There! Is that better for ya? Let's kick off the new year with a whizbang...

ROTW Contributor: Angela Durden

Dean Kamen and I are a lot alike. I just found this out. Surprise! Surprise! To the world Dean, most famously known as the guy who invented the Segway, is in fact a guy who sees a problem and envisions a simple easy-to-deploy and easy-to-use solution. From the now ubiquitous portable dialysis for in-home use and insulin pumps worn on the body to the soon-to-be everywhere portable water purification systems for improving living conditions in developing countries, Dean does not first ask “How much can we make?”

Instead he thinks this: “Here’s a bunch of people having a common problem. All of whom are seeking a cure that isn’t working because either the delivery system causes too much pain and stress, getting to it takes too much time, huge infrastructures are needed to deploy leaving dictators in charge, and/or the deployment is cost prohibitive. Hmmmm…what’s wrong with this picture…and how can we make that better for the end user?” Let’s take one of his cases: Water.

Named Slingshot, he and his team builds a machine that will purify water, and the invention/testing process takes years. At their own cost they field test these in villages where disease-laden water is the norm. The system works. So Dean goes to government and the U.N., and you know what they all say? They all say it’s great, but they can’t do it because the project is too small for them or their hands are tied because of…whatever.

So he and his team continued to make the machines better and better…with no practical field deployment date in sight. And Dean kept looking for a way. And then he found it. At least it looks like he found it. Dean worked with the Coca-Cola Companies on a new drink delivery system. And that’s when he said Aha! Coke is everywhere…even in developing countries. Coke is adept at deploying large projects in micro steps. And so Dean says to Coke, “You’ve got a problem with getting local clean water. I’ve got the solution. What can we do together?”

So, in 2013 Coke deployed EKOCENTER.

Now, when I saw the documentary called Slingshot, I was enthralled and here’s why. You see, I too said, “Here’s a bunch of people having a common problem. All of whom are seeking a cure that isn’t working because either the delivery system causes too much pain and stress, getting to it takes too much time, huge infrastructures are needed to deploy leaving dictators in charge, and/or the deployment is cost prohibitive. Hmmmm…what’s wrong with this picture…and how can we make that better for the end user?”

I’ve done that in the music business by inventing a way to bring the economic power and control back to the creator of the music and songs they are writing and depending upon to make their world — and the bigger world — a better place. 

It is called MyDigitalCatalog.com. The solution to proving ownership of songs is so simple as to be ridiculous. Building it is not so simple (my developer is great) and I’m using my own money to build it because no investor will touch it. Why not? They do not see a fast big payoff that suits their exit strategy. In fact, some investors have said, “Well, all these creators aren’t worth our worrying about. Why can’t you make a deal with…”

And that is when they mention the performing rights organizations, the digital aggregators, and the worldwide labels and publishers and so forth. “Surely”, say these investors, “these are always complaining about lost royalties. Wouldn’t they be interested in your solution to better proving ownership?” And I say to them, “They are the problem. I’m not looking to perpetuate a worthless system. I’m looking to solve the problem.” I get stares and metaphorical pats on the head for being so stupid and naive.

Due to certain private conversations I am not at liberty to divulge (to protect others, not myself), I can tell you categorically that these servicing agencies and worldwide conglomerates are not interested in a solution for the songwriter or the artist. 

None of them have an interest in solving the creator’s problem. In fact, they want the creator to remain helpless and lost as they continue to feed unprotected product nonstop into their retail and licensing pipelines. So, just like Kamen’s clean water solution: What’s the big and immediate payoff to investors for investing in my solution called MyDigitalCatalog.com?

There is none. But when you step into the future and you’re filming that documentary about how the world got to the better place it is now and you drill back down, you’ll find Kamen’s water machine. And the story about what and who it effected and how won’t be what Dean himself imagined it to be…it will be better.

Same thing with the music business. I’m looking for that investor that sees the long game. That investor that says we can’t tweak what we have…we must start from scratch. The one that is committed to a greater good whether or not the world yet knows they need it.

Personally, I believe the ideal investors will be someone in the music business now. Someone who has “made it” even though the system cheated the hell out of him. A worldwide legend looking for a way to deploy his assets at a grassroots level. I wrote an open letter to Prince that set forth my case just to have him come on to the board. But, of course, getting to these people is near to impossible since there’s always somebody coming at them with their hand out. All they see is the hand and they shudder. I don’t blame them.

But I’m not that hand. And it is built. I need dollars for the education marketing runway. You just try quantifying that to an investor and not lie with a pie-in-the-sky tale. Even investors want a fantasy even if it turns into a vampire later.

So, just like Dean Kamen, who agonized for years but who did not stop in his quest, I’m out there telling everybody to look behind the curtain and stop letting those hidden interests yank their chain.

To start the new year off with a whizbang, I put together some memes that might entertain you and are 100% accurate about the system the music business currently has: