AmieStreet - Artists upload their music which can be purchased for free at first, but increases in price as the number of downloads indicate a growing popularity. This seems like a good idea as the sliding pricing scale tops out at 98 cents per song, but the music variety is pretty much all over the place, and not in a good way. Using the site is like looking for a needle in a haystack for new tunes BUT if you want to purchase from established artists like Architecture in Helsinki or the Cold War Kids you can get some pretty sweet deals.
OurStage.com - This site puts the power in the hands of the fans in the same vein as American Idol. Users log on and vote for their favorite artists with monthly winners receiving $5,000 dollars in a prize money. While a giant popularity contest doesn't seem like it would work, the site is gaining momentum and has begun hosting stages at many of the country's largest music festivals. Plus, winner include some pretty decent artists like actor Jason Schwartzman's band Coconut Records. I just can't figure out how they plan to make money off of this site though.
4 comments:
I signed up my band for Amiestreet. It's kind of a bum deal. Each song you upload gets a $5 storage and data transfer overhead. The artist doesn't see any of it until that $5 is paid off. Meaning, every semi-failed song is money in Amiestreet's pocket.
And since, as you pointed out, the interface is poor and it's hard to find things, you're better off pushing your music through other venues. Doing it yourself is the cheapest way.
Also interesting you mention the established artists on there. It keeps coming back to the new models working for established artists. Radiohead can do the variable price thing because they're the biggest band in the world. NiN can release their album via torrent because they're just as popular. The same applies to people living off of their blogs.
That being said, I'll plug Asobi Seksu, one of the first "established" artists on Amiestreet.
These sites sound good for artists and seem to be designed for artists. I can understand the importance of this because I have friends who are in a band. But what about the fans? They have to pay more for more popular music? Also as a side note I agree that things like this would be hard to compete with iTunes, because I hadn't heard of these sites before, but I had definitely heard of iTunes.
I think it's interesting that people are still able to compete with iTunes. iTunes has the reputation and widespread popularity that these new services do not (and probably never will) have. In my mind, iTunes would become an almost perfect entity if they simply removed their song protection from the files that you purchase. If I could buy a song for $ .99 and be able to put it on any device I pleased, I would definitely dedicate my soul them. I think I heard rumors that Apple was considering this some time ago, but nothing has seemed to come from it.
As everyone mentions in their comment , it does seem difficult for these new sites? to compete with iTunes now. Also, how many people do use iTunes? Now music is all over the internet for free.
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