“I wanted to touch them into words” Examining the Contrasting Roles of Storytelling in Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family and Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed - Literature Essay Samples

In both Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje and The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp, the male protagonist is deeply affected by a problem-drinking father. In The Lesser Blessed, Larry Sole’s father becomes physically and sexually abusive when he is drunk. As a result, Larry ends up killing his father and lives with graphic and traumatic memories of him. In Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje’s father’s alcoholism drives his family away and he eventually ends up killing himself in a drunken spell, which prohibits Michael from ever having a relationship with his father. There is a distinct difference in how the men view their fathers: Michael romanticizes the memory of his father while Larry is horribly traumatized by the memory of his father. Their contrasting memories of their fathers influence how they respectively use their storytelling as a coping strategy. Michael uses the act of storytelling in order to bring himself closer to his father and lea rn more about him through others’ stories, but Larry uses it to externalize his trauma and distance himself from his father. In Running in the Family and The Lesser Blessed, both Van Camp and Ondaatje show how storytelling can be used in contrasting ways to achieve the same goal of closure in order to cope with their problem-drinking fathers. Both Larry and Michael have problem-drinking fathers who they remember very differently. Larry’s father was in the residential schools and although â€Å"he never talked about what had happened there†¦ he always talked French when he drank† (58). Larry’s father refuses to confront the trauma he experienced in the residential schools and uses alcohol to escape the reality of what happened to him. Only when he is drunk is he able to express his trauma by speaking French, and becomes physically and sexually abusive as a result of this release. Larry recalls watching his father sexually abuse both his mother and his aunt and how afterward, Larry would sniff gas with his cousins. Larry discloses that he â€Å"wasn’t too crazy about it at first, but after seeing [his] dad to the bad thing to [his] aunt, it took the shakes away† (58). The intergenerational effects of residential schools is clear as Larry must resort to using drugs so that he can escap e the trauma he endures because of his father’s alcoholism and subsequent abuse. Larry also suffers from this sexual abuse, and his father â€Å"forcing his penis into his son’s mouth†¦ objectifies the child as a vehicle for sexual release, inscribing in Larry a sense of worthlessness in his father’s eyes† (McKegney 212). With this traumatic event Larry describes â€Å"[his] hammer, [his] secret tusk; [him] standing over [his] Dad and bringing it down, slamming it down,† because he â€Å"wanted to take it away, the sin and dirt and cum and blood in [his] mouth† (Van Camp 78). Larry kills his father because he fears more abuse and feels worthless; he cannot see any other way to save himself and his mother. He recalls the memory of killing his father after being knocked out at the school dance as he â€Å"taste[s] blood in [his] mouth where [he’d] bitten [his tongue†¦ [he] could hear [his] father shiver again as [he] brought the hammer down† (77). Tasting the blood again in his mouth brings back the intensely vivid flashback of killing his father as he slips fluidly into this graphic memory. This traumatic occurrence, as well as the memory of his father, is strong in his mind, which is why he is able to so quickly slip back into the scene of the murder in his thoughts. In Running in the Family, Michael’s experience with his alcoholic father, Mervyn, is different because he was never physically or sexually abused. However, his father’s drinking does have a major effect on his family’s life. â€Å"With the first drink, after which he could almost never stop, the wars [between his parents] would begin again,† (Ondaatje 154) and Michael was â€Å"too young, and oblivious† to realize what was happening whenever his â€Å"father would lapse into one of his alcoholic states† (152). Michael does not remember what his father was like when he was drunk because he was not old enough to understand at the time. As a result, Michael never saw or felt for himself how frustrating having an alcoholic husband and father was for his mother and siblings. Michael feels his life has been â€Å"terribly shaped by what went on before him† (161) and as a result of the alcoholism and subsequent divorce, his father was â€Å" always separate until he died, away from† Michael and his siblings (154). Michael feels removed from his family life in Ceylon, being the youngest sibling, and regrets not knowing his father better and being closer to him. He realizes that his â€Å"loss was that [he] never spoke to [his father] as an adult,† which shows how Michael laments the fact that he missed out on a relationship with his father (161). Mervyn ends up killing himself while drunk one night, leaving Michael only with stories from others to piece together the man his father was and consequently has very few, if any, personal memories of his father. Larry and Michael have very different memories of their problem-drinking fathers. While Larry’s memories are vivid and overwhelming, Michael’s memories are incomplete and mostly made up of what other people tell him. When juxtaposing their memory, it is clear why Larry and Michael have severely contrasting opinions of their fathers. As a result of having different experiences and memories, Ondaatje and Larry have contrasting feelings towards their fathers. Ondaatje is able to romanticize who his father was because his memories are vague and took place a long time ago. His memories of the alcoholism starkly contrast the graphic and horrifying images Larry recalls in The Lesser Blessed. Larry does not romanticize his father whatsoever, and â€Å"scratch[es] with a knife the word NO a hundred million times on the back of all the mirrors in [his] house, so [his] mother sees that [he] says NO to her, so [his] mother sees that [he] says NO to [his] father†¦ and to the acts unforgivable† (Van Camp 1). Larry cannot forgive his father and incessantly relives the abuse he experienced throughout the novel; he is still so immersed in the trauma that his hatred for his father is very present. Contrastingly, Michael idealizes his father and remembers him for â€Å"the invented games with his children†¦ the r elearning of old song from the past to delight them†¦the silliness of lyrics from the thirties which had always moved him†¦ [his] courtesy, [his] modesty†¦ the decent gestures among a small circle of family and friends† (Ondaatje 182-183). These are â€Å"stray actions [Michael is] told about by those who loved [his father],† who paint a romanticized picture of Mervyn that Michael adopts as his own (182). As a result, Michael’s view of his father is idealized and he longs to have a relationship with him. According to a scientific study in the Family Science journal, there are four types of relationships that a son can have with his problem-drinking father: â€Å"fondness, irritation, melancholy, and hatred† (Pirskanen 396). Michael is representative of the â€Å"Narrative of Fondness,† in which â€Å"the sons [are] loyal to their fathers, refuse to see them negatively, and defend them against possible criticism† (397). This typ e of relationship is most common when â€Å"after a long period of being distant† from one another, the son feels â€Å"in a way in control of the relationship,† which reflects Michael’s relationship with his father (397). Michael does not clearly remember his father’s problem-drinking, therefore he is able to distance himself from that part of Mervyn and have only fond feelings towards him. Larry’s relationship with his father is representative of â€Å"Narrative of Hatred.† This narrative is unique because in this case the child’s â€Å"earliest memories of the father were already negative, because the father had been physically violent toward the mother, son, siblings, or all of these† (398). Larry’s memories of his father’s problem-drinking and abuse stem from when he was a young child. The psychological, physical, and sexual violence Larry experienced â€Å"made it impossible for [him] to feel†¦ positiv e emotional elements† (398). The â€Å"Narrative of Hatred† accurately depicts Larry’s relationship with his father. This study illustrates how sons with problem-drinking fathers can have very different feelings towards them, which is clear in the difference between how Michael and Larry feel about their fathers. The way these two men remember their fathers is extremely different and as a result they both use storytelling in contrasting ways for their healing process. In both novels, Larry and Michael both use the act of storytelling as a coping mechanism to deal with their relationships with their fathers. Larry’s storytelling is a combination between Western and Indigenous values because he retells Indigenous stories and uses them as a vehicle for healing, which represents a very Westernized idea of therapy and talking out one’s feelings. The first story he tells to another character in the novel is the Indigenous creation story. After Larry finishes the story Johnny says, â€Å"You’re a storyteller, man. Your voice even changed when you talked† (Van Camp 52). Larry is â€Å"proud of the moment and the revelation. That was the first time [he] had told the story and [he] liked how it felt,† which shows how storytelling provides him with feelings of pride, release, and happiness (52). When Larry recalls the fire he set with his cousins, he remembers how â€Å"[they] wept because [they] knew [they] had no one. No one to remember [their] names, no one to cry [them] out†¦ to mourn [them] in death]†¦ [they] wept because [they] did not belong to anyone† (79). Larry does not feel connected to anyone in the world, which is why he lights the fire to kill himself and his cousins. He is made to feel worthless by his father who uses him as a vehicle for sexual release and as a result does not feel like he belongs to anyone or anywhere in the world and tries to kill himself. Storytelling is a way for â€Å"people [to] put events in order and comprehend reality†¦ thus creating links between the world, themselves and others† (Bosticco 3). Retelling the Indigenous creation story to Johnny makes Larry feel good because he is using the act of storytelling to connect himself to someone else, and to the larger Indigenous community. One of Larry’s most difficult insecurities is that he does not belong anywhere, so storytelling is an imperative part of his healing process because it is connecting him to someone and giving him the sense of belonging he needs. As Larry develops his artistry of storytelling throughout the course of the novel, he connects with more and more people. Juliet, the girl he longs for, calls him one night and asks him to tell her a story. Before he begins, Larry thinks to himself â€Å"that this [is his] chance to completely give Juliet something that was [his] so much that [he] would be nothing else† (Van Camp 99). He knows that by telling her this story he is giving a part of himself to her and creating a space of belonging for himself in the world. Larry does not just tell stories to feel connected to others, but also as a cathartic release to heal from his trauma because â€Å"each time [one] tell[s] [his or her] story it occupies less space and grief in [one’s] so ul† (Bosticco 5). Throughout the novel Larry incessantly returns to his moment of trauma and relives it in horrifying detail. At the beginning of the novel, he is unable to tell his therapist about what happened or express to them what he is going through. However, after his development throughout the novel and as he steps into his role as a storyteller he is able to begin to open up to Juliet about what happened to him. Whereas initially after he gets burned he â€Å"[doesn’t] want [anyone] to see what [he’s] become† and screams at the sight of â€Å"raw hamburger on a human face† (81), at the end of the novel while he is having sex with Juliet he says â€Å"Look at me†¦ Look into me, just look at me† (110). Larry invites Juliet to stare at the effects of his trauma in the physical form of his burns. As he experiences his first sexual release, he simultaneously experiences this emotional and cathartic release of his trauma. Juliet looks at him and Larry thinks: â€Å"I wasn’t alone I wasn’t forgotten I wasn’t dead There was no small town There was no killing I wasn’t bad I was clean† (110). He completely changes the way he felt before he tried to commit suicide because he feels connected to someone else and is releasing this memory and sharing it with her by allowing her to look at his scars. In Running in the Family, Michael also uses storytelling in order to cope with the fact that he never really had a relationship with his father. The entire act of writing this novel is an attempt to get to know his father better from the stories people told him to help him write this fictional memoir. Michael’s brother tells him that â€Å"[he] must get this book right† because â€Å"[he] can only write it once† (183). Michael’s brother is concerned with accuracy and piecing together all of the stories, but this is not Michael’s primary goal. In the Acknowledgments section at the end of the novel, Michael admits that â€Å"the book is not a history but a portrait of ‘gesture’†¦ [because] a well-told lie is worth a thousand facts† (Ondaatje 189). Michael is concerned with the process of writing this novel and making sense of all the stories and memories he is told about his father. People often reconstruct or elaborate storie s of grief or bereavement, and as a result â€Å"stories do not always accurately reflect what actually happened†¦ [therefore] ’to some extent, our stories . . . are all fictions’† (Bosticco 8). This technique of â€Å"sensemaking† is exactly what Michael is doing in his novel Running in the Family (4). â€Å"This ‘redramatization’ of family stories can give the family members access to the bereavement scripts they carry† and help them cope with their loss in a healthy way (13). Between pages 174 and 180, Michael recounts several different perspectives of Mervyns death, but despite all the information and memories he hears Michael acknowledges that â€Å"the book again is incomplete. In the end all [of Mervyn’s] children move among the scattered acts and memories with no more clues† (Ondaatje 183). Michael knows that he is using this book and these stories to cope with the fact that he will never actually know his fa ther. While this is something he laments, the best way he can deal with it is by attempting to create a narrative about his father that he can live with and turn to. Both Larry and Michael use the act of storytelling as a cathartic release of their emotions and as a way of connecting with others. By verbalizing their thoughts and memories, as well as the thoughts and memories of others, they are facing their trauma and loss and are able to cope with their feelings. While both Larry and Michael use storytelling as their coping mechanism, they use it in very different ways because of their contrasting memories of and feelings towards their fathers. Larry uses the act of storytelling to externalize and distance himself from the trauma and his father, whereas Michael uses it to bring himself closer to the memory of his father. Larry’s externalization of his story and distance from his trauma is illustrated through his clothing. Even though Larry â€Å"usually [sleeps] buck to let [his] skin breathe†¦if [he takes] off [his] clothes, Johnny might see [the] scars, and [Larry] didn’t want that† (Van Camp 86). When Larry is first questioned by Johnny about his burns, Larry â€Å"defensively† answers that he was â€Å"kissed by the fuckin’ devil† (87). At this point in the novel Larry is clearly very uncomfortable with anyone seeing his scars and refuses to tell anyone how he got them. He uses his clothing a s a shield from others that keeps his memories bottled up inside of him. Similarly to how he needs to take off his clothes and lie naked in order to let his burns breathe at night, Larry needs to verbalize his trauma, share it with someone, and be vulnerable in order to heal his mental state, as well. This metaphor is extended after he opens up to Juliet about his trauma. Instead of getting defensive about why he is burned like he does with Johnny, he responds by saying he â€Å"was sewn into the belly of an animal† (111). Although it is not the full story, it is the closest he comes to expressing his trauma and sharing it with another person. Just after he tells Juliet this small part of his memory, he stands â€Å"naked and free† before her, completely vulnerable (114). After Larry verbalizes and externalizes his story and shows Juliet his burns, he distances himself from the trauma. His story is no longer shielded by his clothing, but is placed outside himself, avai lable to someone else. In this way, Larry is distancing himself from his trauma and his father. Contrastingly, Michael uses storytelling to bring himself closer to his father. Michael returns to Ceylon, Sri Lanka, in an attempt to connect all the memories and stories he hears about his father. He realizes that he â€Å"slipped past a childhood [he] had ignored and not understood†¦[he] would be travelling back to the family [he] had grown from — those relations who [stand] in [his] memory like frozen opera†¦[he] wanted to touch them into words† (Ondaatje 4). Michael’s goal for this return journey and in writing this novel is to bring the memories he pieces together closer to him. By writing this novel, he is validating and eternalizing all of the stories that strengthen the relationship between him and his father. Running in the Family and The Lesser Blessed show how storytelling is used for healing, yet both do so in contrasting ways. This comparison d emonstrates how the same strategy can be used very differently and still result in coping with a problem-drinking father. Larry Sole and Michael Ondaatje both are trying to find a way to cope with their problem-drinking fathers. While Larry struggles to talk about his trauma and his horrifying experiences, Michael laments the fact that he never had a relationship with his father and feels the loss tremendously. Larry constantly and unwillingly returns to traumatic memories of his father, which breeds feelings of hatred and the desire to distance himself from his past. Contrastingly, Michael seeks out memories of his father and longs to piece together stories so he can learn more about who his father was. Both characters use the same coping mechanism to deal with their contrasting problems and are able to heal through the act of storytelling. As a result of their different memories and subsequent feelings towards their fathers, Larry uses storytelling to distance himself from his father and Michael uses storytelling to bring himself closer to his father. Both Ondaatje and Van Camp show how storytelling i s an effective coping mechanism and can be used in contrasting ways to accomplish the same goal of healing from loss or trauma.

Mars and Venus Caught in a Net Homers Tale of Passion

The story of Mars and Venus caught in a net is one of the adulterous lovers exposed by a cuckolded husband. The earliest form of the story that we have appears in Book 8 of the Greek poet Homers Odyssey, likely written in the 8th century B.C.E. The main roles in the play are the Goddess Venus, an adulterous, sensual woman fond of sex and society; Mars a god both handsome and virile, exciting and aggressive; and Vulcan the forger, a powerful but old god, twisted and lame. Some scholars say the story is a morality play about how ridicule kills passion, others that the story is describing how passion survives only when it is secret, and once discovered, it cannot last. The Tale of the Bronze Net The story is that the goddess Venus was married to Vulcan, god of the night and blacksmithing and an ugly and lame old man. Mars, handsome, young, and clean-built, is irresistible to her, and they make passionate love in Vulcans marriage bed. The god Apollo saw what they were about and told Vulcan. Vulcan went to his forge and created a snare made of bronze chains so fine that not even the gods could see them, and he spread them across his marriage bed, draping them all over the bed-posts. Then he told Venus he was leaving for Lemnos. When Venus and Mars took advantage of Vulcans absence, they were caught in the net, unable to stir hand or foot. The Lovers Caught Of course, Vulcan hadnt really left for Lemnos and instead found them and shouted to Venuss father Jove, who came ushering in the other gods to witness his cuckolding, including Mercury, Apollo, and Neptune—all the goddesses stayed away in shame. The gods roared with laughter to see the lovers caught, and one of them (Mercury) makes a joke that he wouldnt mind being caught in the trap himself. Vulcan demands his dowry back from Jove, and Neptune bargains for the freedom of Mars and Venus, promising that if Mars doesnt pay the dowry back he would pay it himself. Vulcan agrees and loosens the chains, and Venus goes off to Cyprus and Mars to Thrace. Other Mentions and Illusions The story also appears in Book II of the Roman poet Ovids Ars Amatoria, written in 2 C.E., and a briefer form in Book 4 of his Metamorphoses, written 8 C.E. In Ovid, the tale ends after the gods are laughing at the netted lovers—there is no bargaining for the freedom of Mars, and Ovids Vulcan is described as more malicious than enraged. In Homers Odyssey, Venus returns to Cyprus, in Ovid she remains with Vulcan. Other literary connections to the Venus and Mars story, albeit some less strict to the plot, include the first poem William Shakespeare ever published, called Venus and Adonis published in 1593. The Venus and Mars netted story is also significantly mentioned in the English poet John Drydens All for Love, or the World Well Lost. That is a tale about Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, but Dryden makes it about passion in general and what does or does not sustain it. Sources Castellani V. 1980. Two Divine Scandals: Ovid Met. 2.680 ff. and 4.171 ff. and His Sources. Transactions of the American Philological Association 110:37-50.Kloesel LF. 1990. The play of desire: Vulcans net and other stories of passion in All for Love. The Eighteenth Century 31(3):227-244.Miller RP. 1959. The Myth of Marss Hot Minion in Venus and Adonis. ELH (English Literary History) 26(4):470-481.

Terrorism, Cia, And South America - 1062 Words

Terrorism, CIA, and South America Terrorism. This word has caused more change in the 21st century than any other thought, policy, or idea. This change can not only be seen in the political realm, but in the academic realm as well. Since the attacks on September 11, the study and research of terrorism has grown exponentially. One area of research that is gaining popularity is whether or not the United States itself has participated in acts of terrorism as defined by the CIA. The largest of these claims revolve around CIA involvement in South America. However, an examination of these operations carried out by the CIA in South America will show that this is not the case. This will be shown by examining the definition of: terrorism, covert†¦show more content†¦. . We also consider as acts of terrorism attacks on military installations or on armed military personnel when a state of military hostilities does not exist at the site. The FBI has taken a similar approach to defining â€Å"terrorism.† The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines terrorism as the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives. The CIA, while having a similar approach to the FBI, has a more international focus. The term terrorism means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents. The term â€Å"international terrorism† means terrorism involving the territory or the citizens of more than one country. The term â€Å"terrorist group† means any group that practices, or has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism. Each of these definitions focus on the motives and methods of the specified organization. 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Business Plan (Record Company) free essay sample

There are three of us: The Label manager (who is responsible for running the label), an AR (the talent scout who mentors the artist through to final recording) and a business developer (who is responsible for the business deals). Although every one of us has a specific title, being a small Independent label, we all work on every Issue. The funding of the label came from our personal funding (representing 85% of our funding). , the head of the label brought 55% of the full funding, the two other equally brought 15% each of personal funding into the label. Three of our friends (5% each) came in for the last 15% to help us as we had trouble finding a bank which would loan us the money for an Independent record label! There Is no Interest on this loan and we have an oral agreement that we have five (5) years to pay back the loan. We have raised a budget of IEEE to start our record label There are no office costs as we all already own a computer and are working in my living room which has been transformed for the occasion into an office. Our Income forecast, which will be more detailed In our scofflaws document, Record sales (worldwide and different formats: CD, Vinyl). Broadcast comprises: Income (income from our records being broadcasted on radio or TV, or played in public places which will be paid to us once we have joined PL). Licensing (giving a license to other companies to put our tracks on compilations or for licensing the whole album on a said territory). Synchronization (which would be great though we cant directly count on It though we will be pitching as much as possible as there Is some Important Income from this type of license). Merchandising (we take care of he merchandising of our artist which is an Interesting revenue stream) ; Digital sales ring tones (this is a very new market to us, we are looking into at the moment so we cannot fully count on this revenue stream either as we havent yet found all the right partners to work with). On the expense side: Overheads which shouldnt be too Important as rent, electricity, telephone and computers etc. .. Are already dealt with as we do not need a new office. ; Staff cost (though we have all agreed on a percentage based payment for the moment we do have to take into account our legal costs here). Taxes National Insurance. AMPS bills. Recording, mixing and mastering recordings. Producers fees Manufacturing costs Artwork Design (including pack design, photography, websites, logos, promotional materials). Videos Radio TV promotion for records or videos (plugging) press (PR) Advertising Direct marketing promotion of our product. Distribution fees Sales costs. En are trying to keep our fixed costs such as our overheads as low as possible and are taking great care of our cash flow as many costs have to be paid in advance even though the income will come in much later so we have to b very careful on this issue.En have to of course Join Collection societies; this is to say AMPS, PRE and PL. As a record company, we have to Join PL as they will be collecting royalties from broadcasts of our recordings. We will register our first recording with PL through their database (Catch). This does not need to go into our expenses as it is free to Join. Irish is also why we need to have ownership of the copyright in the recording. We will also Join a trade association, most probably AIM; this on the other side will enter our expenses as a subscription fee is to be paid.Most of our work will be done in-house though we will have to bring in some specialists when needed such as a lawyer and maybe a PR company. En do not have our own publishing company for the moment but we hope to get it set up after three (3) years. Ere ARTIST En have Just signed our artist, Mandarin, for a five (5) year exclusive agreement for the release of a four (4) track PEP and their debut album. The contract can be found at the end of the document, Appendix A. So we own the copyright in the recordings for minimum of five (5) years.RECORDING ere album will be recorded at Urchin Studios in London (wry. Orchestrations. Co. UK), new studios since 2007, price remains affordable without letting go of the quality side. They are operating with Strokes producer Gordon Raphael. As past clients they have had Emmy The Great, Skin, Jeremy Warmly, Transgressing Records. We will operate on a daily fee of IEEE for a 9 hour day inclusive of all equipment and engineer; we have to look at problems such as overtime which will cost us EWE per hour or such as additional cost hours after pm which are at engineers discretion.It would be lovely to work in Piano Studios (www. Pontifications. Com) but much Model but the costs are much higher so they will be hopefully used as future reference. Just to SE the differences, their daily rate is IEEE all services included but only for an eight hour day. Another solution would be recording the album in Paris as the Band is French at studios (http://studios. Free. FRR/). They are a new studio and the daily costs would be 280? with engineer for an eight hour day which roughly represents IEEE. Hough that recording was going to be much cheaper if done in France but after having a good look round, I will be going with Urchin Studios as the prices are pretty such the same! Hopefully, Mandarin shouldnt take more than ten days to record their album. After meeting Gordon Raphael, we have managed to agree that, as we have no money to put forward, that he will receive a percentage of the income of the recording. The label has agreed to give him twenty percent (20%) of their share. Two extra musicians have to come in for the recording at an hourly cost of EWE an hour each. Equines Model, Marketing Promotion Now the album has been recorded, the labels efforts will be put into the marketing. En have a good month to dedicate to the release of this album working day-in day- UT. As we dont have much money, the cheapest way of doing this, will be by using internet and all that it offers. We know that the record industry is in trouble and the major record companies know it all too well. According to the Pupils most recent figures, physical music sales were down 11% to $17. Ban in 2007, and, blaming piracy -? both CD copying and online file-sharing -? the IF says that overall music sales have fallen for the seventh year running. So how are we going to make money today as a small independent label? Well everything is open! Any business model will o as there are no business models that are leading the way today. En could go free! It sounds insane as we are here to earn money but if music is becoming ubiquitous, through illegal file-sharing and supported by mass storage MPH players, then why not Just give it away?The free model doesnt mean not making money from music of course b ut in a certain way the tracks themselves are treated as a loss and are only designed to promote the artist and drive sales of other associated products, such as concert tickets and merchandise. A good example of this is Examined which is a web service that embraces the free model by helping artists to distribute their music for free, under a Creative Commons license, on peer- to-peer file sharing networks such as Bit Torrent or mule. Jameson users can also discuss and rate tracks, as well as make a donation directly to the artists whose music theyre fans of.Additionally, Jameson has an ad-revenue scheme for artists No set-up-shop on the site. Launched in September 2007, Spirogyra lets users download music for free, in return downloading music, the service requires users to log in to the site and view ads at least once every 30 days, or the downloaded music for the account becomes disabled. Spirogyra is built on a revenue-sharing agreement with participating labels, and currently offers a catalogue of 800,000 songs and 3,500 music videos. The catch, of course, is that you must view advertising in order to download DRY- protected music and video.Tracks from Spirogyra also ca nnot be burned too CD or transferred to an pod, the top-selling digital music player, which is a big problem, although files can be sent to two Windows Media Player-compatible devices or cell phones. Signing up for Spirogyra is easy. You provide basic information, and Spirogyra sends you a link and password to access the site. There Spirogyra inspects your computer to determine if your system meets its requirements. If you use a Mac, find a PC! Which is contrary to the music industry in general!Spirogyra is available only for PCs running Windows XP or Vista and the browsers Internet Explorer and Firebox. You also will need to have Microsofts Windows Media Player 11 installed as the Spirogyra files are packed full of DRY. Once all is in order, you can start browsing, downloading, and most importantly to Spirogyra viewing ads. The first thing you notice about Spirogyra is the advertising. Theres a slender manner ad at the top, a larger display ad along the right side, and when you are browsing for songs, ads for artists like Sonic Youth and Beck appear. The ads are more for the labels than they are for the artists.Even with the ads, Spirogyra site is relatively clean and has many community and recommendation features found in tunes. There are tabs for Genres, Artists, New Releases, Top Downloads, Videos, News, Help, and Your Profile. Prominently featured are listings for New This Week! , Video, Buzz of the Day, What Were Listening To, Breakout Bands, Top Downloads This Week, Featured Artist, We Recommend, and Music News. But Spirogyra doesnt feel like a digital record store like tunes but rather like a music database that returns bland results in the linked 1-9, A-Z format.Searching for bands and artists is very slow. Spirogyra has a $3. 2 million dollar deal with the largest music label in the world, the Universal Music Group, and a few Indies labels. When you finally find the song you want to listen to, you can play it in Windows Media Player but not in tunes! Spirogyra is a nice alternative to tunes and the pay-to-own-your-music model and Rhapsody subscriber alternative. Despite the Arias efforts, people still trade music ND download from sites such as tunes or from peer-to-peer networks.Many of these people have pods, and Spirogyra music will not play on Apple devices! The Pay what you want model: Arrowheads model: Similar to free, the pay what you want model came into the play most recently when Radioed released their new album, In Rainbows, with a voluntary price tag. Only a band such as Radioed can do this, this is out of the question for Mandarin. So an alternative to this would be to make a very similar offer to fans with the difference that they can choose what they like to pay, after t heyve already unloaded and listened to the album first. Magnate is an online music service which has built much of its business around the pay what you want model. Albums carry a low minimum price, with fans able to decide how much more to pay after that. But their contract is not interesting at all as we have seen but they are part of the new business models in the industry Mainstream which is a Pay by popularity model: Mainstream, of which Amazon is a recent investor, is a social market place for artists to connect with fans and promote and sell their music.The site has pioneered a pay y popularity model, whereby transparent market forces dictate the price of music. All tracks on Mainstream start off free, then the more the track gets downloaded, the more the price increases in increments, all the way up to the industry standard of accents. This is in complete contrast to tunes, whereby all tracks are priced the same, irrespective of how popular or obscure they are. The Subscription model: Legendary music producer, Rick Rubin, recently told the New York Times that subscription services are the way forward. Mound pay, say, $19. 5 a month, and the music will come anywhere youd like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cell phone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The pod will b obsolete, but there would be a Walkway-like device you could plug into speakers at home. Youll say, Today I want to listen to Simon and Garfield, and there they are The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now. However, despite what Rubin says, services such as Rhapsody havent reached mass adoption yet, as it is definitely not clear that people are ready to rent their music. A music tax Model: Its an old idea and one that MUG was rumored to be pushing quite recently: some sort of music tax, possibly collected via an Internet Service Provider. The idea is to charge the customers of Sips and cell-phone carriers a flat-rate fee as part of their data service plan, in exchange for the right to download and share the major record labels music over an Sips network.That way, file sharing is decentralized and the recording industry is guaranteed revenue. Some countries tax blank CDC, or direct taxation through government. All three variations would require the different parties -? including all four major labels and government -? to agree to work together, something which is very unlikely to happen. Through my readings I found a possible interesting idea that I have changed a little. As fans DO want to be closer to the artist, the label could create a kind of fan club, but that has connotations.So calling it Just a subscription to the band seems better. When the band is still young and small, the subscription should remain pretty cheap and flexible. People would pay E/year (less than the cost of a current CD), and hey would of course get benefits such as the following non exhaustive list: direct contact with band members, early access to recordings, ability to request songs at shows or even the possibility to intervene in the creation/recording of a new album as a lyric contest for example where the best lyrics would be made into a song by the band to go on the next album.The label should give the fans their own special IRS news feed so they can be alerted every time the band has a new song for them to hear or whatever kind of news. The subscribers would also get discounts on tangible odds such as T-shirts with a 25% discount. Actual CDC (with bonus features mo vies even games) maybe at a small higher price. Easy access to recorded concerts right after the show they have Just seen, that they can download could be an interesting idea. En the band grows even more, and hopefully expands the fan club; they will be playing larger venues, so they could reserve the best seats for their members.The subscribers could get backstage passes. The membership prices would then be able to rise as the band gets larger. A tour for the subscribers only could be done with 6 venues in the UK for example, reading exclusive gigs only for the true fan. ere label and band are now making money from (a) concerts (b) fans who are subscribed to their service and (c) still from selling tangible merchandise. Fans get to directly support the bands they like. Based on all of this, there is a variety of different business models.What is important is that they are based on (1) using the music as a promotional good to get a lot more attention in a crowded market (2) offering customers what they want, and offering them plenty of different ways to get it and (3) building tremendous loyalty from pappy customers who feel much closer to the musicians and are much more willing to spend money on secondary products (merchandise, concerts, access). Nowadays a label or an artist must Just think about selling the music but have to think about selling the entire experience of the music.When you look at things that way, it means [o dont worry if some of the music is heard for free, because that Just encourages ere first and foremost important act to do on the artists side is to gig as much as possible! What will we do as the label to enhance the awareness that can be generated through these live gigs? Before even thinking of selling merchandise as it co sts money, we would put out a limited 7, 10 or 12 inch vinyl off good live recording. There would be no artwork on the cover so the cost would be very low.It Mould amount to about 1 I.E. for 500 12 inch vinyl. This would be done by Totality Inch is a UK based company. Five hundred to start off is enough as it would be difficult to say how many exactly we will be giving away but as the band is going to be gigging quite a lot to create awareness, hopefully we should have giving them all away in a month on the basis of about three gigs a week which amounts to twelve a onto, hopefully collecting around fifty emails per gig. We will be giving this out for free. Why?Of course to create awareness and give out rich content but we are going to ask something from the people who want this exclusive vinyl, we are going to ask them for their e-mails. Can this be done without giving out something free at a loss cost on the labels side? Well yes, I have looked at both possibilities, why do I choose to put some money into a vinyl? Well I had a look at unsigned bands because they are JNI-known like Mandarin, who only left a mailing list somewhere in the venue for people to sign and there were some emails on the list but to me, not enough.I want for my band that over 50% of the people attending the gig to sign my mailing list. Is this feasible, from my predictions, and what I have seen yes it is! First of all, everybody likes to receive a free gift, it will also make them remember the gig. Instead of Just a piece of paper lying there, I will ask the band to do this after their gig, fans or general attendees will be able to interact with the band and this is the model to follow nowadays. Fans want to feel much closer to the band/artist than ever before, why now?I personally think that it is for the simple reason that it is possible through the internet. What happens if there arent enough vinyl to give away, the fans will be able to sign another mailing list, but they will want something free too, so as I will not want to send a vinyl to them as the postage will be more expensive than the manufacturing of the vinyl itself, they will receive another exclusive gift, this can be anything from the possibility of downloading the same live track or an exclusive died of the song.I will possibly go for the first id ea, as here again I will save money UT I must say I like the idea of giving away different gifts to different fans, it creates a kind of collectors model right from the start though the band still hasnt released an album. Nat is to be done with this mailing list? Will have of course set up my own website for the label, registering my own domain name, and I will of course register with a company that allows me to capture email addresses from email lists to promote further shows, to send a monthly newsletter and different information that will be useful for my marketing.As a gift for my subscribers, a week before the release of the album I will be selling exclusively to them one track for 59 pence instead of the usual 79 to 99 pence. This exclusive one coming out a week before the release, it will remind everybody that the album is coming out in a nicer way than Just a brief reminder email and it will hopefully generate a sense of awareness not only around the artist but around the label itself as one that takes care of its subscribers and fans.Viral marketing over the net would be the easiest and cheapest way of doing the marketing, developing different social network tools such as Namespace, Verb, Faceable, like, Hi for example. Once has of course to monitor as much as possible all the date coming from these tools through Agglutinations for example. As a label, using Last. Fm too is very important, being on as many blobs as possible. Another very interesting tool in the UK is Sub. Tv. For this of course, a video will be needed which costs vary.So for the release of our video, we organized a contest that we advertised in different Film Schools in partnership with the Film schools so that they would provide the necessary equipment for the video to be recorded. The school will have a link on our Infinite for a full year and will get recognition on the video for their partnership. The student which will have won the contest will of course have the chance to record his first professional video and get his name on the video of course and an article on him on our website.We have gone to different schools such as Care International in Paris :http://www. Care-international. Com/), SOAP in London (http://www. Soap. Org/) and The London film School (http://www. Life. Org. UK/). This will be at no particular financial cost for us and will show that we are forward thinking and helping not only Eng music artists but also the other arts! This Video will be used on our waste, social network tools, as the official video for the release. Coming back to Sub. TV, we Nail set a page up for our artist over the net to begin this experience. Sub. TV is an interactive entertainment channel that has created a unique connection with 18-24 Hear olds and is an integral part of todays youth culture. Sub. TV connects with students throughout the day through its screens, website, mobile messaging and events, allowing students to interact and broadcast music, sport and other entertainment content across university campuses. The interactive channel began broadcasting in Students Unions in 2003 and now reaches 1. 5 million students Meekly- thats 32% of all 18-24 year olds. This is at no cost for us either as they are financed by advertisement. So the video will also be on this support. Why is it so important? For the simple fact that this is the age group we are looking at, as the one listening to most of the music and which is in line with the musical genre of Mandarin. En will help Mandarin get some gigs in the UK as they are from France. The venues En will be selecting will range from the Electrostatic club playing at TheSlaughtered Lamb to the Water Rat to The George Tavern to The Borderline and The Ship maybe even the Luminance and the Filthy Mainstay. En will be pitching all the radios from the national ones to the regional ones and of course not forgetting the weaverbirds too specialized and more mainstream. For instance: Brickwork Radio, NAME Radio, CFML. En will get some press coverage, calling music magazines such as The Stool Pigeon, MAJOR. Mandarins music will also be available to purchase on the internet through our website and online stores such as Amazon. Com, Cicada, Coded and of course tunes.