Case Study: When Creative Commons lead to commercial success

By Giulia Baldi

Most new musicians can now successfully produce, distribute and promote their work independently, often with the help of social media. But many still struggle navigating the unfriendly licensing jungle.

Here to share her take on it is Zoe.Leela. She’s a young German musician and singer and probably the first in the country to release her music straight to the people without a regular record contract, licensing her work with Creative Commons and managing her PR and contacts via social media.

Hi Zoe… Would you tell us about your debut, and your copyrights choices?

I released my debut album ‘Queendom Come’ in November 2009 on Cologne-based netlabel REC72.NET. For my work I chose to use the Creative Commons license. I liked the idea of being part of that movement and I’ve done my best to promote it together with my music.

And how have things gone?

In the first month my album had more than 34.000 downloads. Soon after I started touring in Germany (and then in Europe) and getting interest from festivals. In April we have played at the RE:PUBLICA 2010 in Berlin, in June we will play at the COLOGNE COMMONS in Cologne. The media ended up saying that ZOE.LEELA “made her way out of the internet to became a serious pop act”.

Is all your music licensed via Creative Commons or have you only licensed some tracks for promotional use?

I dropped Queendom Come completely under Creative Commons to spread my work under legal conditions and without punishing my listeners and fans for downloading or copying my music. I am convinced of the idea of a “sustainable” way of sharing creativity; or at least of finding a way to support this spontaneous process.

To me Creative Commons isn’t a promo tool. Bands who distribute and sell their music in traditional ways might use it as a short-tail tool. I choose it for now and forever. With CC my music can be enjoyed and used creatively but I am not giving away my freedom or rights as a composer. I like the idea that bloggers and podcasters can play it for free without being busted. And I like the fact that there are videos out there with ski riders doing crazy tricks and stunts guided to my songs. To share and be connected to people I have never met makes me really happy. But this is only possible because my music is not traded by collecting companies like Germany’s GEMA.

Which particular type of Creative Commons license have you chosen and why?

Initially, I had chosen the attribution, non-commercial, non-derivate license 3.0. I thought it was a good idea to make sure that my music is not used in a commercial sense and not being transformed. But I didn’t expect or realize that the many producers who listen to Creative Commons music would be interested in remixing my work. Now I know it, and I enjoy seeing people involved… and I love being send requests from all over the world to work with my music. In February the German music magazine Beat featured my song “Destroy She Says” in a remix competition. So, finally, this track (and then the album itself) has been re-licensed to be share-alike (by-nc-sa).

How is it affecting your activities and earnings as a musician?

I am just at the beginning and I do have to learn and get in touch with more stuff in the context of being a musician. Everything is just few months old and everything happens so fast right now… I am not sure I would be able to enjoy all the great side effects of my debut if I had released the album on a regular record label. I’ve already had a lot of benefits from licensing my music under C.C. which I can’t compare to money Unfortunately I’ve also been disappointed by some people who ended up exploiting my collaborative attitude without much respect, but I hope it’s been just some bad luck.

Ok then, we’ll ask you again how things are going with C.C. in a few months. In the meantime, you also use social media quite a lot in your everyday life… How do you manage your virtual profiles?

I use social media to inform people out there about my life and work, about my moves and interviews. I just keep people informed posting links and news. But of course I sometimes even use them to get in contact with people who I’d like to work with, could be a booker of a particular venue or a band I’d like to share a stage with. Or someone I like to drop a comment to, and say ‘I like what you do’, or ‘what’s up’. Social media is a really useful communication tool, I’m not there just to kill time or do strategies, I’m more interested in connecting with other human beings.

Which one you use, why, and with which results?

Twitter of course… And I see that people retweet my posts, which means I’m able to share my content to many more people than those that follow me directly. I also use Facebook, where I have a chat here and there. I think it is really necessary to get in contact with people out there. In general: all social media helps me to enter the stage virtually and literally.

Are you using any storing/sharing platforms?

I personally use Soundcloud to archive all the radio interviews I’ve done; for the people who like to get more information about me or missed one of the broadcasts. I’ve never used the community on Soundcloud so far, but I guess it makes sense in means of collaborations or remix projects. I don’t put my songs on archive.org or rapidshare, because I use the rec72 netlabel; who are doing a great job of making my songs constantly available on their own website and on common music platforms (last.fm, Fairtilizer, nettare.org, Soundcloud once again). I don’t worry about there being any Zoe.Leela bit-torrented songs on P2P networks. Why not – they’re there to share!

Are you on any DIY artist-to-fan promotional platforms?

I’m not really into such things as the fan to artist situation in general. Of course I do like to communicate with people who are interested in my music, but I would love not to have this typical fan situation. It took me a long time to create a fan button on Facebook. I thought it would be more personal if I have a regular profile, like any private person… So I never really thought about any advanced artist-to-fan platform.