Grooveshark: All You've Ever Wanted. and More.

Hey Guys-

today I'm going to spotlight what's in my opinion the best music service out there, unequivocally.

This group is the first to successfully figure out and model what the entire industry has been struggling with since the conception of P2P. No one wants to pay for music, or any other media content accessible from the internet, plain and simple. No amount of litigation, ad campaigns, or education can reverse the financial losses the music industry has suffered and will continue to suffer.

With this in mind-- Escape Media Group -- created Grooveshark, which has successfully modeled a legal, revenue creating, easy to use, attractive service. While Grooveshark is picking up pace quickly, their market potential is tremendous.

So lets get into the thick of why this service trumps everything else on the market.

1) Front End Design:

The application like interface of Grooveshark is truly incredible. The service is packed choc full with features-- presented in a way thats intuitive, and straight forward. Its so easy, even a caveman could do it...

2) Features: Grooveshark is far more than a pretty face. It not only allows you to stream almost any music you want at breakneck speed-- you can share and organize your music to suite your preferences with equal ease. This is where most other media streaming falls short. All for FREE.

I was able to aggregate my entire music library onto my account as quickly as I could search the artists. And if I can't find something I wanted from my own library- I can upload it! This means- no more bothering with backing up my music to my external, or worrying about storage capacity on my mp3 device or smartphone. Grooveshark allows you to have your entire music library floating in the most accessible place in the world-- THE INTERNET.

Another nice thing Grooveshark does is allows you to Beta many of their new releases if you're a "VIP" which costs a minuscule $3 a month--

Best New Feature-- A "Desktop" Grooveshark-- that runs through Adobe Air-- which interfaces just like your favorite music app-- you'll forget your streaming music.

This is the most comprehensive application of cloud computing for music I've seen...which is

where the industry is headed-- so props Grooveshark!

Alternate Business Models for the Musician

Today's post is more of a short summary of an enlightening article by Mike Masnick entitled

"The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There)" originally posted @ TechDirt

Mike's main framework for his article is his formula of "Connect with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = The Business Model "

This framework is substantiated by a number of different examples, that can be paraphrased into the following points:

-STOP FIGHTING music piracy-- as an artist you should post your music on your site for free-- use this to your advantage as an advertising tool

-- One approach is to release the music in conjunction with tour dates: in order for the fan to download the music they must click through a series of info about your group and dates

-Make your webpage interactive: let fans connect and share through phone apps, text, & posting content-- such as videos or pictures they've taken at your shows

-Some artists have posted their music in forms that allow fans to remix songs through web apps-

-Offer REAL incentives to buy your merchandise-- such as special bundles that include things of real value for fans- such as your signature, limited edition releases, etc. etc.

-Some artists have gone as far as offering tiered packages in which the fan buys personal time, or interaction with the group-- this is a great idea and can be rolled out through social media as a marketing piece

-Consider fundraisers in which you auction yourself or possessions in a way that raises awareness for your group or your person

The Clutch point of this article is with the new tools offered by Web 2.0 and social networking- there are many unique and creative ways to raise money and fan awareness-- stop fighting the new technology and embrace it. Thats where the future is headed. no matter how hard anybody tries to stop it. BE CREATIVE. BE PERSONAL. BE PERSISTENT.