of rock n' roll (and drum & bass, country & western, R&B… you get the picture). We've spent four years ensuring that Airborne is the door through which Carriers can get straight to the music they love, whilst Artists get to make a living from the continued support of those who love them the most. After all, one dollar from a million people is still a million dollars.
HEY, I'M YOUR $1 FAN.
For Artists, Airborne offers more than just a regular, subscription-style revenue stream. Airborne allows real-time tracking of their Carriers’ behaviour: who’s downloading the most Strains, who’s sharing them, who’s infecting new Carriers and who deserves a reward or two.
Hey, music is a virus, and by spreading your work through Airborne – and rewarding those who are investing in you with a little bit extra – you ensure that that virus keeps giving back.
As with any instrument, Airborne is what you make of it.
LAUNCH
LINE-UP
AKING
VAN COKE KARTEL
TAXI VIOLENCE
CAPTAIN STU
TASHA BAXTER
JANIE BAY
THE PICTURE PERFECT
CITY BOWL MIZERS
DECEMBER STREETS
THE HUNTING ACCIDENT
HOLIDAY MURRAY
SYNTHYSICIAN
ROGUE
FILEWILE
CARBON CITY LIGHTS
ENOUGH WEAPONS
PAUL KWITEK
CANDI BLACK
ISCREAMSTIX
JEREMY LOOPS
IKE MORIZ
THE LOTTERY TICKETS
ARD MATTHEWS
SMASH & GRAB
GENOVESE
OLIVER MENTAL GROOVE
CHASING FRIDAY
CHRIS TAIT
SÓNIA OLIVEIRA
BED ON BRICKS
SHANNON HOPE
THE MAST
CASH J-R
SCARLET HILL
NATASHA MEISTER
DUSTLAND EXPRESS
VENICE GAS HOUSE TROLLEY
VERANDA PANDA
ANDREW JAMES & THE STEADY
TIGER
WOLFTOWN
ELEMINT
PHOTOMATIC
KH4OS K4Y
MIRACLEBLUE
ANDREW WEATHERS
KOKO AND THE SWEETMEATS
ILONA
ANDY ARD
COAST JUMPER
Y AXIS
BLENDERBLASTER
SPENELO
VINCENT CONNELL
IPSO
X-STRUCTURE
SWANSEA RECREATION CENTRE
NEW AMERICAN FARMERS
JOEL KANNING
ALL THOSE SHIPS
LARRY WORDZ
ELLIOTT JAMES
DARKSEEKER
BASS REVOLVER
THE LIGHTYEARS
STONE COLLAR
ILLUMINATOR
DFOG
FLETCHER
THE FORTY THIEVES
SHARE THE LOVE. LEGALLY.
Every track (Strain) is stored in the cloud and is yours to stream, download, share and love for as long as you both shall live. As a Carrier, you get to share the music Strains you Carry with anyone anywhere in the world on any device or social network. Well, anywhere where they have access to the Internet, but you get the point. Share a link to the Artist’s Strain and everyone becomes a potential new Carrier, infecting in your social network with the Artists you love and creating a viral tidal wave of support for their work Airborne works directly with Artists and their representatives. We don’t do middle men. All music is uploaded directly by the Artist and universally licensed under the Creative Commons 3 license.
About Creative Commons
The Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.
All Airborne music is licensed, by the Artist, under the Creative Commons 3 BY-NC-SA License. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
WHAT KEEPS US AIRBORNE?
The very latest in web presentation technology – HTML5 – ensures an interactive environment in-line with worldclass user expectations, and allows Airborne to deliver a unified and universal experience across browsers and devices, including mobile.
Lying at the heart of Airborne is a rock-solid and revolutionary blend of art and science. Thousands of hours of bespoke design and engineering has resulted in a simple, elegant and essentially unbreakable system with the power to scale and serve at the very edges of what is technically possible.
CHANGE TRACK. TRACK CHANGES.
Airborne Transmission Technology uses nothing more than simple link-sharing to enable and track sharing across the network. Artists and Carriers can thus effortlessly share links to Airborne music using any social network, IM, e-mail or other auch piece of socialtechnology amazingness.
Airborne Technology
PAYMENT
Airborne collects micro-transaction subscriptions from users anywhere in the world and pays out collections to Artists anywhere in the world, all securely handled by the planet’s leading payment technology providers: eMerchantPay (card transactions) and PayPal.
DISTRIBUTION
Airborne delivers music within minutes of Artist release thanks to our Tier-1 Cloud Content Distribution Network partners, and can distribute the Strains virally across all social networks.
INTELLIGENCE
Airborne connects real Artists with core fans and tracks the spread of everything from their music sharing to their influence, activity and interest, all in real-time.
FOR THOSE ASLEEP AT THE BACK
Airborne does:
• Offer a direct link between Artists and their fans (Carriers). US$1 a month lets a Carrier become a patron of the Artist they love, and in return they receive a constant flow of music from the Artist.
• Enable music to travel freely and legally to just about any Internet connection on the planet, bringing millions of previously inaccessible Carriers in contact with Artists from across the globe.
• Monetise the connection between Carriers and the music they love. We do not sell CDs, offer streaming or digital downloads - these are simply promotional tools used by the Artists.
• Work alongside existing social media channels. We're an “and”, not an “or”.
Airborne is not:
• A streaming service. Yes, we stream music, but it's not what Airborne was born to do.
• A U.S. company. Although we do happily and comprehensively service the United States.
• A record label. We do not offer advances, sign exclusivity, long-term contracts or wear power suits.
• A music retailer. Fans (Carriers) directly financially support the Artists they love. Artists, in return, distribute their music to these core fans in the hope that they will spread it. We do, however, have plans for an online back catalogue music store.
• An opinion driver. Airborne is simply a network with the capability to accommodate any and every musician on Earth, from your little brother banging pots in the kitchen to Lady Gaga.
• A supporter of illegal piracy. But we do acknowledge and leverage the awesome power of file sharing.
• Anti any other music distribution format or company. We're simply an alternative offering, one we believe
will provide Artists and Fans with the most beneficial means of existing together in the modern world.
WE KNEW THERE WOULD BE QUESTIONS
Can any Artist use Airborne?
Initially, we’re working with a few key Artists to refine our system, but we’ll be flinging open the doors soon enough. If your neighbour fancies his drum-circle as the best thing since Jimi, then it’s time he went Airborne.
OK, so how much?
Airborne is - and will always be - a free service to Artists. To cover our costs and keep advertising off the platform, we take a 30% commission - and roughly 5% of that goes to the payment gateway. The rest covers the downloading, streaming, storing and serving of your music across the world. At the highest quality possible. We do, of course, make a little profit out of this, but as you can tell, our success is directly linked to the artists’ success.
If an Artist is already signed to a label, can they use Airborne?
Most Artists are pretty savvy with their rights these days. But if an artist has signed away their soul (a.k.a. their digital distribution rights), then the answer is probably a “no”. Signed artists without limitations on the digital distribution of their music, can distribute via Airborne under the Creative Commons license. If artists are unsure, they simply need to check with their label or let their people talk to our people to try work something out.
Does Airborne control the rights or own the Artist’s music?
No. When an Artist releases music through Airborne, they license it under the Creative Commons license with themselves as the original Artist. This governs what people can and cannot do with their content and it’s pretty simple and clear to everyone (not to mention standardised). Airborne simply helps make music free for the Artist’s fans and encourages them to share it in a way that actually gives them value.
How does this work with an artist’s Facebook, twitter, iTunes and TuneCore accounts?
It’s one big circle of value. Social channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are a great tool to recruit and cultivate new Carriers. Airborne is non-exclusive (the Artist has control), so they can keep their options open with services like iTunes/TuneCore, but once they have actually sat and done the maths, it'll become pretty obvious that it makes far more sense to drive value through their Airborne account and connect with their fans directly.
How do Artists turn their fans into Carriers?
Any way they can. Once they have signed up with Airborne and we have created their Artist page, they can use all of their social channels, mailing lists, live performances, etc. to tell their fans that the easiest way to give some love back to the music they love so much is to get Airborne for just $1/ month. An Artist’s Carriers are their front-line fans, they’re investing in the Artist’s career, so it is in the Artist’s interest to spice up the deal and get them salivating with Airborne only content (remixes, hidden tracks, experimental and live material). Ultimately: the value that Artists create for their Carriers is what drives the model, so they just need to carry on doing what they do best: innovate, experiment and shout about it.
Airborne: Who and why?
Airborne is the answer to the question: “If the music industry is sick, how can we fix it.” In 2007, founder Justin R. Melville scribbled the words “music is the virus and the
virus is Airborne” on a sketch diagram. Over the next four years, aided by an incredible team, those words have transformed into the first truly universal platform capable of making a significant impact on the modern music industry. Airborne gives Artists and fans what they have always wanted: a place for us to support the Artists we love and get a constant flow of music in return. We don’t want the spotlight. We want Airborne to be about the Artists and their connection with their Carriers. And we’re betting big that this will be the future of the industry. Really, really big.
The Core team behind Airborne.
JUSTIN R. MELVILLE (25)
Founder and Captain
Previously Principal and Design Chief at RUBIKS ROOM
(TRR Digital Industries) with a background in design and
intellectual capital development.
Twitter: @JustinRMelville
DAVID VAN DER LINDEN (35)
Tame Rockstar
Songwriter and lead guitarist of Bed on Bricks with a
background in sales, financial services and event
production.
Twitter: @DaveLinden
GUS VAN DER SPEK (31)
Mission Controller
Serial entrepreneur with a background in property and
finance.
Twitter: @gusvds
MATTHEW STONE (24)
Viral Engineer
Previously Research Analyst and Community Manager at
RUBIKS ROOM (TRR Digital Industries) with a background
in psychology and music.
Twitter: @CapeofStones
RUARK FERREIRA (29)
Community Engineer
Previously co-founder and Technical Chief at RUBIKS
ROOM (TRR Digital Industries) with a background in
product design and community management.
Twitter: @ruark
WAXING LYRICAL
What our Artists are saying about Airborne.
“This is the future of the music business, man. Befok!”
- Wynand Myburgh (Van Coke Kartel)
”I think this is a great idea, and I’d love to be a part of it. I have
a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, but I currently work full-time
making pizzas to pay off my student loans; an opportunity for
some music-based income would increase the time and effort
I’m able to spend on my music dramatically, which would allow
me to put my education and aspirations to much better use.”
- Brandon MacNeil (All Those Ships)
“I love that with Airborne Music we can control what’s getting
released.”
- Julian Corbin (The Breaktone)
“Been dreaming all night ‘bout Airborne! It’s f***ing brilliant!
Let’s make it happen.”
- John Savage
“Absolutely brilliant - great design, clear message and
encouraging, exciting product - viva Airborne.”
- Robin Lancaster (Lancaster Band)
“Brilliant initiative and system, I believe it’s gonna be big!”
- Corneil Clasen (December Streets)
LAST WORDS
These are the words that helped shape us.
“There are only two people who matter in the music business:
the artist and the fan. The rest of us in the middle need to
either add value or get the hell out of the way.”
- Al Teller
“Piracy is not the enemy, obscurity is.”
- Tim O’Reilly
“CWF (connect with fans) + RTB (reason to buy) = $$”
- Mike Masnick
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking
we used when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein
