One number stood out on a press release from yet another Internet music site: 15.
"PureNetworks, an Internet site developed, owned and operated by Austin Heap, 15, has just unveiled their latest interactive website for the music industry," read the statement, which was written by Heap's mom.
Heap has already cut a link-plus-commission deal with Internet CD store CDNow for his new site, PureRadio. He hopes to turn the youth music-finding site into a connection point for radio stations and their teenaged target audience.
"I get 15 percent of all CD sales, and if the site does good enough, it'll go up," said Heap, who was speaking from his cell phone while on a church retreat to Mexico. He also has a big-time advertiser, Capital One, on board as sponsor.
Heap hails from the Columbus, Ohio, suburb of Powell, which just got its first traffic light.
"Austin's just an extremely creative young man," said Ray Heap, Austin's father. He said he knows little of his son's inspiration but he supports him.
"I pay the bills. I let his imagination go and see what he can do with it."
This isn't Heap's first splash. His site devoted to Comedy Central's South Park cartoon was judged the coolest site in its class by USA Today, which also wrote him up in an article. And both Hard Copy and NBC News have aired pieces on Austin, said his father.
Those kudos are part of what landed him the deal with CDNow and a connection at Columbus radio station, WNCI FM. The station is weighing a deal that would promote Heap's site and use it as an audience polling point.
So is extreme youth the key to selling today's Internet music start-up? It certainly doesn't hurt. "Right now, digital music is only something people our age can understand. The entire digital age is ours," said 18-year-old Angelo Sotira, who works the MP3 scene to promote his hub site Dimension Music. He's been doing it since 1997, when he was all of 16.
"What we're interested in is how it is going to make companies money in the future," said Sotira.
It's a real-life reenactment of The Simpsons episode in which Bart's defiant catch phrase -- "I do what I like" -- swept Springfield and became an adult inspiration and a cottage industry.
It seems that is the trump card of extreme youth: an extreme tendency to do what you like, focus groups be damned.
"Really, I was after creating a cool site," Sotira said of the inception of Dimension Music. "[Companies] have to pay attention because it's something that's going to change their line of work in a few years."
As a result, Sotira, barely graduated from high school, is frequently tugging on golden ears.
"It's cool. I get to talk every day with people like [former Geffen Records exec] Jim Griffin, [new media specialist for Michael Ovitz's Artists Managers Group] John Parres, and [Hollywood Records Senior Vice President] Kevin Gasser," said Sotira. "These are people who normally people my age wouldn't get to speak with."
Gasser and Parres have both praised Sotira and forecast his success. His site gets up to 30,000 unique visitors each day.
Sotira drives home his generation's cachet with what he said is another undeniable reality: "I'm 18 ... and no matter what advertising you run or how you promote to me, I will never buy a CD again."
A frightening notion to some, said Joeli Yaguda, vice president of marketing for MusicMatch.
"This space is one where young people definitely offer a snapshot of not just who we're marketing to -- but the behaviors of who we're going to have to deal with," Yaguda said.
"What people see in teens is scary: There's an expectation that you can get it all for free. That understanding of what kids respect -- all wrapped into someone motivated enough to start up their own business -- it fits well in this industry."
"It's the first industry where I'm seen as a total grandma," said the 30-year-old Yaguda. "It's kind of depressing." From 19-year-old Nullsoft founder Justin Frankel -- who recently sold his MP3 software and webcasting empire to America Online in a stock-for-stock transaction worth approximately $400 million -- to Sotira, Yaguda bumps into the phenomenon all the time.
It wasn't until MusicMatch had signed an advertising deal with hub site MP3 2000 that the company realized exactly who it was dealing with.
President Raphael Kang had been very responsive to MusicMatch, Yaguda said. Then one day, Kang, who lives in Korea, was on a conference call with Yaguda and another MusicMatch marketer. Kang asked how old they were. The question seemed inappropriate -- until they asked Kang the same one. He replied that he was 14.
"When we paid him, that was the first time he'd brought money into the family and he was really excited. That was great. It was strange."
Of course, neither Heap nor Sotira can yet point to any major funding deals. But wait a few months, Sotira says.
MusicMatch's Yaguda emphasizes that youth is not some default deal-winner in the Internet music business. It's more of a phenomenon than automatic credibility.
"It's almost like rock stardom. You're dealing with 17-, 18-year-old kids. [When] even an 18-year-old kid can go public for 5 million bucks, people glamorize it."
"Angelo's a great person to talk to and savvy," continued Yaguda. "But it doesn't mean he's automatically going to be the person we partner with, just because he's 18."
It's the ability to execute that's key, she said.
Sotira agrees that youth doesn't guarantee a smooth ride. Quite the opposite.
"I'm 18. When I first started, it was a little more difficult because I really didn't know what I was doing.... I could be manipulated pretty easily. I still can be, but I have a pretty good idea of how things work.
"When the guy with the checkbook is making out a check, he may think, 'Wait, are we doing the right thing here? This guy is only 18 years old!'"
Heap affirms that his age has been a strike against him as well.
"We were considering doing a members-only section, with a one-time fee for access to cheaper CDs. And so I called [credit card transaction company] VeriFone and they said, 'Sorry, you're not 18.' I called the banks for a merchant account: 'Sorry, you're not 18.' I've found that's been my biggest problem."
So if they can't point to solid, big-money deals yet, where's the real proof that being young counts for something? Can it really make a difference?
"Absolutely," said Sotira. "I'm talking to you, aren't I?"
