Derek Webb is offering a new way to acquire music

Derek Webb has started a new initiative called NoiseTrade to distribute music in a new way. You can choose to download music after recommending it to three friends, or you can pay whatever you want for it. This is how the e-mail I got today puts it:

It was through the support and success you gave the Mockingbird experiment that inspired Derek, with the help of a few friends, to start NoiseTrade. Now any artist can freely distribute their music online, via NoiseTrade's remarkable and embeddable widget, offering fans the choice to tell 3 friends or to pay any amount in exchange for an immediate download.

Derek concludes, "If artists and fans realized how they could help each other and started making direct connections, without a middleman, the whole industry would change overnight. It would start a revolution."

Rather than over-charging for music, we want to let you choose your price or will give you the record for free in exchange for a little help. NoiseTrade believes it's time to stop applying the old rules to a new world. If we can work together, an environment is created for the long-term benefit of both fans and artists.

I think it's a good idea from a ground-breaking artist.

Sailing on a tall ship

When I was in Michigan I went with my group (the Ace Leadership Institute) on the tall ship Manitou in Traverse Bay. Very fun. Here's proof (video by Jeff Hino, of Oregon State):


Choose the high quality option (it didn't embed very well, so I'm linking). I'm the person who more or less introduces the ship.