Hey, it’s all the rage these days.

Grab a cup of joe, and check it out, yo!

Nimbit
MySongStore.com

These seem to be similar to the other emerging players in the space, (which I discussed in an earlier post), with the exception of Nimbit, which appears to be pushing the angle that artists can sell their music via iTunes.

Perhaps more significantly, it appears that Nimbit is the first of these indie start-ups to include an option for artists to sell concert tickets. Adding new opportunities to sell concert tickets will be a key element for most independent bands, as they tend to focus on their live shows for promotion and to simply making a living.

It will be interesting to watch how this space continues to evolve, particularly in how these services compete against the recent partnership of MySpace/Snocap (also noted in my earlier post). Watch for Musicane and ReverbNation to follow suit by adding the option for ticket sales (and other merchandise) to their services.

The more options independent musicians have for selling their wares, the more they will be able to side-step the mainstream distribution channels (and restrictive recording contracts) of the Big Four music behemoths. But even though indies will have the tools to be successful with the DIY model, the space for marketing will still be in play and will be even more important as music continues to compete with other media for the consumer’s free time. They can try to utilize new marketing concepts and gain momentum with videos on YouTube, but one of the best forms of promotion for independent bands is allowing taping and tape-trading of their concert recordings.

(brace for shamless plug)

For (a lot) more on this topic, check out “My Research” over on the sidebar of this site –>

So the digital music realm has been going ga-ga over the recent MySpace/Snocap partnership that allows independent musicians to sell music directly from their MySpace pages via SnoCap’s digital storefront.

This is basically the meta version of something I’ve been talking about for the last 3-4 months. I’m not trying to stake claim to the idea (though I honestly did think of this exact model, and wondered aloud to several friends about when MySpace would catch on). It doesn’t really matter, and I don’t think it’s all that revelatory a concept. But the fact that a site so large as MySpace is now allowing (and hosting) independent music sales directly to fans, is a pretty big step.

Other small digital start-ups have been pushing digital storefronts for at least the last 9-12 months, with Musicane being the first to come to mind. More recently, Broadjam has a similar model and I imagine that whatever emerges from the eMinor/Reverb Nation start-up will be in the same vein. Perhaps these other services will offer musicians a bigger piece of the sales rev, because I’m not sure the breakdown in terms of percentages of sales via the MySpace/Snocap alliance appears to really be all that great for indie artists. MySpace/Snocap take a solid $0.45/track, which may not sound like much, but it will definitely squeeze the sale price up substantially, perhaps to the point where a good number of artists will be edging close to the $0.99/track price-point. Digital Music News has some good analysis of this argument, and discussion of who will benefit.

I agree that independent artists will gain what they want from MySpace while, maybe, making some additional cash. But, I doubt MySpace will really go out of its way to add services and customizations that could really improve the overall band merchandising on MySpace. My original idea was more focused on setting up the back-end software that could be modeled on Blogging software so that it would be easy-to-use, and also viral and open-source so that it would allow for customization. A big part of this was the options for alternate file types, something that MySpace/Snocap does not appear to offer. How about an option to sell FLAC, SHN, or other lossless file formats ? What about adding widgets to sell other related merchandise? I strongly feel that independent bands will continue to pick up steam only by playing great concerts, so why not have a widget that allows them not only to sell digital tracks, but concert tickets? It will be interesting to see how this plays out, particularly to watch the smaller upstarts (mentioned above) and what types of services they provide.

And as always, Bob Lefsetz provides some good musings on the subject too.

Update: Hypebot has a rather glowing review of ReverbNation/eMinor, which points to the additional services from ReverbNation that add fan-mail tools and customizable blog/website widgets. These elements definitely up the ante for the interests of Independent Artists, and are in line with my original thinking on this topic…to make it more like an open-source/customizable blogging platform. The Fan-mail tool is a key element which this has also already been done by Musicane, Jambase’s FanMail service and now FanBridge. But LMM wonders whether these added services will be enough to woo enough independent artists either away from their already-designed MySpace pages or from entering the highly-popular (and populated) giant?

Maybe. But, as suggested above, I’d submit that it will take a very special addition of many services to woo new (and already-existing) independent artists to any of these sites (Musicane, ReverbNation, Broadjam, Jambase marketing). If these services want indies to go their way, they should take the next big step and start offering independent artists the ability to sell all of their products to their fans directly. That means not just audio files in a variety of formats, but other merchandise, including probably the most important item for independents: concert tickets. Defintiely more on this later…

Michael Rapino of Live Nation spoke about the state of the live concert industry and its future (at the Concert Industry Consortium). He says there needs to be more focus on the Fan…damn right! More on this later, but for now, here are some links:

Keynote text

Keynote MP3 link

Helping Independent Bands Succeed:

Hypebot drops knowledge on two new businesses that are geared towards Independent musicians:

Music Arsenal offers a service for tracking data and contact info. Hypebot interviewed Music Aresenal’s Jimmy Winter.

Musicane gives artists the ability to offer downloads from their own websites; and (again) Hypebot has a good summary. Musicane has also partnered with Neilson Soundscan to allow independent musicians more access to the charts.

Speaking of new sites and businesses: Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a term that supposedly encompasses the next generation of web apps and businesses that boast more interactive capabilities.

Hypebot made a list of emerging music sites that would fall under the Web 2.0 umbrella.

Wired’s MonkeyBites Blog ponders the potential of web 2.0, and wonders if the blogosphere web-world is too small and esoteric to make that large of an impact, or if it just needs more time to disseminate.

And if you’re curious about all these new web apps and whether they’re really the next big thing, here’s a more comprehensive listing.

Other Digital Music Notes:

• The European Press has a positive outlook on the future of Digital Sales vs. CDs.

• But will the younger listeners really pay?

…because there’s certainly a lot of youthful animosity towards the larger recording industry and its focus on lawsuits and Digital Rights Management. An “I Hate DRM” site just launched, and appears to be more focused on info-sharing than anti-corporate ranting (thanks to the Digital Music Weblog for the tip).

• Once again NPR is pushing forward as one of the more innovative players in the new digital broadcasting realm, now hooking up with Melodeo to provide mobile podcast content to users.

• Digital music’s unexpected boom genre: Classical?

• Last.fm and Pandora are two of the emerging players in the burgeoning music recommendation/sharing market, but they work in very different ways. TechCrunch has the scoop on an app that tries to piece them together.