Can Indies Depend On MP3? - Technology Information

Emedia Professional, March, 2000 by Heidi Gautschi

Can Indies Depend On MP3?

MP3 strikes fear in most record labels because of its notorious use in trafficking illegal copies of music on the Web. However, despite all the hype, authorized MP3s are actually not a rarity on the Web. A search for any underground band will probably reveal that its official Web page offers at least one MP3 in an effort to entice listeners to give these new bands a try. And now, a couple of music industry mavericks, Sub Pop Records and Twin/Tone Records, are putting MP3 to work for their future success.

Josh Ayala, New Media Director at Sub Pop, says his job mostly consists of "promoting Sub Pop artists by using MP3, streaming, or coded MP3 that will degrade over time." For Ayala and Paul Stark, co-founder of Twin/Tone Records, MP3s are an excellent marketing tool because they provide fans and newcomers alike a taste of artists' latest endeavors--without leaving the house and without spending a penny. For example, Sub Pop has made 30second samples by Heather Duby, the GO, the Evil Tambourines, Love as Laughter, and Zen Guerilla available for download at http://www.epitonic.com (the site is searchable by label). Ayala feels that the popularity of the MP3 samples will result in more of this type of promotion in the future, and says that he has received only positive responses from the bands whose work is available for download. They are generally excited about the possibilities of MP3 and see the potential for distributing interviews and reviews as well.

Twin/Tone Records has gone completely MP3. The company has encoded its entire catalog and made it available online at Allied Chemical (http://www.alliedchemical. com), the online music division of Twin/Tone. As Stark explained, the site was created to curb the sense of competition between the various labels Twin/Tone distributes and the Twin/Tone label itself. All of the music at Allied Chemical can be sampled for free in Real Player G2 or Liquid Audio, and complete songs can be purchased (for $1.50 each) in Liquid Audio format.

Stark believes that streaming is the future. He foresees a time when CDs will no longer exist and listeners will download music by subscription, pay-per-hearing, or for free, but with advertising included to generate revenue. Stark thinks that portable MP3 devices will be the norm, and that there will no longer be any reason to worry that a band's amazing single is the only decent song on the album. In fact, some speculate that the concept of the album will go by the wayside as the ability to pick and choose custom playlists expands. This view of the future drastically contrasts with the recording industry's current distribution system, but again, Stark emphasizes that promotion and marketing will become even more crucial to the success of the music business.

With his enthusiasm for the use of legal MP3s, Ayala of Sub Pop Records is not convinced of the existence of the "massive piracy ring" that Internet conspiracy theorists envision. He sees the unauthorized MP3s as being mostly those that fans post for other fans, which he believes works to his advantage by providing free promotion. Ayala does not think that there are enough people using MP3 at the moment to have a significant impact on Sub Pop sales.

MP3s most benefit smaller labels as it keeps manufacturing costs down and makes promotion easier, but the future will tell if Twin/Tone and Sub Pop have harnessed the power of MP3 to reinvent the music business.