Online Radio Hears Static - Industry Trend or Event

Industry Standard, The, Nov 27, 2000 by Hane C. Lee

But with Buck's media know-how and McNeill's passion, the duo raised $25,000 from family and friends, and in September 1999 launched Dublab.com with the tag line "Positive Music-Driven Lifestyle." Unlike Spinner.com, which preprograms hundreds of channels in separate genres, Dublab's lineup of around 50 regular and guest DJs spin records in real time, playing a diverse mix of electronic, hip-hop, post-rock and more. The site also streams live in-studio performances by the likes of Blackalicious and Mouse on Mars, and produces features on visual artists as well as musicians.

With a marketing budget of $6,000 -- a trifle compared with the multimillion-dollar campaigns common in the industry -- Dublab's staff of seven promotes itself via fliers, e-mail and good old word-of-mouth. Though Dublab's traffic numbers are too low to register on the Internet ratings charts, internal logs show that last month the site tallied around 50,000 unique visitors. Buck says Dublab's audience has been growing at roughly 25 percent a month.

"We want to reach people who are open to different things," says McNeill. "We're playing new music along next to roots of that music: Jazz, hiphop, Latin, salsa, all these types of music. Our DJs have huge knowledge of this stuff. They're the kids going to record fairs at 4 in the morning to score classic rare-groove records."

"It's really an experience we're trying to create," says Buck, the straight man to McNeill's visionary.

They've succeeded, judging from the enthusiasm of Dublab's listeners. "It has this vibe I immediately want to be a part of," says Scott McLean, a production editor for San Francisco-based music site Uplister. McLean heard about Dublab from a friend and says he now tells someone else about it at least twice a week.

Michael Mosier, a law student at Duke University, says he checks in at Dublab to hear music that's difficult to find in Durham, N.C. "It's impossible to get any kind of dub, techno, ambient or trip-hop here." Listening to Dublab lets him know what to look for when he goes to New York, he says.

While Dublab has gotten funding offers from private investors and other entertainment sites, the team isn't ready to give up control over the company's, direction. That independence is what makes Dublab successful, says Ian Raikow, president of the Beta Lounge, the granddaddy of online electronica shows. "People trust [their judgment in] the kind of music they present. That's why people come to Dublab."

For now, Dublab's founders are content with running their dream station on a shoestring. And McNeill says meetings with potential investors haven't been a total waste. "We got a lot of free lunches out of it."