the future of rock and roll
“the future of rock and roll” was the tagline for my college radio station. It’s also makes a nice strawman at which we can throw flaming balls of analysis in hopes of lighting something up. What am I talking about here? In the next few weeks I plan on reviewing the companies that are helping indie musicians by building the tools that support a DIY model of music marketing/business success.
These businesses give artists the ability to do everything from selling digital tracks online to creating complete merchandising and ticketing opportunities. In the middle are sites dedicated to breaking artists via popular votes. On the edges are the sites that cater to fans and fanclubs. It’s a crowded space and a fast moving one as well. Expect to see some shakedown and shakeout in the next few months. Here’s a quick list of some of the companies I hope to be considering. Please add your own in the comments if I’ve missed something.
Snocap
Nimbit
Amie Street
Sonific
Indie911
MySongStore
Project Opus
Musicane
Blast My Music
Reverb Nation
Music Today
Sell A Band
Strayform
Fanbridge
Fanscape
Jamendo
iMeem
Freaked out yet? It just gets worse. I’ll try to categorize these things and put them in their appropriate competitive spaces for you. For now, I’ll just consider this my bookmarking post.
Seeqpod
hey there i saw you’re making a list of companies..
have a look at our video and send me your email and i’d be happy to send you some materials… COMPANY VIDEO: www.sethharden.com/indie911/promo.zip
thanks and all the best,
Justin
founder, indie911
Cool. I’m looking forward to more on this topic.
Now THIS is a topic worth discussing!
How about emusic.com? I’ve been a subscriber for over a year and love it.
From Wikipedia, “Most of eMusic’s contracts are with independent labels, giving the service a reputation for primarily offering indie rock, indie pop, punk rock, jazz and classical music. eMusic highlights its offerings through a host of exclusive editorial content, along the lines of monthly “editor’s picks”, columns and guides. The company also cites statistics from the American Association of Independent Music that independents’ market share of CD sales is 28%.”
Supporting emusic.com not only supports the independent artists, it intentionally does not encode the downloaded music. Also from Wiki, “Gene Rumsey, general manager of Concord Music Group, says eMusic fans are not the typical college-age file sharers. They are more rabid fans who he believes are less likely to engage in online song swapping. Serious music fans would also appreciate that musicians are actually paid for every download.”
I don’t think emusic fits into what I’m interested in. I’m looking at the tools that a musician can use to “self promote”. eMusic - like iTunes - doesn’t seem to fit this model unless I’m missing something.
Why in the world neither iTunes or eMusic has an embeddable “Widget” with shopping cart functionality is beyond me. Apple just recently released a social networking iTunes widget but unless it includes ecommerce it’s really not helping anyone out.
I’ll take a cruise through eMusic and see what’s up.
Hello, from Project Opus!
I came across your list, and I’d be happy to help you with your review. I believe you have my e-mail address with this post, so you’re more than welcome to give me a shout.
I’m curious to see how this list continues to develop!
Cheers,
Jeremy, from the Opus Team
http://www.projectopus.com
Fuzz.com is another.