001 Collective: The First Real P2P Scene (mp3s)

Most liberal, enlightened, grown-up Americans have become that way by working hard at it. Some have to slough off the cultural impositions of conservative and religious ideologies; I'm one of those children-of-a-child-of-the-sixties who fights to rid himself of ideas like, "root chakras" and, "meaningful coincidence."

But sometimes I can't prevent myself from making superstitious connections: the 001 Collective, a contemporary collective of musicians who are distributing their music for free using powerful peer-to-peer technology, were meant to cross my path. And yours too, I reckon.

It happened the day after New Year's. Google alerted that my name had made a new appearance on the web and after investigating the link I was left completely mystified. My name was nowhere to be found on the entire website But "secret download society?" How could I (I who am professionally charged with the task of discovering and licensing free music) not click through?

What I found on the other side of that link is the 001 Collective and I think it's a combination of a few social forces that haven't stood in the same room together. It's a music blog / BitTorrent index / record label / authentic freak folk / new twee / 8 bit scene. Unlike a lot of other interesting music sites on the web involving experimental distribution, this is a group whose first orienting principle is aesthetic and cultural alignment. No one's looking for an ad-driven revenue stream or seeking VC funding. They're just getting their art out there the most hyper-efficient way they know how.

You don't really need very much money to start a label-esque collective these days: It just takes one computer geek. This one's name is Secret Owl. (Or no, Luke Morris. But he makes wonderful music under the name Secret Owl and for all I know, he writes PHP under the name Secret Owl too.)

I've spoken to the founder by email and his head is completely in the right place about our shifting music business culture. The collective has posted a manifesto on their website and it reveals an interesting fact: the idea for this free music collective was born from the death of Oink, a popular illegal file sharing community shut down several months ago.

The "free culture movement" has a good grasp on the political and technological aspects of this shift towards a new music distribution model but it has thus far lacked aesthetic cohesion. The 001 Collective may very well represent the only missing member at the table: young artists, doing what they have always done in a DIY fashion, operating in cities and small towns across America.

I'm placing my bets now: this is a forbearer for a new model of group communication and mass distribution. From all of us old-timers at WFMU, we wish you great luck in your new communications experiment.

Here are a few sample tracks from the hundreds of songs available for free download at 001:

Campbell - Misguided Salute
Secret Owl Society - The Man Who Hunted Clouds
Dustin and the Furniture - Texas
Errand Boy - Track & Field & Stream
Watercolor Paintings - Tender Loving Care

Comments

[Campbell]

Thanks for the top-notch journalism, Marcus!

[bartleby]

Since you are using google alert may I make a suggestion (for all I know you may already know this) try the following as an alert:

intitle:"index of" +(.mp3 | mid) "Don McLean"

let "Don McLean" equal whatever search term you feel like. I can't vouch for the I.P. status of anything found this way.

[Tinyfolk]

Thanks for posting about the collective! We very much appreciate it! Just for accuracy's sake, Dustin and the Furniture did the song "Texas" and Watercolor Paintings did the song "Tender Loving Care". As it is it looks like the band names and song titles are switched.

[Cara del Gato]

Viva la Double Ought One!

[Marcus]

Thanks for the heads up, Tinyfolk - I fixed the track titles.

[Sam]

Ther are also bands out there doing it on their own, like We're Late For Class, who've posted 20 free releases on their blog http://werelateforclass.blogspot.com/

[Jonathan]

In case anyone else has been going crazy trying to place the sample of the child's voice from the Secret Owl track linked above, Bradford Cox (of Deerhunter) used it in one of his tracks as Atlas Sound- "A Ghost Story."

[Tinyfolk]

Dude, me and another collective musician, Manipulator Alligator, are about to release a split. If you want to give me your snail mail I can get you a hard copy.

tinyfolk at gmail

[p2presource]

Nice article. Althought the 101 Link is no longer working. :(

[Niklas]

I cant reach cllct.com is the site down or is it blocked from Germany?

[formalhaut]

unfortunately CLLCT.com is »down forever« as Luke Morris aka Secret Owl pointed out in his recent mail which he sent to all CLLCT members the other day. It looks like the server was completely wiped out by an amateur during a scheduled server upgrade. What a sad loss of a great site. I loved it from day one. And the music. As well as the whole concept behind it…

[Violet]

cllct.com is back up & has been... check it out again.. Luke Morris aka Secret Owl Society has magic powers...