A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how Seattle company Melodeo had created an iPhone application for the band Presidents of the United States of America, which delivers the band's music in a direct stream, rather than forcing users to download (and pay for) each song individually.
On Thursday at South by Southwest (SXSW), digital-marketing and distribution specialist The Orchard announced that it's adding iPhone applications to its arsenal of tools.
The Orchard handles songs from more than 14,000 acts, focusing on musicians on independent labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Ipecac, and Lookout (just to name three with which I'm familiar). Now artists--or, more likely, their labels or management teams--will be able to create a customized iPhone app through The Orchard's standard set of management tools.
The iPhone applications themselves will be developed by design and branding firm Fluidesign.
Artists will be able to offer as many songs as they like as free streams (a link will let users click to download the songs from the iTunes Store), as well as post photos and aggregated news from various sources (such as RSS feeds or Twitter streams, if the band is into such things). Musicians will be able to set their own prices, but The Orchard envisions this as a promotional tool rather than as a revenue generator, so it is encouraging its clients to offer them for free.
The first app available is for The Black Lips, but when you run a search for that band's name in iTunes, the app shows up listed only as Mobile Roadie, the name of the platform for iPhone apps developed by Fluidesign. This link will take you directly to the application in iTunes.
Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired has an interesting post today about Seattle band Presidents of the United States of America.
It's like a radio station with all PUSA, all the time.
(Credit: Melodeo)In addition to selling its songs on iTunes in the normal fashion, PUSA has just released a $2.99 application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that will let you stream songs from four albums (the ones whose rights are owned by the band), plus assorted other flotsam (live tracks, demos, whatever).
The application was built by Melodeo, whose vice president of business development is none other than PUSA's Dave Dederer.
The songs are streamed, not downloaded, which means that you need a live Internet connection to hear them. In other words, imagine Pandora or Slacker, but focused on one band and with no restrictions on song order or skipping.
The trick with this kind of compilation is clearing the rights--radio station compilations, for example, would probably be impossible because so many licensees would have to be contacted. But I think that this could be a very interesting way for bands to earn a little bit of money from music to which they have exclusive rights.
Imagine your favorite band releasing an application with demos and outtakes from its latest album, on the same day the album itself goes live to iTunes and other download sites. Imagine it releasing concert recordings the day after a concert takes place.
Record labels could also benefit--Melodeo is apparently already working on a compilation for a Seattle-area label. Perhaps this is the digital replacement for the old SubPop singles club?
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