Reykjavík Grapevine - 31.07.2009, Blaðsíða 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11 — 2009
Some time ago, rumours started going
around town that a nifty new company
was preparing to unleash the dawn
of a new era in Internet based music
distribution. A pack of idealists from the
local music scene had, allegedly, clustered
together with the aim of abolishing the
money-thirsty atmosphere currently
prevailing in the notorious distribution
perimeters. The rumours were founded,
and thus a beta version of the peculiarly
named gogoyoko (note that we are
familiar with basic rules of grammar –
gogoyoko demand their name be written
in lowercase) was launched a few weeks
ago, after months of hard work and
struggle.
When Grapevine caught up with
one half of gogoyoko’s duo of founders,
Haukur D. Magnússon, he elaborated
on gogoyoko’s central concept and told
us how it all started: “The idea itself
materialized on a typical day in late
September 2007, when an old pal of mine,
Pétur Jóhann, brought up the subject of
starting a music label. When we started
tossing around thoughts on the idea, one
thing lead to another, eventually leading
to the general idea behind gogoyoko.
We were basically ordinary guys who’d
been involved to a limited degree in the
music business for quite a while, and
we’d been using several Internet based
features with our music. Over time, we
had also gotten to know quite a bit of the
bureaucratic aspect of the business; we’d
signed a lot of contracts and made up a
few ourselves. So we let ourselves stand
by at the end of the day, think things over
a bit and contemplate what innovative
phenomenon we could introduce. And
so we decided to scale up somewhat from
the original label idea, to do something
more radical.”

David vs. Goliath, sorta
The odd couple had no previous
experience in the world of programming
and computers, but they do have an
impressive background in music: “Pétur
has since adolescence been involved in
various music groups, the most famed
one is probably Pornopop. I wasn’t really
the band type, more of a DJ,” explains
Haukur.
The deficit the would-be visionaries
intend to remedy is the absurdly small
amount of the retail price of a track
set aside for artists by the big on-line
distribution corporations, who pocket
most of the income themselves. At
gogoyoko, a notably smaller amount
ends up in big brother’s pocket. “Both of
us had experience in selling thousands
of CDs, where we discovered you only
receive a ludicrously meagre amount of
the actual retail price. Every participant
in the procedure takes its toll, and in the
end the revenue seems really skewed.
For example it’s a known fact that The
Beatles only received around 3% of the
revenue generated by their music. This
amounts to a really shitty business if
you ask me – there must be a way to do
things better.”
One might reckon the phenomenon
isn’t so entrepreneurial, for several
similar outlets do exist, e.g. the
iTunes music store. Haukur says that
fundamental elements differ between
gogoyoko and other similar businesses,
and that difference is exactly what
they’re going for rather than inventing a
brand new technology.
“Don’t get me wrong; we didn’t get
into this biz because of some frustration
towards the big shots controlling the
web market. Our aim is to shorten the
procedure in whole, to decrease the
number of the agents that claim a cut
of the sales revenue. On a larger scale,
especially when we’re speaking of digital
copies, there should be an option to
basically skip the mediator, which you
have to contract to distribute online. At
gogoyoko you can reach your audience
straight up. If you’re selling maybe a
thousand units a year, it matters a great
deal whether you’re getting 15 or 50
cents per copy.
Different times, different values
gogoyoko has been evolving, like most
up-and-coming companies, in the two
years it has existed, and their staff has
been multiplying in numbers. By now
they’re up to around 30 employees.
Haukur explains that this developing
process has taught them to be patient,
patience is crucial when you’re dying to
reveal your work for two years but you
simply can’t: “You always want to have
the best product up for grabs, but you
have to make sure it’s as good as it gets.
Now we’ve launched the beta and we’re
really content with what we’re running
at the moment. Of course it’s always a
work in progress, so there are dozens of
new features expected and the structure
is becoming more and more dynamic.”
gogoyoko has been rather lucky
in terms of the effects of the recent
financial crisis: “We were lucky to have
financed the company appropriately
before the catastrophe but we’ve suffered
a bit in some ways. On the other hand,
people have begun to appreciate our
enterprise. When we started out in 2007
people didn’t quite get where we were
going. Everybody was raking in stacks
of money and software like ours seemed
irrelevant. In those days everybody was
trying to get rich by selling money –
gambling in the financial markets – and
didn’t quite grasp our game. This has
definitely changed.”
A certain entrepreneurship-hype
surfaced subsequently to the crisis, where
people started laying more emphasis on
innovation than before. This benefited
gogoyoko. “The hype started right away
when everything collapsed and our
company was definitely one of those
that received attention. It’s a nice thing
irrespective of any financial situation.”
Becoming mainstream:
Vinyl and .wav
The first thing gogoyoko plans to
achieve is to make their artists keen on
their system. “We’ve always said, in a
serious rather than a comic manner,
that our phenomenon won’t work unless
the ideology becomes mainstream. If
we accomplish that, this might really
work.” gogoyoko signifies in some
ways the digital evolution, and there are
certain anti-mp3 music buffs that aren’t
completely content. “We’re thinking of
ways to please them. Both by using a
format such as .wav but we’ve also got
something more exciting in the pipes:
offering our artists the opportunity to
produce vinyl copies through gogoyoko.
Music | Pioneers Opinion | Catharine Fulton
Power To The Artists!
gogoyoko launches an online music marketplace
Welcome to Iceland
Here’s how to find
www.ja.is
WHAT?
WHO? WHERE?
People Businesses Maps Direction
Quick guide to the information
you need while enjoying your stay
Yes. We also think the name is sorta weird. Nevertheless, gogoyoko
works on a very cool ideal, and their interface is top notch. If you are
shopping for music on-line, then it's the place. For sure.
SIGURðUR kjARTAN kRISTINSSON
HÖRðUR SVEINSSON
It makes the world go ‘round. It’s the root
of all evil. It’s a gas.
Money. You take it for granted when
you have it and realise just how central it
is to your daily functioning when it’s out
of your grasp. It instils in you a sense of
comfort and security knowing it’s at your
fingertips should you need it, and causes
undue stress and worry knowing that
it’s not. It’s so easy to spend and so very
difficult to save. It is pleasure and pain
and happiness and despair wrapped up
in a single concept with a fluctuating
exchange rate. It frees you to travel
the world and do all the things you’ve
dreamed of, and confines you to a desk
forty-hours each week hoping to make
more of it. It feeds and nourishes you
and it leaves you starving. It puts a roof
over your head and it puts you on the
streets, begging for it.
It’s something I’ve never been good
with.
Saving is a foreign concept. When
I have an income, be it regular or
spurious, my thoughts always drift to all
the wonderful things I might buy once
payday rolls around. I saw an awesome
pair of shoes in that store window. I
could use a new dress or two. I’ve always
wanted to go to Venice. I’m a dreamer to
the highest degree and money facilitates
the realisation of my loftiest of dreams.
For nearly a month I was separated
from my money. For nearly a month I
couldn’t access online banking to see the
number that represented my worth in the
marketplace, the number that represents
my buying power, my ability to realise
financially dependent dreams. It was
painful. Living off cash, the depletion
of funds is visible and presented itself
every time I opened my fancy new wallet,
which itself was purchased with cash
and severely shrunk the stack of bills
that would be placed lovingly into its
silk-lined compartments.
Once reunited with the plastic
gateways to my online accounts, a
conceptual world of e-business and
internet transfers, able to see my self-
worth in a way that only an arbitrary
number on the LCD screen of my
MacBook could show me. It turns out the
plastic in my wallet means nothing after
all. I’m still broke. But it’s comforting to
know it.
Because knowledge is power. Or so
they say. -CATHARINE FULTON
Money money
money money…
MO-NEY!