Web sites let users pick, share, market music

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 10, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

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Paul Westerberg has released a 44-minute MP3 with "sloppy brilliance."

TuneCore

RapidShare

All Number One Radio

For some music fans the notion of online music starts and ends with iTunes and MySpace, the two most talked-about providers.

But musicians, radio stations and fans are delivering music that end-runs those sites:

* CBS Radio in Denver has launched a whole series of online radio sites, including one where you format your own playlists, choose your favorites and ban artists you hate.

* Fans use services such as RapidShare.com to move huge blocks of music to each other. And artists continue to find new ways to use the Net.

* Local sensation DeVotchKa used TuneCore.com to release its entire back catalog overseas in March while simultaneously releasing the new disc A Mad and Faithful Telling.

"We're trying to do the things that these huge record companies have been doing for years," said DeVotchKa manager Rob Thomas. Story 3

BRAVE NEW WORLD

The Internet continues to change perceptions on how to get music, whether it's through companies like TuneCore or newer services that allow anyone to exchange large data files. Three innovations flying under the radar:

Private file-sharing

Bob Lefsetz, who writes an influential newsletter for the music industry, constantly comments on the changes in music and the way fans are able to dig out music on their own through sites such as DontBurnThePig.org, a clearinghouse for Dave Matthews Band news and music.

"I found a cornucopia of MP3s, available via Sendspace. That's how we get our music these days. SendSpace. Or RapidShare. Or YouSendIt. The bigwigs probably have no idea what I'm talking about, they're too focused on (illegal file-sharing sites such as LimeWire or PirateBay). This is DIRECT DOWNLOADING!" Lefsetz said.

These sites let users upload files up to 100 megabytes, usually for free. They can pay more for increased capacity. It's a convenient way to send large files, especially video. But it makes piracy easy, and investigators believe it's a preferred method for moving other illegal materials such as child pornography.

TuneCore

In a matter of minutes, a musician could record a song and upload it to iTunes through TuneCore for a flat fee - the ultimate use of "long tail" marketing strategies.

"Basically our society rewards creativity. You go back hundreds of years ago and the traveling bards performing Shakespeare were literally on the same rung as prostitutes," said TuneCore founder and CEO Jeff Price. "It's about fame. People get famous. Or they get infamy. It's their ability to make money off of that fame."

CD distributors historically took a percentage of each sale, but that model has changed when it comes to digital sales.

"You have unlimited virtual inventory that replicates itself on demand. It never runs out of stock."

But getting in the door is a problem.

"You can't go and deal directly with someone like an iTunes. You still needed to go through a gatekeeper to gain access to that distribution," Price said. "They don't want to do deal with 10 million individual unsigned bands, then 10 million 20-page contracts . . . then make 10 million payments out to the 10 million individuals."

TuneCore acts as the middle man, charging a flat fee for putting musicians' songs and albums into as many as 14 online stores, including iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody. TuneCore takes no percentage of each sale.

"All you're doing is delivering a digital file once, from Point A to Point B. Once you're done, you're done," Price said. "Thirty bucks and instantly your record is available around the planet with unlimited inventory."

TuneCore allows musicians to instantly transfer all proceeds to themselves, as well as explore detailed data about who bought their music and where - a crucial tool in routing tours.

"All the information is very valuable, and it's a click away," Thomas said.

TuneCore has moved 500,000 songs from 45,000 different albums without any rejections. Nine Inch Nails has released music through it, as well as Keith Richards, Jay-Z and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

Internet radio

Radio on the Web, however, is even more vast. In 2007, 33 percent of the nation listened to radio over the Web, according to radio audience tracking firm Bridge Ratings. That's expected to hit 40 percent by year-end.

CBS Radio has pushed hard on the Internet. Its 200 stations nationwide stream live, and CBS has partnered with AOL Radio's 200 stations, making it the biggest force in online radio, said Bill Gamble, program director for several Denver stations as well as online-only sites such as I Hear Dead People and Only Number One Hits.

"We're in a world where we need to rethink," said Don Howe, senior vice president of CBS Radio in Denver. "Nobody is immune if they don't rethink their business model. With the introduction and growth of Internet radio we saw a new (demographic) called 'at work' with radio being an all-day listening experience. We decided to dive in."

The AOL partnership is key, Gamble said.

"They have some great channels. They have an all-Slayer channel for the metalheads out there. They have a classic hiop- hop channel, and one of my favorites, the video game soundtrack channel," he said.

It allows advertisers to target their audience by demographic, city and ZIP code, he noted. Besides ad revenues, fans can click through on any song that's playing to buy it through various music services.

CBS Radio declined to reveal revenue figures.

The latest incarnation, in beta testing at play.it, allows fans to choose their favorite artists, rank them in importance and generally create a personal site that caters to their tastes. The site can be shared with friends, and fans can ban certain artists and even specific songs that they never want to hear. The software then makes other suggestions for music, much like the Web site Pandora.com, based on a user's tastes.

"A lot of the Internet radio stations have helped us immensely," Thomas noted, giving Denver's DeVotchKa a strong fan base in Seattle, Cincinnati and other far-flung cities. "Their reach is so much greater than wherever they're based out of."

Stumbling blocks

The new digital frontier is not without its perils. Former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg just released one of the most acclaimed albums of his career, 49:00, for 49 cents, through TuneCore and Amazon. It featured Westerberg originals but ended with a medley of snippets of classic-rock songs.

The album was suddenly scrubbed from both sites (but is still widely, illegally available on the Internet). His management is not commenting, but fans think attorneys for the Beatles objected to the inclusion of Hello Goodbye. In 49:00's place is a new song, 5:05, where he sings "It ain't about the money," and "If you wanna sue me, then sue me / you bring a lawsuit, I'll bring a swimsuit," before going into an unprintable two-word salute. Contrary to the end, he closes the song with a snippet of the Beatles' Oh Darling.

Internet-only radio * I Hear Dead People:

IhearDeadPeople.com

* All Number One Radio:

AllNumberOneRadio.com

* KBCO Studio C on demand:

kbco.com/pages/ studioc_ondemand.html

Growth in Internet radio industry * 2006: 24 percent of U.S. population listened to online radio

* 2007: 33 percent of U.S. population

* *2008: 40 percent of U.S. population

Music for free or cheap * Nine Inch Nails' The Slip was the second album the band gave away for free via the Internet. It went up May 5 and is available indefinitely at the band's Web site in both MP3 format and in a lossless FLAC format that Web audiophiles prefer for superior sound.

* If you register at BobDylan.com you'll get a free download of Dreamin' of You, taken from the 1998 Time Out of Mind sessions. It's from his upcoming Telltale Signs triple CD of officially unreleased studio outtakes due Oct. 7.

* If you didn't make it to the Mile High Music Festival in Commerce City in July, you could have watched much of it at AT&T's Blueroom Web site at attblueroom.com.

* Craig Epstein, brother of the late singer/songwriter Howie Epstein of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, has started releasing demos from Howie's earliest days through CDBaby.com.

• August 11, 2008

  12:18 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dummas writes:

  We are witnessing the demise of the commercial music industry as we know it. I don't feel a bit sorry for anyone working in these music factories. For decades they spoon fed us only what they liked while shutting out countless talented musicians. Commercial radio has become deplorable at best. They rerun a 40 song play list all day every day (this bodes for all genres). Then you have to listen to the inane drivel from the disc jockeys in between the commercials and the played to death songs. Not to mention local advertising on the radio is just plain horrific to listen to.

  Now people can even bypass the monopoly that Itunes holds on music and set up play lists. For the price of an Ipod they can now purchase a smart phone and listen to these play lists for free and legally anywhere. This has opened up the doors for indie musicians to find mass audiences they once were denied. They can now compete with main stream musicians. Sure, they have to be a little more savvy and have to work a little harder but, this will ensure that only quality musicians will survive.

  Goodbye and good riddance commercial music!

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