The Idea of Cycles

We at Michelson-Morley recognize that times have changed since the days of vinyl albums, 8-Tracks, cassettes and CDs. In many ways the "album" is a concept whose time has passed.

Living up to the "Experiment" in our name, we are attempting to release our material in "Cycles" rather than "Albums." The difference will be that our music will come over time rather than in one unified format. This allows us to produce and release a lot more material without the hindrance of deadlines, marketing goals and greedy middle men (and women) trying to milk material for more than it's really worth.

In addition, our initial release - "Cycle Minus Two", will be available via the Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Non-Deriaitave Works) License, allowing our friends, fans, listeners and critics to share our music so long as we are credited, our music is not used commercially without our express permission, and no derivative works are produced using our work without our permission. Future cycles may use different licenses depending on the success of "Cycle Minus Two".

The other advantage of Cycles is that it allows us more control in the promotion of our music, merchandise and mythos, while allowing us to receive significantly faster feedback from our audience. If it sucks, it won't take a long time and a lot of money before we find out about it. And of course by using Cycles we'll be able to improve, modify and alter our mixes and arrangements as we see fit. So long as the music is free to share, we see this as a benefit for us as artists and for you as participants in the Experiment.

Clever marketing? Probably, but not something we can make money off of by itself. Consequently, if you like what we are doing then we ask that you please support us by purchasing merchandise, attending shows (once they start happening), and if you are in a position to do so, licensing our music for commercial use as these will likely be our only sources of income from this venture. Of course, if you don't have the money to spend (and we know what that's like), then we ask that you support us by telling your friends, calling your DJs, linking to our sites, reviewing our music, publishing detailed college level analysis on our lyrics and song structure (or lack thereof), and of course by listening and enjoying whatever it is we do that you like over and over and over and over and over again (preferably in your car and at parties...very, very loud.)

We also hope to delve into some non-commercial participatory adventures where we and other artists can exchange works in the creation of new works (and yes that falls under derivative works, and yes that means we'll provide express permission in exchange for the same permission.) In this way we as artists and creatives can branch out and find new ways to promote ourselves and, frankly, to have fun co-operating, collaborating, competing and just making cool stuff because it's fun.

We at Michelson-Morley welcome your comments, concerns, criticisms, ideas, suggestions, agreements, arguments and analysis on us, on you, and on them. We do not, however, welcome your spam, and neither should you.

We hope you enjoy your flight.

-Nick