FP - FAT PACKAGES

FP - ROLL YOUR OWN
In the near future, you will be able to sit down in front of something I will call your Digital Asset Browser; it’s something like iTunes for ALL of your digital stuff - including: your songs, your images, your blog entries, your videos, your show schedule, your fan widgets, your multi-player fan games, your friends list, your comments, your art, your lyrics, your links, your ringtones, YOUR advertisers, and etc. You will then be able to CUSTOM ROLL all of this stuff into a tidy FAT PACKAGE and sell it to your fans.

FP - RUNS ON EVERY DEVICE AND EVERYWHERE
Your Fat Package will run on every single capable mobile and desktop device on earth including television, and it will be deployable upon every social network on the planet.

FP - THE FREE AD-SUPPORTED VERSIONThe FREE, sharable, tradable version will be ad-supported. You will receive a portion of the ad revenue when users interact with your Fat Package. If you are worried about a world gone crazy with advertising, then you should know that this type of package would be one of the most attractive advertising vehicles on earth. The matrix of quality user info (iPhones spitting out profile data for example) combined with the “information-generating” value of this type of engaging content will attract higher CPMs (dollars per thousand impressions) then web pages do now.

FP - THE NO ADS VERSION
Consumers will purchase buckets of ad-free time, and they will have the option of applying these minutes to playing with your FAT Package without being molested by intrusive ads. You will also have the option of turning features on and off depending on which version (ads or not) of your FAT Package fans are using.

FP - THEFT WON’T MATTER
As soon as it’s “stolen” these things will switch to ad-mode. So, it doesn’t matter; theft (sharing) becomes a good thing.

FP - DYNAMIC PUBLISHING
Everything you change from your songs to your schedule is automatically reflected in every FAT Package you put into the marketplace. This isn’t MySpace or Facebook, this is your own FAT Package of things you will simply publish and sell. These things can appear everywhere and anywhere; fans will collect them, display them and trade them.

FP - HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU MAKE?
Like anything that is desirable or not, it depends on the quality of your package. Over time, I believe a single copy of a FAT Package will generate twenty times the revenue of an MP3. And don’t forget, you will be updating your package continually; thus increasing its’ value over time. FP -

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
Since this stuff is not in the marketplace yet, you should be asking yourself what you could do to get ready for the future? I am going to follow up with more on this later, but my primary advice is to learn how to be “episodic”. Your FAT package will have more value when fans know that it’s constantly and continually updated with a stream of good stuff. You may want to reconsider the notion of a “band”; team up with a filmmaker, a writer, a cartoonist, a photographer, and/or other creative people. At the very least, you should reconsider the notion of an album and/or what a song is. Where a song was a permanent snapshot in time, and an album was a time capsule, with FAT Packages this no longer has to be the case; songs could evolve forever, and albums will become journeys. You have to learn how to think like a television series writer; tell a story, develop characters, create drama and mysteries, lash your music to visuals, release things over a multi-year period, and continually evolve your “art”. (etc. etc. etc.). Yeah, this raises the bar and makes life more challenging, however think about this: in 2007-2008 there is barely a circumstance where people listen to music – when a screen or monitor is not present; this includes the car, the gym, the desk, and the pocket. The ability to have a visual or interactive component is always there now. This is not unprecedented; think back one hundred years – this was the only way music was experienced – live, with visuals, and/or attached to a story.The notion of JUST listening to music without experiencing something visual, physical or interactive is only 100 years old. All throughout the rest of time, “music” was always more than just an auditory experience.