Pete Gifford wants to be a rock star. The British experimental solo artist has put out six CDs during his 25-year career, while driving taxis and doing dock work to pay the bills. He heard about unsigned band hub site MP3.com, and posted some free tracks about four months ago.
Gifford says visitors download his songs on the site 25 to 30 times a day for free.
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"I get quite a load of emails [from] people," he says. "[But] they don't say, 'Can we buy your CDs?'"
MP3.com wants to be the first place unsigned bands go to get their music heard. It sports free tracks in the open MP3 audio format and also makes and markets physical CDs.
Pitching itself as part of the movement to overthrow traditional labels, the site claims its online DAM record label can get exposure for artists and give them a bigger cut -- 50 percent -- of the sales.
Like most MP3.com artists, Gifford is happy with the publicity and contacts, and he's psyched that the site can host his MP3 files. He's also gotten a few gigs doing audio for games, and some calls about doing music for television. As for the sales, he says, "I'm obviously disappointed, but the main thing is to get the music out there and to get [your] name known."
It's tough being an early scout into digital music space. MP3.com relies on its bands to generate traffic, and founder Michael Robertson has said he will give his bands and users whatever format or feature they want.
The bands' experiences to date raise several questions: How can they best use MP3.com? Can they put a price tag on buzz? Can they make money with this new model? And how can their work stand out among the site's 56,000 songs from 11,000 artists, some with names like "Big Poo Generator"?
Hal Bringman, spokesman for MP3.com, says the company is still in its quiet period after its stellar public offering last month. Shares have since dropped down to around US$30, still giving the company a market value of $2 billion. MP3.com plans to use the $344 million from its IPO for the expansion of sales and marketing and for acquisitions, according to its prospectus. "It's a great model. Bands should have the opportunity to have their music heard," says Steve Grady of online record label Emusic. "But the question for them is how to make money long-term."
For now, MP3.com relies primarily on ad revenues, although some pundits have said that giving music away for free and selling related concert tickets and T-shirts could be a new business model.
So far, it hasn't done much to actively promote bands, other than listing the most popular downloads, bestselling CDs, and hand-picking "featured artists" and "hot new MP3s." But MP3.com sponsored the tour of Alanis Morrissette and Tori Amos this summer, and five bands from the site will join the tour, according to its Web site.
Although no MP3.com band has gone on to the massive popularity of, say, Madonna, being hand-picked does bring some attention.
The Pasadena, California, band Red Delicious, which has a No. 2 hit on the site's Top 40 list, has gotten calls from several big labels. It's also gotten media coverage and will play its very first show with rock god Tom Petty, thanks to a recent MP3.com-sponsored contest.
The band has sold about 600 CDs on the site -- which makes it the No. 3 top-selling DAM CD. It's hardly platinum, but not bad for a band without the backing of a major label.
"It's been a very good marketing tool for us," says band member Rob King.
New York Horns started out as a brass section for hire, but its songs have gotten over 35,000 downloads on MP3.com since June. So they've decided to launch a band, says longtime saxophonist John Isley.
The band also used the site to forge contacts with other artists, like Tommy Bowes of Tower of Power, and with NBC studios. They've only sold 120 DAM CDs, but Isley is happy with the marketing. "It helps to be liked by the powers-that-be," he says, since the band is listed on founder Robertson's "favorites" Web page.
Ron Wasserman of Fisher -- a band that came to the site with about 9,000 names on its mailing list -- says three months of exposure on the site has led to "a great response from the record companies" about their 80,000 downloads.
Fisher is close to signing a major label deal, he says. "In the future there will be royalties per download." But even some popular bands aren't satisfied. Yellow Sloth Chicken Broth's popularity on MP3.com has been frustrating for its guitarist and cook-by-day Ted Angel. Since May, the Stockton, California, band's songs have gotten as many as 500 downloads a day. But the band has sold about 15 CDs.
"That's the bad part about it," says Angel.
On the other hand, he says, MP3.com "doesn't invest in a band at all. Obviously, they're just doing it to get the advertising money. I'd be surprised if they were music lovers trying to beat the record labels. I think it's bullshit."
But still, he says, "It's brought a lot more traffic to [my indie label] site, and a lot of people are hearing our name."
Angel says his band's popularity is not all due to quality.
Popular subject matter helps -- "Gillian Anderson (I Wanna Be With You)" is No. 17 overall. "We're probably not the best band in punk [on the site]," he says. But Angel says his band would stay on the site as long as it kept attracting eyeballs, and eardrums.
The Swedish group Trance Control has had a No. 4 song and given out about 1 million downloads. They've sold about 600 CDs since last September. The band is signing a deal with online promoter Popwire to try to get its music played on radio and television for royalties.
Trance Control has benefited from the exposure -- especially since they haven't even played a live gig to date. But it is on its way off the site, says band member Alex Carlborg.
"You don't make big money selling CDs," he says. It's also harder for new artists with little or no followings to stand out of the masses now. When his band signed up, there were fewer than 700 bands on the site.
With 5 million visitors to the site a month, "I thought it would be [getting] more exposure," says hip hop artist YD, who has posted music files as Tha Execushana. YD, who is in Tennessee, says the site is good for networking, but he's had no luck selling CDs.
"It's like being on a label with 10,000 labelmates, and all vying for the attention of the label," says Glen Rubenstein, of the Petaluma, California, band Headboard.
The band has sold about 200 CDs, has recently been in the charts, and has been picked for compilations and artist spotlight on MP3.com. He thinks the site is the best place for unsigned bands.
Bands on the site are speculating that MP3.com will find more ways to promote its bands.
"A lot of bands [that] haven't been picked for things [like an artist spotlight] are starting to feel left out," Rubenstein says. But bands can't expect that posting their songs alone will make them famous.
"MP3.com has no reason to push you unless you're working hard to push yourself" by doing online and real world marketing, Rubenstein says.
