Music websites return, but can they reverse the downward spin?
Folk singer David Grossman’s lifestyle and the term ‘’rock star'’ aren’t typically uttered in the same sentence.
Though the 36-year-old musician from Arizona plays hundreds of gigs a year, most are in small bars and coffee shops.
So it’s no surprise that on the question of free music downloads, Grossman differs radically from the Metallicas and Dr. Dres of the world, who have fought it in and out of court as sales-damaging copyright infringement.Grossman is one of thousands of musicians cheering the return of Garageband.com, a website that showcases songs of up-and-coming and going-nowhere acts through free downloads and streaming, peer reviews and rankings.
The site, launched in 1999 with industry heavyweights like Beatles producer George Martin and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison as consultants, went offline in February after failing to meet operating expenses.
Tom Zito, a former Washington Post music critic who helped found Garageband Records, hoped to resurrect the site with a distribution deal to put Garageband albums in stores, but that never materialized.
Finally, some of the site’s users and employees scraped together enough money to bring it back online.
WELCOME NEWS
The site’s return last month is welcome news to Grossman and the tens of thousands of his peers whose music can be found on it. Besides providing information about how to buy his CDs, it helps Grossman land gigs by bringing his music to the attention of club owners and party planners who prowl the Net looking for local entertainers.
‘’The people who are complaining about [free downloads], they’re backward,'’ Grossman said. ‘They would see the wheel as a threat, and say, `What’s going to happen to sandal companies when the wheel comes out?’ ‘’
Though sites like Garageband are popular with indie musicians, turning a profit from obscure music has proven elusive.
The Internet Underground Music Archive was nearly derailed last year before the online music company Vitaminic acquired it.
IUMA.com ‘’was sort of on the verge of breaking even'’ when cutbacks from EMusic forced it to turn away new acts in February 2001, said IUMA founder Jeff Patterson.
Part of the problem is that Web surfers eager to hear unknown acts don’t necessarily buy their CDs.
CD Baby, a small company in Portland, Ore., which sells discs only on the Internet, handles record sales for both IUMA and Garageband.com. And though CD Baby bills itself as the second-largest online seller of independent music after Amazon.com, its success has been modest.
The company’s revenue has increased consistently, from $100,000 in 1999 to $1.4 million in 2001, according to vice president John Steup. It has turned a profit since 1997 when founder Derek Sivers would bike to the post office with a backpack full of discs.
CD Baby lets the artists set the price for their records, including those sold through Garageband. Typically, the bands sell discs for $10 to $12. CD Baby keeps $4 per CD sold, and the band keeps the rest. The artists are free to sell their discs anywhere else they want.
CD Baby says that in a record deal with a major label, musicians may only make $1 to $2 per disc.
NEW AVENUES
Clearly, record sales alone won’t keep operations like Garageband and IUMA afloat, so the sites are searching for new ways to make money. Much of IUMA’s revenue came from concerts featuring the site’s most popular acts, said Patterson, adding that IUMA is also considering charging users to download songs but would leave the decision to the individual bands.
Garageband plans to continue permitting free uploads and downloads, but also is planning for-pay services for musicians, said Patrick Koppula, spokesman for the company’s new owners.
Analysts were once optimistic about sites like Garageband, but after the dot-com bust, their money-making potential is regarded with some wariness.
‘’What percentage [of site visitors] are willing to pay? I think it’s pretty small,'’ said Melanie Posey, an analyst with International Data Corp.
