SAN FRANCISCO – You may not have heard Geoff Byrd singing on the radio. But on the Internet, he’s a star.
As a fledgling pop artist, it’s difficult for him to get radio airplay – especially at a time when “urban music” and hip hop are what top the charts. “In order to get a contract, you have to have been shot 10 times or have a thug reputation,” Byrd said.
So Byrd posted his music on GarageBand.com, a San Francisco-based Web site that serves as an online catalog of free music and allows independent artists to distribute their music for free.
Internet music sites like GarageBand.com are becoming a small force in the entertainment world as digital music becomes increasingly popular.
Byrd has had four No. 1 hits on the listener-rated music site, helping him develop a fan base. He has been hired for several gigs and received queries from scouts for major record labels and film directors. And he signed a contract with an independent label.
“You are forced to learn how to market on the Internet,” said the former high school teacher.
GarageBand.com started in 1999 as a dot-com that was supposed to be a record label, but went bust in early 2002. Ali Partovi, whose previous start-up, LinkExchange, was acquired in 1998 by Microsoft for $265 million, bought the Web site’s assets. Though he won’t divulge revenues or investment details, Partovi said he has invested less than $1 million on reviving the operation so far. The company has four full-time employees and six part-timers. It has been profitable for about year.
GarageBand.com has more than a half-million registered users, and a catalog of well over 200,000 songs.
Apple Computer pays GarageBand.com for the rights to use the GarageBand name for its software that is used to record and mix music.
Growing company
GarageBand.com added podcast technology this spring, allowing artists new ways to reach listeners. Musicians can podcast messages to their fans. Listeners can have music from favorite bands automatically downloaded, or podcast, to their digital music players. And amateur DJs can assemble podcast “radio” shows.
Since the podcast launch, GarageBand.com’s monthly traffic has nearly doubled to about 2 million unique visitors a month, Partovi said.
Earlier this month, GarageBand.com announced an agreement with radio conglomerate Clear Channel to have 50 of its artists featured on Clear Channel’s online radio stations every quarter.
“A lot of the trends are in place for a revolution in music, and especially how music is discovered and promoted,” said Partovi, 32, who once dreamed of being in a rock band. “Anyone under 25 is not buying CDs. They are downloading them from the Internet and listening to them on an iPod.”
The San Francisco music site has star backing. Jerry Harrison, the Harvard-educated former guitarist for the Talking Heads, is the company’s chairman.
The Internet “writes some new rules” for the music industry, Harrison said.
George Martin, who signed the Beatles to their first record contract because he liked their impish humor, is chairman of the company’s advisory board.
The digital age
It’s becoming more common to use the Internet as a marketer for musicians. MP3.com was among the first to distribute independent music online. Services like The Orchard and the Independent Online Distribution Alliance give smaller, independent music labels the ability to sell songs through iTunes, Napster and eMusic. And Warner Music Group is launching an “e-label” this fall.
“These kinds of tools will be even more common in the digital age,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. “In the digital age, it’s all about personalization and customization.”
The sites that succeed will be those offering fresh, quality music that is well-organized and easily accessible, observed Susan Kevorkian, digital music analyst for tech research firm IDC.
“The music industry historically has provided a very valuable filtering function in terms of recruiting new bands,” she said. Online sites can provide a similar service, she added.
“Any company getting into this space needs to devote resources to categorize the artists they are representing,” said Kevorkian.
Connecting with listeners
GarageBand.com organizes its music by genre and ratings, from ambient to punk pop and world fusion. Artists who agree to review other bands can post their music for free. Others can skip the reviews for a fee.
Using podcasts, bands can create bonds with fans through voice messages created simply by phoning into GarageBand.com. New York pop singer-songwriter Anne Heaton likes to communicate with them while on the road.
“Sometimes I call and I’m a little sleepy in the morning and we are on tour in Indianapolis,” she said. “It has that nice informal feeling. It helps a great deal in keeping us in touch with our fans and keeping them excited about coming to a large show and bringing their friends.”
College and Internet radio stations pull music from GarageBand.com, as do Internet radio stations. In an agreement with Microsoft, the top GarageBand artists are featured and sold on MSN Music. GarageBand has also placed some of its popular artists on Apple’s iTunes digital music Web site.
GarageBand.com’s podcasts, in which independent DJs create a following through their creative playlists, is “what radio used to be,” said Tamara Conniff, executive editor of Billboard magazine. “You’d listen to a DJ you related to and he would play cool new music. Radio is not like that anymore.”
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