TOP100: Music top 100 (http://www.music-top100.com) has a fairly simple idea - register your music site, link to music-top100, and anyone that goes to thier site through the link credits your page with a "hit." Get enough hits, and you get into their top 100, organized by categories (general music, CDs, instruments, MP3s, pro audio, studios, bands and webcasts). What the benefit of those listings are is unclear, and the site, being fairly new, has very few "active" listings (if you don't send any hits to the site in 7 days, you drop off).
BANDIT: An established UK-based newsletter, The Bandit A&R Newsletter, is now available for subscription online. The Bandit (www.banditnewsletter.com) is a monthly publication helping ambitious and talented bands, singers and songwriters target their demo's to Music Business companies which are CURRENTLY looking for new acts. 24 companies are featured each month, with a least 6 features covering US companies and other international contacts. All the information comes directly from the people named, immediately prior to publication, for the highest possible accuracy, and can now be delivered by snail mail or E-mail.
DGOLPE: Launched by Acacia research (aren't they grasshoppers?), Soundbreak.com is a graphics and design-heavy music "lifestyle" site for the ages 15-35 demographic. The site's DJs (digital jocks) are selected for their interest and knowledge of alternative music and new media, including talents from KROQ, Y107 and KCRW. The West Hollywood-based site, complete with live studios, is attempting to become the MTV of the Internet, and it's Flash-heavy site really was cool looking and sounding - until it caused my G3 to crash.
PASTEMUSIC: PasteMusic.com is another site posting indie band music, selling their CDs at the site, and helping to promote them in other ways. Most Paste artists are independent, lesser-known musicians who deserve an audience, and they hope you'll be glad to discover them. They don't accept every band that submits material, and have worked with Vigilantes of Love, Michelle Malone, Mark Olson/Victoria Williams, and Over the Rhine. They now have over 40 bands on the site; you can email Nick at nick@pastemusic.com for more info.
WWW.COM & RIAA: LA-based WWW.com, a web music broadcaster, has signed a deal with the RIAA, agreeing to pay royalties to all artists whose music is streamed over their site. If you remember, the RIAA is up in arms about MP3.com, and the sites recent program of making MP3 streams of almost any CD available online to anyone who can prove that they own the disc. The RIAA made alot of moise through press releases and emails about the WWW.com deal, including the following sentence: "WWW.com's approach - recognizing the rights of artists, creators and copyright holders is in sharp contrast to that of MP3.com, a company that simply took music to which it had no rights and in now operating under the cloud of recording industry litigation." Watch for MP3's rebuttal, soon to be issued from under their own litigation umbrella.
NOT ANOTHER JOEL PELLETIER?: Yeah, yeah, we all, know I have a music site (www.joelp.com). But it seems I'm not the only Joel Pelletier who is ALSO a musician and ALSO has a music site. This guy with the really cool name, from Alberta, Canada, is a memeber of the band Phork. Their site, http://www.homestead.com/phork/home.html, features the band in photos, music and clipart helping to define their image. Not the most elegant, professional or fast-loading site around, but it's a great example of how musicians can network with each other (he found me doing an Internet search) and find new fans worldwide using their free ISP webspace.
LAPHIL: The Los Angeles Philharmonic has launched their new, improved website. The attractive site (www.laphil.org), besides current schedule info, features guest artist bios, complete program notes and online ticket purchasing (for individual performances or their many subscription series). Their database search features info by artist, repetoire, composer, series, genre, date, site content and other categories. Amazon.com will provide sound samples of certain repetoire, and, ofcourse, the opportunity to purchase any of the LA Phil's numerous recordings.
WEBTIPS: Who Owns Your Website (Pt 2)?A couple of issues ago I wrote about the disturbing trend of major (and some minor) record labels attempting to co-op artist's independence by REQUIREING bands to sign over their websites, and all website presence, to the record label, furthur controlling the artist's image and income sources. I recently received an email, forwarded from the band The Rosenbergs (www.therosenbergs.com), further illustrating the tendancy of the music business to assume that they have the right to take away ANY independence and rights of the artists that they sign. And what's worse, it's an example of how the music industry is looking to take the Internet and apply the same business models it has perpetuated for decades.In the last issue I wrote about The Farmclub (www.farmclub.com), a website accompanying USA Network's TV show "Jimmy & Doug's Farmclub." They spotlight signed and unsigned bands, giving new bands an opportunity to not only post their music and band info on the site, but to feature the band in performance on their nationally-broadcast TV show. The Rosenbergs were invited to perfom on the show, a great break for them. Then they got the contract, which was faxed to with a "15 minutes to fax back" request. That's when a familiar song started to play. An expected 2-page performance release turned into a 23 page "disaster," giving The Farmclub a 60-day exclusive option to sign the band to their label, with a 6 record deal taking ALL rights from the band, including INTERNET rights. The Farmclub would own the band's website, and all Internet-related sites, giving them the right to place any banner ads on the band's sites without compensating the band, or to shut them down at any time. The label would also have the sole right to approve what songs the band records, which producer to use, which studio to use, etc. The label could also dock 25% of the band's royalties if a member leaves, and breakup the remaining members at any time. The label would also own all "sync" rights for licensed TV and film use, and promised no tour support, marketing budget... Basically, the TV performance opportunity turned out to be an industry standard "demo deal," handed out by producers, production companies and labels on an hourly basis. The Internet gives bands a larger net to find fans, but they can also end up being fish in the same net cast by the industry sharks. It could provide great opportunities, but it won't make lawyers obsolete any time soon. |
© 2000 Music Connection Magazine.