MP3.com generates buzz at Internet conference
By Andrea Orr
SNOWBIRD, Utah, March 3 (Reuters) - It may not be popular
in the mainstream music industry, but online music distributor
MP3.com was a hit at a leading Internet investment forum where
highflyers Amazon.com and Inktomi first attracted attention in
the past.
Internet investors were first introduced to popular
companies like Amazon.com <AMZN.O>, Inktomi Corp. <INKT.O> and
Lycos <LCOS.O> in this ski village far from Wall Street. So
when new businesses make presentations at the annual Hambrecht
& Quist planet.wall.street conference here, people pay
attention.
MP3.com Inc, the online music distributor named for the
technology that enables people to download music at a cost well
below typical retail prices, struck a strong chord among the
crowd of industry heavyweights and fledgling online retailers,
security and service businesses at this year's conference was
While many Internet companies profess to be leading a
revolution, MP3.com is beginning to excite even some of the
most jaded and experienced Internet investors.
"Clearly what they're talking about is a revolution,"
Hambrecht & Quist analyst Danny Rimer said several times over
the course of the conference.
Unlike several other online retailers that have transformed
the way people buy merchandise, MP3.com has the potential to
radically change the way the merchandise itself -- musical
recordings -- are produced.
MP3.com is not the only online company offering MP3
technology but it has emerged as an early leader in the field,
attracting about 240,000 visitors to its Web site every day.
It has signed up more than 6,000 artists and independent
record labels to sell their music over their Web site, and is
growing at a rate of about 100 new artists a day.
This week, veteran rocker Tom Petty is releasing his latest
single via the popular and controversial Web site MP3.com.
"Free Girl Now," a single not yet on sale in stores from
Petty's upcoming album "Echo," with his band the Heartbreakers,
was made available at mp3.com starting on Monday.
MP3.com Chief Executive Michael Robertson said the company
offers consumers a broad selection of inexpensive music and
gives exposure to recording artists without contracts.
Anyone can record a song on the MP3.com Web site, and have
it on sale within an hour. The site will promote the music in
exchange for limited rights, which Robertson said were far more
favorable to artists than the typical recording contract.
Robertson admitted that MP3.com's open standards resulted
in a lot of bad music on the site, but contended that the
quality acts would emerge as consumers show their preferences.
The only difference, he said, was that consumers rather
than the recording studios will be the ones with a say in which
acts really take off. In addition, because MP3.com returns a
larger share of revenues to the artists, it claims they will be
able to have lucrative careers without selling millions of
albums.
With a strategy that clearly challenges the status quo,
MP3.com has not made a lot of friends in the mainstream
recording industry.
But it is well known among college students looking for
cheap music and aspiring musicians looking for cheap exposure.
In fact, the company has grown dramatically with virtually no
advertising. The only ad it ever tried to place, in a music
industry publication, was turned down.
"We don't need the music industry's support and that's a
good thing, because they're not supporting us," said Robertson.
"The music industry is not going to move forward in any
aggressive way until they see red ink."
Although several mainstream artists have experimented with
MP3, offering some of their songs on the site, the bulk of
artists using this route to record are ones that are lesser
known. But Robertson said the list of its artists was not the
only measure of MP3.com's success.
"People keep asking m... |
