How can we help save Jamendo?

This is one of the few forums (English) not discussing the demise of this wonderful site. We have many reasons to try to help save Jamendo. Both the artists and the listeners have benefited - but yet it does not look good!

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/01/07/digital-music-startup-jamendo-runs-out-of-steam-mulls-sale/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Does anyone in this forum care?

Where will I get the inspirations for my writings? - Where will startup artists share to the delight of the listeners? - where else can we find such interesting and creative sounds? Ideas? Joy? New Friends? - We have the chance to share with artists all over the world - how can we knit up the rend in the fabric of this community?

Barbara Wolfsong

yes I do Barbara like you..

Yes - any ideas about how we can help?

bw

amelie proposes to buy something at http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/supportjamendo/shop
Might be a bit expensive in $, though...don't know whether they ship to the US...

To be honest Barbara, I really have no idea, unless some of the artist and listener come together and do a song, and put it on Youtube and places like that and help promote Jamendo more and help us all pull together more.. A people with money donate to Jamendo to save it.. As I for one, Have no money or else I would have..to be honest that is a good question Barbara... As I know for one I would miss Jamendo..

anyone else got any suggestions.....

Maybe if we all donated as much as we could? Would we be throwing good money after bad though? I don't know - they don't tell us much do they?
I don't care for their products but I would be happy to support them till they get on their feet - but they are in deep water - Hot water.

yeah I know what you mean

what about everyone buys share from the company ie jamendo.... and the musicians the listeners then own the company altogether . and they then take responsible for it.. long run.

Sorry, one needn't by anything. It is also possible to donate: http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/supportjamendo/promote

But can we generate enough support to make it work?

i'm doing my bit to save Jamendo by doing my daily dose of reviews on Jamendo to keep this site going along with Barbara above.. and others. every little bit helps as the old saying goes.

What about free car bumper stickers with the jamendo logo and name on it. help save free music and everyone get about 50 each and we share spread them to our friends and famlies etc. and if band or singers do gigs, concerts etc they give them out.. and spread the word of Jamendo..

only idea thou..

I could donate a good sum - but I want to wait until I am sure that Jamendo is salvageable - It may not be and we could be saying a long good by right now. I don't even think the majority of the people who traffic this site know what is going down here - and does anyone care beyond the few of us?

With all his faults - Jamendo has been good to us.

Yes, I think what you are saying is true Barbara.. I don't think, many people here on Jamendo in general,that use it as a listener, downloader or band, singer whatever, know what is going on with Jamendo.. I only found out myself via your link above. what is happening with Jamendo myself thanks to you Barbara..

You're welcome Dawn - they don't keep us in the loop - I tracked this stuff down in the French and Spanish forums. I wonder if a petition would help - instead of all the negative input in recent months - maybe a petition to "Save Jamendo" worldwide - which could include everyone everywhere. All of us who love this site. My - God - sometimes I think I live here - its like a home to me and I don't want it burned down!

barb

I and others tried helping a lot and we were not taken seriously. This sucks but to be honest I expected it much sooner...

Yes.. I know what you mean, Barbara, home from home for me as well. I'm surprised at Jamendo, not saying something in general to all us who use Jamendo in general, as it's us all, including them behind the scenes, that keep this places going. Not just them. If it was not for the bands, singers, listeners they would not have jamendo working at all.. makes you wonder if they really care.. what will happen to jamendo in the long run..... if it's really does just coming down to the money, they are really all concerned about... or do they really love music as much as we do..who knows. know one is telling us anything I agree..

I can fully understand how you fee,The Chilling Spirit.. this whole situation is very sad..as to me it is one of the best music site I have ever used.. and now it might all go, down the big pan..

I am so sorry this has happened - and if they ever get over here to talk to us we might be able to pull together some forces to do some good. I would be willing to do just about anything except sell my body and soul - but they haven't asked for that so no worries there.

I am just trying to generate some interest on this side of the forums and we can always have hope.

If people come here just to get free music - then perhaps the honeypot is empty.

Somebody has to pay the piper - and maybe it should have been us all along - but nobody said anything. I figured that those in the business knew what they were doing.

Barb

hi folks !

thanks a lot for your support..

as you read on techcrunch, jamendo is in a very bad position.. our 2nd fund rising failed.. what will happen now ?
1- we have a few weeks to find a company to merge with..
2- close the door..

the 1st solution is on a good way, some people are very interessed in merging with jamendo.. so the website will still exist..
the 2nd one is not the point actually.. we are focusing on the 1st one.

we are not so far from the break even with jamendo pro, that will allow us to be free and independant, no more VC needed..
so it was just a question of time..

we are still hoping and doing our best to save the boat !

BTW, to ship to the US or China is not a problem, you buy, you'll get.. at least you deserve it !

feel free to mail me if any questions

cheers

I wrote:

"Hi Amelie,
Thank you so much for speaking to the English - we love Jamendo, also!

Jamendo has become a home for me and I want to do everything I can to help.
What can I do? I can donate - but will that be enough?

Can I start a petition? Write a letter to someone?

We don't have to just sit on our hands.
Any direction?

Barbara Wolfsong"

Returned email:

"hi Barbara !

all what you do will be highly appreciate !

we don't want to tell people "do that or that or give money"
you do want you feel good for jamendo.. at this time, all the 15 people working left have been fired.. we will end at end of february..
while this day, i'll (we'll) keep trying to make all we can to keep the boat..

of course, if all of you help us, it will be much easier !

so if you want/can, you can of course create a petition and share it on the web, you can donate, you can buy a "goodie", you can only and simply spread the news to all your contacts on facebook, twitter, whatever !

whatever you'll do will be really great Barbara !

thanks a lot !

big hug !

cheers"

JUST SO YOU KNOW -


Barbara Wolfsong

Wow.. At least Amelie, put us straight on a lot of point, regards to Jamendo.. that says it all folks..

Would donating the artists share of our webpage hits help in any way or will this make no difference?

She said anything would help - I am going to start by sending a letter to all my friends and informing them of this situation. I can only send so many a day so if everyone did that it would be a start - like a chain letter.

Barbara

I don't think we should cry yet - Dawn - lets put our heads together - and others to - if it can be done - we will do it!

have some faith

barb

Yeah I know your right Barb, been sending messages to all my friends and contact on my list to spread the word... and tried to do it on myspace, but cant work the site that good, as new to it.. how about you on facebook, have you spread the word on their yet..

ohps didn't read your send last message..

Not yet - I can only access facebook at home and will do so tonight - daily - I'm at work right now and we should just keep this stuff going on the forums and get everyone to let friends know with private emails - everything - bw I will try to generate a petition to have people sign - etc - bw

Just sent messages to some friends.

Do we know what the possible buyer is looking for and some idea of how to sell the best of Jamendo?

MM.

I don't know - will see if I can find out

bw

I'm not sure - they said they aren't naming names - but maybe we can generate some petitions going, stating our stance behind the site and what we are willing to give up or do to help it become a success.

The bottom line of course is the almighty dollar or euro or coin of the realm so that is the most important consideration for any buyer. I am not a business person but I am going to kick some butt to get the users involved in trying to save her (him?). We have been living on the dole for too long, enjoying the free music, like children at Christmas. I just wish there had been better communication so we could have stepped up sooner. We don't have much time at this point but I have a lot of hope.

We need more idea people, and more motivators. I am only allowed to send out 50 emails per day - so I have been able to only dent the potential forces out there.

Thanks - bw

This site is my first experience... it's precious for many of us, we are aware of that....
Even if I only got three donations during 6 months, without any use of long years work of labour, I did found mirror in these months when I was there : sharing but also competition. I remind positive and forget negative part.
I was in true life before, with other happiness and other horrors. Keep liaised with creation for some people as some of you it's be sure to look what will happen tomorrow and be an actor in it.
There is no more richfull exchange than in playing in the street, congratulations to injures, donations to thrifts.
To feel sharing determination what is better than moments along falls with only one cord for everybody to trust on it.
I hope like many of ours that we will be able to put here some pieces of collective inconscient.
CV.VC

Same with me, I have sent my 50 emails for today as well. try again tomorrow now.

Thanks creix for your support - I am at a loss right now for any more ideas but with the world of Jamendo - I think we can come up with something.

bw

Thanks Dawn - I haven't started on FaceBook yet - and I want to letter outsiders somehow - I need to think - bw

Does anyone know how to put load stuff to youtube, and talk about it on their and high light the problem with whats going on with Jamendo. and then more and more folk via Youtube would find out what is going on here..

Unfortunately I am at the end of the world and as I am just starting into the evening the rest of the world is asleep - but there is also tomorrow and tomorrow and anon - until the end of February. So - Barbara - brainstorm!

Sorry but i believe that good idears must be transmit in privat... i have some ...some what's not against the spirit of free musics.........
So i 'll try to share it....
(in french)
Cv.Vc

So i just understand that it's a matter of urgency , sure !

Here is my thinking:

1. It may be true that we will not be able to change the course of Jamendo's demise, but why give up before the fight? Are we wimps?

2. It may be true that there are other and better sites out there for our purposes - but I haven't found any others that suit me. With all his flaws and bugs and other annoyances, Jamendo has a beauty and grace in his very concept of sharing the music freely.

3. We may not be able to fix the money woes of our friend, Jamendo, but we can speak up for him. We can make ourselves heard. If enough of us speak out we might be able to carry some weight to potential buyers. At the very least, we will carry over to potential owners the understanding that people are interested in using this possible money maker.

4. There is no reason why Jamendo can't be a money maker. I think that the money making people could think of ways to make that happen without entirely ruining the integrity of Jamendo's goal of free music.

5. There must be some hope of salvation if potential buyers are looking at Jamendo. If there is some hope then we shouldn't give up trying to encourage these buyers in whatever ways we can - because we, here at Jamendo, are not wimps.

if q = if the merger doesn't make jamendo suck (i'm very skeptical of mergers usually, but if a good company decides to keep them afloat, great) it would be great to see this site continue.

if q is true, and the site continues, i'm sure memory of this near-disaster will keep funds from concerned fans rolling in for a good while. my first instinct with sites i like is to buy merchandise, but i can't find anything like that- no jamendo tshirt?

http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/supportjamendo/shop

check out this link for tshirts

To be honest, this all came as shock to me when I first heard about it yesterday. Jamendo has been like a family to me, all be it an annoying one at times(when I couldn't easily upload an album). Now that I've had a little time and a chance to sleep on it, I've had a few thoughts.
It seems to me that the artists have been benifiting through an amount of free advertising space for materials, concerts etc. Therefore I think that maybe we should try to spread this information to:
1. as many active artists as we can, but particularly those with the heighest profile on the site. Possibly those with the top 1000 listenings.

2. as many active members/artists as we can, partricularly those actively writing reveiws.

3. as many active members/artists as we can, particularly those actively involved in the various forums.

4. as many no-members we know in our own work and home communities.

Maybe those with most to loose will do the most to help with contributions or finance or ideas. I think there will also have to be a reduction in the features available on the site, and maybe we should be trying to decide on what facilities are most important to us as members and artists. There may also have to be some further restriction to what is available to non-members.

I like the idea and principle of free music, but as with everything someone has to pay the final bill. It is possible that a new Jamendo may no longer be free to members and/or artists.

What do you think?

MM.

I agree wholeheartedly with you m_masters,

There is no free lunch as I used to be told.

I have been sending out letters - and trying to make people aware of this so Jamendo doesn't slip away into the night without some attempt from the users to save it.

I don't see why it should be an expensive Jamendo but it may not be entirely free for the taking either.

Is that so bad?

Perhaps free listen but not downloads - free forums but not reviews

bw

it whould be fatal when downloads and reviews became commercial.
thats against all i believe in and i think there are other artists too, which have the same opinion.

as i allready wrote in the german forum, i could imagine to pay a little fee per month to have this ' managed webspace+ '. and maybe there is a way to crosscalculate this with the revenue share program.

for example a fee of 2 euro per month, paid by every artist.
those, who earn a lot of sitevisitors will get the revenue-share minus 2 euro. those who have not that traffic won´t get that much rs and so the final costs are a little bit higher. and those, who upload every fart they record as a new one-track-album will hopefully stop doing that.

the merge-idea makes me getting headaches. another bunch of dudes which have ideas to 'milk the art' and how to get a maximum ca$h of foreign work.
no thanks.

if there is a way to become really independent, getting back to the idea itself and away from this idiotic commercial things, that whould be great.

free music should be freely downloadable, the essence of cc-by notes that
reviews are essential contributions that enrich this site and should stay free
What Jamendo did do wrong is not giving a simple system like t61 does: give users/listeners the possibility to buy "credits" for extra's, like supporting beloved artists, download specials, and more features that are not necessarily free.And artists could be forced to buy som credits too, to get access to extra features they might like.....That bloody paypalsystem is evil. And make a difference between listeners and artists via different accounts. The site with so may users is interesting enough for some investors, but that should not be connected to the content.

I am afraid our ideas are not going to matter much to new buyers - but if we could save some modicum of Jamendo that would be marvelous.
I am just a listener and writer on Jamendo and yet I would not mind paying a fee - it is a source of entertainment and enlightenment to me and much more. People pay for tv - which I don't - but very little is free in life - somebody's got to pay something. Maybe more aggressive ads or something.

-barb

they should start talking with mininova.org since illegal downloads are banned, this group specialises on free content. We from musictrade netlabel released over 500.000 downloads there alone, so as distributionchannel they have their merits. Jamendo should think about restyling the forums and communication between staff and members to work on a vivid and active community, and specialise more towards different tastes in stead of focussing on the same most downloaded stuff. Music scene is very vivid nowadays........