SONG CONTEST BLOG

Following his successful ‘free’ distribution initiative in the UK, Prince, who is both a pioneer and a royal pain in the industry’s ass, is following up on his previous co-venture success with an online ‘bundle’ initiative launching on the 24th March at lotusflow3r.com.  For $77, Prince fans will have access to three new albums from the artist presently known as Prince in digital format as well as physical through Target stores across the US.  The site will provide an entire experience around the music and will undoubtedly create new buzz for this extraordinary recording artist and performer.

Digital music distribution is a hot item on this blog and those who read it know that I keep a close eye on the three major players catering to small independents, namely ReverbNation, TuneCore, and CD Baby.  All three have lowered the barrier of entry for indie artists and small labels to distribute their catalogues to iTunes and other major online retailers for upfront fees as opposed to hefty commissions by the likes of The Orchard, INgrooves, IODA, IRIS, and others, who generally avoid small players anyway.  Now, a new digital music distribution dotcom has emerged but with an ad-supported business model.  WaTunes aims to thrive on ad revenue by providing artists and labels with a free (no frontend fees, no backend commissions) distribution channel to online retailers such as iTunes, Napster, and eMusic.

The slightly questionable website service description and makeshift appearance promises to provide the same level of content marketing and distribution as its rivals, and much more.  In theory, WaTunes is offering a very attractive service to a huge potential market, but is it sustainable?  SpiralFrog, We7 and Qtrax have yet to prove that their ad-supported download services have legs.  In this economy, I’m not sure that any upstart can scale on advertising revenue alone.

Business models aside, I’m somewhat concerned about WaTunes’ cryptic service description and the fact that their web pages are riddled with spelling mistakes and poor marketing copy.  It’s a bit like walking into a fancy restaurant only to notice that the toilets are overflowing with shit halfway through your dinner.  Going with my gut here (no pun intended), I feel that the musician-led platform may be biting off more than they can chew… but I would love to be proven otherwise.  I like free.  Who doesn’t?

Over the weekend, I learned that Nimbit, which has been on my radar since Jon Delange of Tinderbox Music introduced me to the company’s CEO, Patrick Faucher, several months ago, has secured venture capital to the tune of $1 million.  The company provides eCommerce solutions for artists and music promoters, and bespoke services such as digital distribution, CD/DVD replication and merchandise production, and web design.  The company’s turnkey approach incorporates web technology to market and distribute digital music with physical solutions such as download cards and promotional prints.  Nimbit appears to be acting in two ways: the first, as a technology company developing digital retail and marketing solutions such as embeddable storefront apps; and, the second, as a broker for commercial print requirements, from CD/DVD replication to custom-branded merchandise which complements its web facet. 

Nimbit’s DownloadCards (credit card-sized branded cards with a unique ‘download’ code) can be sold or given away to the fan at the live venue and later redeemed online as digital tracks through a custom Nimbit store.  This is an excellent example of digital commerce converging with physical commerce, however, DiscRevolt offers an almost identical solution.  Emusu is also competing for a share of this market.  In terms of digital music distribution, Nimbit is facing strong competition from TuneCore, ReverbNation, and CD Baby.  As for print and duplication, Discmakers dominates the US music market and recently acquired Oasis, another formidable opponent in this space.  Although Nimbit’s individual services are not particularly competitive as stand-alone features, the services, as a group offering, and Nimbit’s convenient all-under-one-roof approach, may satisfy artists and promoters with a slight edge.

POPcuts, a Y Combinator company, is an indie MP3 boutique with an interesting twist.  Similar in nature to Amie Street, the online store provides music fans with an incentive to discover and purchase new music.  Each time a track you purchased sells, you get a cut of the proceeds.  Previous buyers get a larger cut, so it pays to be a “trendspotter”.  The element of A&R role-play is one that I am discovering more and more of in various forms across the web.  See yesterday’s post on Slicethepie & Bebo.

I’ve been following Bandcamp for a little while now (see earlier post) and I noticed today that the company made some revisions to its home page.  Most notably, Bandcamp created a “features” page which lists the entire suite of tools and services.  I was also delighted to learn that Bandcamp now provides Creative Commons licensing designations:

Under the Creative Commons licensing designations, artists who make their music public, in this case via Bandcamp, are providing limited rights to other artists and music fans who wish to remix, share, or use the music in a variety of ways without having to formally ask permission.

Not yet familiar with Creative Commons?  Overview:

Ad-supported music service, Qtrax, hopes to differentiate itself by offering downloads previously only available as bootlegs.  This move may position the company atop of 25 million tracks under this category alone, assuming that that copyright clearance hurdles can be overcome.  In the mean time, Peter Gabriel’s competing ad-supported music service, We7, has announced a partnership with NME.com.  The strategy is geared toward increasing the value of advertising real estate by diverting traffic to the popular British indie music zine which is likely to improve the combined user time spent online and, resultantly, drive more ad revenue.  The two music services have been in the works for some time now and have faced great difficulty in both securing all the major catalogues and financing their operations through advertising alone, a model that will meet further challenges during the present economic downturn when advertisers are being particularly frugal.

DiscRevolt provides an esthetically pleasing physical solution for the digital delivery of music media. Like DropCards, DiscRevolt is music-centric and caters to the artist’s need to promote on the field (street, venue, what have you…) with a product that’s a cross between a flyer and a CD (or perhaps an alternative to a branded USB Wristband?).  The company prints the artist’s artwork on a double-sided plastic card and includes a custom code for the receiver to redeem digital music media from the DiscRevolt storefront.  At $90 per 100 prints, it’s a little cheaper than manufacturing CDs and its wallet sized for convenience.  It looks smart and can be sold or given away.  Downloads are tracked and available through DiscRevolt’s social network applications on MySpace and Facebook.  See MusicPin also, a competing solution which showcased at Midem 2009.