Happy New Year low enough LOL amp3.com plans to go public read the interview with Welch
musicdish.com
JVWB still have a 5% stake in this
[Sounni de Fontenay] How many bands does AMP3.com currently have signed up? How many songs? Songs downloaded? Visitors per day?
[Bob Welch] 6000+ artists growing at about currently 25-40 per day, 14,000+ songs, downloads are about 400,000 per month and growing at a rate of about 20% monthly.
[de Fontenay] AMP3.com launched only in February of this year, yet you have had quite an impact on the online music industry. What has been your strategy to achieve such growth?
[Welch] We focus on the artists, many of us are artists, so we are uniquely qualified to understand their perspective.
[de Fontenay] One of AMP3.com's mantra is that its staff are, or used to be, musicians. How does this enhance the services you offer artists?
[Welch] Once a musician always a musician. I personally have played most of my life, so have a majority of our management staff, we have been down this road before, from the artists perspective, therefore we are uniquely suited from that perspective.
[de Fontenay] Your presence at this year's Woodstock, sending 17 AMP3.com bands, was a huge success. Any plans for future events or tours?
[Welch] Yes, I am currently in development of many different webcast programs and spotlight webcast venues.
[de Fontenay] How do you see AMP3.com vis-a-vis your competitors: MP3.com, Liquid Audio and EMusic?
[Welch] Being artists, we believe that we are much more in tune with the needs of the artists.
[de Fontenay] Why should artists use your service as opposed to your competitors? Why should consumers come to AMP3.com for indie downloads?
[Welch] We pay the artist for every download, not just for selective artists in specific genres, we allow the public to decide which artist is the best based on downloads.
[de Fontenay] Currently AMP3.com offers free/promotional mp3 downloads. Are there any plans to sell digital downloads in the near future?
[Welch] Absolutely!
[de Fontenay] AMP3.com announced a little while back that they would launch a $1 per download feature for its artists. When will the service be available? Can you give our readers a little more information on the service?
[Welch] We are working out the details now. We are in the process of lining up sponsors and advertisers to make this program economically viable for the Company and artists.
[de Fontenay] MP3s have been used primarily as a promotional tool for artists and labels. Do you see other innovative uses being developed?
[Welch] Innovation and mobility are the key to ongoing success, we are only limited by the extent of our imaginations and the size of our pocket books, and I dream in full color.
[de Fontenay] Do you feel that the MP3 format can succeed on a financial basis or will it only work on a promotional basis?
[Welch] We are agnostic when it comes to preference of compression algorithm, I just want to help as many artists as possible reach as many potential fans/listeners as possible utilizing the Internet as the means of this contact. The specifics of which format prevails is irrelevant to this mission.
[de Fontenay] Where do you see the market for digital downloads headed? Will the MP3 format still lead the pack or will alternatives such as Liquid Audio succeed?
[Welch] Encryption techniques are essentially futile, they only keep honest people honest. The warm handed will be kept at bay by these means, however the hot handed will stop at nothing to have access to the music and distribute it for their own wrongful gains. I find this practice despicable, a slap in the face of all artists, but I have seen nothing which has an fully absolute means of stopping piracy whether it be MP3, vinyl, cassette tape, CD's or for that matter radio air play.
[de Fontenay] How do you see MP3s adapting to the convergence of different media (video, streaming, downloads, text, graphics...)?
[Welch] Again, MP3 is just the current tool of delivery, it has the highest base of users, but if and when another format comes along which is better, faster, more user-friendly, etc. this position could change very quickly. Again this is an industry that moves in nano-seconds and I look forward to the inevitable developments that will facilitate a better means of communication between artist and fan base.
[de Fontenay] With digital media security increasingly becoming a high profile issue among labels and artists and the continuing controversy over SDMI, what is AMP3.com's position on this issue?
[Welch] We are the pioneer of paying all artists for the digital distribution of their work. We, at AMP3.com, guarantee the artist currently $.05 per download for any and all of their works. We accomplish this by pre-pending a five second tag line (mini-commercial) to the beginning of each song thus sponsoring the artist through corporate endorsement essentially eliminating that issue on our site. However, I see the necessity of attempting security based encoding on other sites who do not pay their artists based on downloads as a potentially highly charged issue.
[de Fontenay] Do you see obstacles to the mass consumer adoption of MP3s. If so, what (broadband, quality, compression...)?
[Welch] I see only more opportunities for the market to continue to explode. Broadband is being deployed nationwide and will become mainstream very soon, taking this into consideration as broadband becomes more widespread the quality and speed of delivery of entertainment based file transfers, of all types, will become more easily achieved and subsequently more prevalent. Ultimately, the artist and the fan will both benefit from this inevitable evolution.
[de Fontenay] What expansion plans are in the works for AMP3.com?
[Welch] Bigger, better, a never ending pursuit of excellence. I really anticipate one of our artist breaking into the charts at some point in the near future. I look forward to having a Top-40 hit that was originated from our site!
[de Fontenay] Are there any plans for AMP3.com to go IPO?
[Welch] Yes.
[de Fontenay] Two common complaints from artists with respect to the Internet are that they no longer have the time to focus on their music and that they are still not making any money from the Web. In the end, how has the independent artist benefited by the Internet?
[Welch] Well if they are not earning any money from the Internet from their material I suggest they place it on our site at AMP3.com as all artists get paid $.05 for every single download. The Internet allows artists to reach the potential of developing a worldwide fan base and market for their materials. Currently, the conventional music business caters to only the top 2%-5% which represents the lion share of their sales. This is a paradigm which is likely to change as the record industry contends with the reality of an ever expanding Internet delivered digital delivery distribution network.
------------------------
"Follow up interview in RealAudio"
------------------------
Linkography
AMP3.com - www.amp3.com
MP3.com - www.mp3.com
Liquid Audio - www.liquidaudio.com
EMusic - www.emusic.com
By: Sounni de Fontenay
|
