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This page: Taxes & Technicalities
'You're welcome to report Fairtunes tips as income -- and you're welcome not to.'
Taxes & Technicalities
Your premise, as stated on your site, is that "it has only been inconvenience that's really prevented consumers from giving the artists the compensation they deserve voluntarily." Doesn't this strike you as an optimistic view of human nature?
Well, our initial response has been very strong, and that makes me very happy to see that people are doing the right thing. The average donation size is about five dollars, but one person donated $40 US to Hole, and that blew us away. Music is more than just another commodity. There's a relationship between you and the artist. Sure, you don't speak with the artist, but the music speaks to you, so at the end of the day I don't think it's right to rip off artists you really enjoy.
Will you be reporting tips to the tax authorities in Canada and the U.S.?
You don't have to do that here in Canada. I know that if you're a waiter or a waitress, it's your duty to report what you receive in tips. But as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to report this as income, and you're welcome not to report this as income. We're not gonna make you do anything you don't want to do -- or should do. Of course, we're gonna be in full compliance with the law.
What technical issues are you facing in ensuring that Fairtunes is as fair as it can be to artists?
What we want to see is, whenever you listen to music, there's an option for you to pay directly from that interface. There should be a way for you to track all your listening habits and determine who you listen to the most, because those people should be compensated the most. What we've developed is a server -- the same one that runs our website -- that enables anyone to connect to it and send a payment through us. We've released the protocol, and we're looking for anyone who can connect to that and integrate what we're doing into their own program.
Have any major artists signed themselves up yet?
No major artist has signed himself up to be in our thing, but they're all already in there. If you look at our contributions, money has gone to big-name artists, like U2. Ani DiFranco has received some from us. But there's lots of small people too. This guy out in Victoria [British Columbia] has received $30 or $35 so far, and he loves it; that's more money than he's ever received for his music.
The real test here is whether people really are willing to pay for something they can get for free.
We're looking forward to seeing this months down the road. I really believe it's the future, as far as intellectual property on the Internet.
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