Kristin Hersh & Donita Sparks Launch CASH Music Remix Site

Throwing Muses’ Kristin Hersh and L7’s Donita Sparks have launched CASH Music, a remix and community destination. The management team also features Hersh’s manager (…and husband. —Ed.) Billy O’Connell, and Sparks’ manager Bob Fagen.

CASH is an acronym for Coalition for Artists and Stake Holders, and was “designed as a means for artists to release new music, videos or other content and give fans the chance to interact with it in their own way,” according to their release.

Although Hersh and Sparks have launched the project under the auspice of collaboration, it’s obvious that this endeavor seeks to establish a new revenue stream for the artists and their “partners.” Digging deeper into the site, there is only a single song with stems for remixing, Hersh’s Slippershell, and she “suggests” a payment of $3 to PayPal for the privilege.

The CashMusic.org site is poorly designed, and doesn’t present a logical information hierarchy on their homepage. Several links that appear to be part of the site instead shuffle you off to other websites that the partners find worthwhile. Unfortunately, only true fans of the band are going to have the patience to swim through the murky offering to engage in the give us your CASH collaboration process.

The partners have also pointed out that they don’t want to limit the collaboration to just music. New artwork and videos by Sparks will be offered up for rerubs. Hersh has also invited fans to upload any other creative output, which she will consider including in her next CD release.

Now here’s the fine print…
For all the publicized collaboration, Hersh and Sparks are really using the CASH site to pass the hat. There are several subscription models, as well as a few bush-league VIP options. For $10 per quarter, fans can get all the media, merchandise and CDs they like. For $30, they get a “Works in Progress” CD plus free entrance for two into any upcoming show. $500 buys all that plus a visit with Hersh in the studio, $1,000 earns a Featured Sponsor credit on the next CD, and $5,000 bumps that to an Executive Producer credit.

Only “invited artists” have the opportunity to engage in this “blood drive”, but Hersh and Sparks claim that they will open up the gates for the general public to participate in the CASH Music project. Of course, they plan to take a cut of any transaction conducted on the service, and charge consulting fees to artists who need to learn how to “collaborate.”

The Future: The CASH Music project reeks, and it will ultimately hurt other more creative and giving ventures by artists who truly want to collaborate with their fans.

Author: FutureMusic

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