Got Weed?
Peter Tosh, Sananda Maitreya 
and Heart Share More Than 
Music With Their Fans

In the midst of increasing sensitivity to the uncertain status of music file sharing, it seems that the answer may lie in a legal model that actually encourages users to download and distribute song files. WeedShare, brainchild of Shared Music Licensing, has developed a peer-to-peer distribution model that may just satisfy both artists and fans with an approach that ties user and artist into the distribution matrix.

Essentially, listeners can hear a full track three times before they're required to pay a one-time fee of $.50 to $4 (average is $1) for the song with 50% of the sale going to the artist. After downloading Weed's free software the listener has unlimited access to the track.

They can then choose to keep the song to themselves or participate in Weed's viral network. By adding the Weed file to their site, they become a distributor and receive a sliding scale commission starting at 20% each time someone purchases the track from them at their site. This commission decreases over two generations and then ceases.

Here's how it works: buy a track for $1 and upload it to your site, someone else buys it from you and you make $.20. When someone buys it from your customer, you receive $.10. This money making pyramid repeats one last time for a final commission of $.05. If just 5 people download the song from you, you'll have made your money back-plus a profit. WeedShare tracks these accounts for you and PayPal distributes the payments.

Now that WeedShare has launched, perhaps the greatest challenge the company faces is to convince fans and industry that Weed is the solution, not the problem.

"We work with record labels, and we see Weed as a solution to their current problems," heralds Weed's co-founder John Beezer. "We are working to make the concept of the CD obsolete. Digital files are much easier to create, catalog, transport and share. They just need a viable revenue model."

But Beezer is careful not to promote the system as a commercial enterprise for listeners. "Payments are really just an added bonus that makes it OK to share files. It's intended primarily as a sign of respect," he explains.

Respect and revenue are the cornerstones of the WeedShare model and, to date, plenty of music lovers as well as a variety of artists and labels are joining SML's revolution.

While no one knows how this fledgling model will pan out, WeedShare.com is attracting hundreds of new uploads weekly. During the last week of July the number of tracks purchased through Weed outnumbered those purchased through iTunes. This number will certainly increase as artists and industry buy into the program. 

Artists who sell their music through the online retailer CD Baby can opt to utilize the Weed service. Peter Tosh and Sir Mix-A-Lot have releases available through Weed; and legendary rockers Heart have decided to release Weed files simultaneously with their new full-length album.

Sananda Maitreya, (who recorded the hit songs "Sign Your Name," "Wishing Well," "Delicate," and countless others) feels that WeedShare's pro-artist and pro-consumer system may be the remedy for an industry that he believes has become anti-consumer.

Three songs from his album Angels & Vampires - an epic that follows a human protagonist, a supernatural war and the meaning of creation - is only available through Weedshare and enjoys top download status in Weed world.

"[WeedShare] stimulates hope in a collective, creative enterprise," says Maitreya. "[The record industry] has lowered the value of music and of honest expression and innovation," he laments. "You can't put a price on what it robs from artists, fans and the fabric of a culture."

The WeedShare model is intriguing not only for its populist approach to moving product, but also for the dynamic new relationship it establishes between artist, fan and a releases' success, where everyone stands to gain far more than monetary rewards.