Gary happens to be an excellent (well praise costs you nothing if its true) and well respected blogger. John Moore mentioned his blog on Brand Activism and therefore I decided to take a read. I realised (somewhat slowly) that Gary had commented here before (regarding my 'at risk' scenario in October) and his kind words were gratefully received, especially considering he himself is without portfolio at present.
While browsing the site I was intrigued (seems to be my favoured word today) by the title 'Slaying the RIAA' and then I read it and was inspired and motivated. The idea itself, essentially the disintermediation of record companies (and therefore the RIAA) reminds me of Scott McCloud's Creating Comics and Reinventing Comics whereby disintermediating the publishers gives the artist and reader (consumer) greater value. Gary's proposal is a similar and even more stimualting proposal to do this for the music industry. It is an idea whose time has come IMHO and which given enough of a community behind it could start to tip...
to producing a new portal where subscribing promoters and studios could directly announce their content and recording sessions, but where any RSS-enabled band, promoter, studio or venue could get their feed aggregated for the cost of an email message telling me the URL. I would develop the core engine, host the site, moderate and maintain the site, weed the spam, roll out new services, and fold all custom developments back into the creative commons of the Drupal.org archives.
In short, I would be working for you, the real music industry.
Please take some time to read Gary's article in full - How to Slay the RIAA.
If you like it send him some encouragement. If you want to see the system send him some money and pledge your support. I have.