I received a message from treemo the other day about having to change my thumbnail pictures on some mixes... and I basically said WTF!?!?
 
Brent the founder of treemo sent me this message:

Hey Cain

Hope all is well with you. So, here's the deal... I heard Mattstan reached out to you. We've been working hard on the mobile side of our business, and we have landed a big deal - we're going to be linked 'on deck' on Cingular's mobile site. This is a pretty big deal, but comes with some 'conditions.'

The 'phone company' is a bit conservative, so we need to alter our etiquette policy in order to work with them. We're going to publish the full policy in the next couple of weeks, but we need to take it down a notch on overt sexual poses. It's a big deal for Cingular or any of the mobile carriers to embrace 'user generated content' so, in the beginning, its going to a bit stricter in terms of what we can allow.

I totally hear you on censorship, et al, but we will also be opening up the site to an even bigger audience. You might even want to consider making some specialized 30 second mixes - ie, perfect for ringtones for this audience.

I obviously don't want to lose you as a user, but you have to understand our situation. When we have a successful launch with Cingular, it will lead to other carriers and mass adoption of our service.

Thanks for your understanding.

- Brent


and my response:

Brent,

Thank you for the message and while I can appreciate that this is a "big deal" for you and Treemo...

It just seems funny to me that just before you sent your email I was talking to my friend about what I call "Market Facism"... Where a "subtle" censorship happens, and people don't know what they are missing because the "Large Corporations" are dictating what is acceptable and what is not...

Since I found out about Treemo through Zaadz I was hoping that 'yall would have a "more enlightened" attitude on things like this, sadly it turns out to not to be the case, and believe me I am sympathetic to your plight a a new small company trying to "make it"...

However... I have to trust my instincts as an artist, and I really don't give a damn about "the marketplace" as it relates to my music... I just have to be true to what comes fourth as a creative process... I have avoided all "commercial" entanglements when it comes to my music because I know what a slippery slope it can be...

In that vein I have no plans for 30 second mixes, etc...

Thanks for your understanding,
-Cain

Cain

Appreciate the candor and where you're coming from..

First off, I wasn't suggesting you sell your music, but that putting it in a 30 second format and as a ringtone would get your music out to more people. As an artist, I thought that that was the ultimate goal - to have more people enjoy your music.

We could get into a debate about expression vs pro social imagery, but we're just going to a more PG site. I'm not too upset about it as this will only enforce us as putting out pro social imagery and not sex based.

There is only one image that I think was questionable and everything else is seemed to be okay. Since you have been an early user and we appreciate you, we just wanted to give you the heads up.

Btw, you still in Seattle or down in California?

We should meet up at some point

Peace,

- Brent

Of the Integral Buddhism Overview...
I'm working on my " Quick Overview" of Integral Spirituality, and a clearer overview of Integral Buddhism...
"Coming soon" to this blog near you... "Stay Tuned"

Here's my entry  for the Stylus DJ Mix Contest...
Grand Prize - Airfare to Miami Hotel & A DJ Slot at the Winter Music Conference
Click Below:

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