The Ad Supported Music Space: Where Is It Going?
The music industry is currently very close to my heart, especially on the internet. This is mostly due to the new project our company will be launching very soon, RouteNote.
With all the recent talk about the music industry and how it is suffering, there has been a few companies trying to push the envelope and develop a new model by which the industry will adopt. These models are ad supported and they come in different sizes and shapes. Within this post I will discuss these companies and there endeavors to change the industry their own way.
Imeem: Imeem is a social network that focuses on providing services and platforms that are fully supported by the advertising generate throughout the site. They are currently based in San Francisco right across the road from Snocap. Imeem is primarily focused around the music industry and they have been signing a lot of distribution deals with companies such as EMI. Imeem has also joined the new Open Social platform from Google, which is a big step forward for developers. Imeem doesnt allow users to download all the songs on the site, but it does pay artists for the amount of streams they receive compared to the overall streams on the site.
Qtrax: Qtrax is still yet to launch and is based on a innovative p2p file sharing platform. Qtrax has already signed deals with Universal, Sony/ATV, Warner Music Group, The Orchard, EMI Music Publishing and EMI Music, TVT Records, Go Digital, ASCAP and BMI. The Company is based in New York, New York and Melbourne, Australia. This platform pays artists royalties based on advertising, but they dont disclose much information at present.
Ruckus: Ruckus, the premier digital entertainment service for colleges and universities offers a myriad of ways for college students to connect with one another. Currently Ruckus has over 3.2 million tracks licensed in its catalog, from a mixture of indies and major labels. Ruckus dont really talk to much on their website about how they pay artists but im guessing it must be from streams on their player. Im not even too sure if you can download any of the songs from their catalog and be able to place them on your iPod!
These are just some of the major players in the ad supported music space at present, but there are several other notables, such as Spiral Frog, Slacker, RCRD LBL and We7.
3 Comments
Of those you review I believe Imeen, streaming and Qtrax, downlaods have the best chance of survival. Both are clearing licenses and without content no matter how good the service is it won’t grab the consumers attention.
Ruckus is interesting if you are at college, RCRD LBL is a gimmick it’s one small label, big deal. We7 who wants to hear radio commercials every time in play a song! The frog is dead so no need to mention it again.
Check out projectplaylist for a very successful service.
For Ruckus, just get Tunebite or FairUse4WM and convert your downloads into MP3 files you can play on your personal player.