Band site for real!

15 February 2000

Established artists and bands, including Oasis, Sheryl Crow, and Pearl Jam, could attest to the ability of ‘Borderline’, a small basement club in London, to propel aspiring rock bands to stardom.

A teenage punk band from derby named ‘Stumble’ will try their luck tonight as they play their single, ‘How many times do I have to kill you before I die?’, before an audience of record executives and talent scouts. The quartet made their way to this stage by way of their popularity on the internet. Peoplesound.com, a website where music enthusiasts listen and download music for free, had the punk group at the top of the hit-list for six consecutive months. The website attracts 750,000 visitors a month, listening to 3,500 unsigned artists showcasing their crafts using the MP3 format, a technology which is believed to render CDs as obsolete.

The president and founder of the said website, Ernesto Schmitt, believes his site could ‘revolutionize’ the way the record industry listens and eventually signs new bands. Statistics show that 95% of debut albums fail amounting to a loss of $5 billion dollars each year. Schmitt is convinced it was because of the traditional way of picking bands to sign, by mere gut-feel. On the other hand, Peoplesound.com, according to him, measures the popularity of a band through the hits generated by the site. He further claimed that they ‘filter the crap early on’ so that the bands and the songs posted on-line really have the potential to make it big in the future. This could provide the needed research for major record labels looking for artists to sign. The same ‘demography-rich stats’ could also help advertising. Have a look at commercial-networks here for business news.

Europe@Web, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault’s internet investment group, believes Peoplesound.com will eventually succeed. By then, ‘Stumble’ could be topping the charts as well.