What’s The Buzz?
In the movie, “Trading Places” the street-wise Mr. Valentine (played by Eddie Murphy) says the way to hurt rich people is to make them poor. Of course that’s a paraphrase of the actual line, but you get the idea.
It seems that is one of the priorities of true independent music, as well. Perhaps the goal is not to make people poor, but to spread the wealth by getting good musicians recorded and heard without giving into the handful of large, corporate giants who think first of the bottom line.
At earBuzz.com, there is something even more exciting taking place. Billed as “supporting artists 100%,” this Web site and the folks behind it are trying to make sure that the artist earns a true 100% of the proceeds from CD sales and downloads.
The site states, “earBuzz.com and BandsOfTheBay.com formed a partnership, announced to the world this morning, that is unprecedented in music and media.” The day referred as “this morning” is August 28. So, this is new, and exciting, stuff that may have great benefits for the up-and-coming artist.
Here’s how it works, according to the organizers: “Sign up to BOTB and you’ll have option to sign up to earBuzz to sell your music there. Once processed, encoding, etc.. your music will appear to the world on both sites. Current artists can sign up to BOTB free and have their player on the BOTB page as long as they’re at the $5/mo. level with their earBuzz membership.
“BandsOfTheBay is a property of Bay Area News Group, with media properties that include the Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, Marin Independent Journal, Oakland Tribune, 19 other daily newspapers, and websites that command over 7 million unique visitors each month.”
BandsOfTheBay.com started in April, while the founding of earBuzz.com goes back to 1999. There’s a lot more to it. The site contains a wealth of good information, testimonials from true believers and so on. In addition, the search and listen functions seem very clear and easy to use.
Check it out!
Tags: indie music, independent music, what’s the buzz, music, indie
