The Outsidr

Back in early September, Ben Cooper announced on his site that he was beginning work on an experimental project I felt compelled to cover now that it has officially launched. Cooper, one of the few current artists I enjoy enough to write about, records under the name Radical Face, is half of the band Electric President and has played a hand in plenty of other projects. The project in question has been dubbed Patients and perhaps what I find most compelling is that it basically sits on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of the direction music distribution has moved in recent history. Oh, and it’s a really cool idea too.

Cooper is constantly writing and recording material and only so much of it can find its way to a standard Morr Music release. Often times, Cooper offers up these homeless tracks for free in the news section of his site but in this instance he decided to have a little fun. Patients, 11 tracks in total, will not be sold in stores or online – in fact, it won’t be sold at all. Instead, the only way to obtain a copy of Patients is by way of the good old barter system.

In order for a Cooper fan to get his or her hands on Patients, (s)he must put together a package containing one or more items to be traded for one of 100 copies. A special PO Box has been opened for the project and offerings must be accompanied by a return address, obviously. Anything can be sent provided it is not poisonous or dangerous, and Cooper will not accept money. Once the 100 copies are spoken for, which I imagine won’t take long, the address will be pulled from the site and a list of all the items received will be posted. Should a few stragglers arrive after all copies have been shipped, Cooper will email senders with a digital copy of the album along with the artwork.

In the end, Patients is a very cool idea and I’m curious to see what Cooper ends up receiving. I sent my package out this morning and tried to include a few fun/weird/interesting/creative items though I wish I had been a bit more prepared. Hopefully Ben enjoys it. As to the concept of the project, I think it’s great. Music distribution has gone from physical to digital over recent years and I think the barter system is a fun and interactive departure. Of course it doesn’t scale well but it gives the artist an interesting way to interface with fans of his/her music.

Want to check Patients out for yourself? Head on over to the project page and get creative.

As an aside, I wish Cooper would offer up an RSS feed for his news updates but in the meantime I’ve been using FeedBeater to keep me up to date on his posts. Unfortunately I haven’t found it to work very well. I’ll be looking for an alternative solution once I find the time – any suggestions?