Thursday, July 10, 2008

snapshot 7/10/08

Ludacris' digital music play
But one rap luminary thinks there is a business in collecting music from unsigned acts and posting it on the Internet. Ludacris, the Grammy-Award-winning rapper known for his hits like "Chicken and Beer," is one of the founders of WeMix, a Web site where unknown 50 Cents can find a wider audience - that is, if they pass muster with the rest of the Web site's users. "It's almost like a virtual American Idol," says Ludacris, whose real name is Chris Bridges.

Ludacris and his partner, Matt Apfel, a former reality television show producer, have latched onto an increasing popular concept on the Internet called "crowd sourcing." The rapper singles out acts that he thinks are good. Then, Ludacris lets the users of WeMix's pick the songs that rise to the top of the site's home page. This week's favorite is Wally J.'s ribald "Booty On My YouTube," which has been played 614,938 times. That's a lot of mouse clicks for a Web site that only went live in June.


Exclusive Live Recordings From... LimeWire?
LimeWire is now delivering a slate of exclusive live recordings, an unlikely source for fresh content. On Wednesday, the company disclosed it Live at Lime Recording Series, part of a recently-launched paid store. The file-sharing giant, which started recording sessions in June, is now offering EPs from The Morning Benders, Sloan, Tigers and Monkeys, and Lucy Wainwright Roche. Each track is being sold for 99-cents, and subscription packages are also applied. All tracks are MP3s encoded at 256kbps.


MyAWOL, a music company that grasps reality
myAWOL is simultaneously a music-centric multimedia content company, a vehicle for discovering, promoting and capitalizing on musical talent, and a resource for anyone in the music industry looking to make money doing what they love. It’s part old school MTV and part new school record label, with servings of event promotion thrown in for good measure.

The experience is centered around 90-second video clips that feature video bloggers highlighting news, introducing new featured artists, and pointing out places to click to get more information or buy a few tracks. For unsigned artists, the company offers a range of free tools and documents for navigating the business. These include a database of contract templates, a professional web-based video editing application, analytics and guides on how to build a street team, how to choose a manager and so on. Any artist can create a profile, upload content and set the price to sell music through the site.

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