MixMatchMusic makes it easy for musicians to collaborate, get paid
MixMatchMusic allows musicians to find other artists whose guitar, drum, keyboard or other riffs complement their own for the creation of complete songs. Once mixed and matched, the songs can be published and the independent artists can earn money from them.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)SAN DIEGO--There are millions of musicians in the world who are talented but haven't gotten lucky enough to get a record contract.
These days, the Internet makes it easier for these artists to find an audience, but there are still countless numbers of musicians who have some skills, but perhaps not all the ones--such as drumming--that might be necessary to finish a song that could make them money.
That's where a company called MixMatchMusic comes into play. It has built a system that it thinks will help these artists find the collaborators and the audience that will result in finished songs they can make money with.
For example, if a guitarist writes a nice riff that could make the basis of a commercial song, but doesn't have a band to play the rest of the instruments the song needs, MixMatchMusic is a community site where that artist could find the other pieces of music that could complete the song.
Of course, this relies on a critical mass of content being uploaded to the community, but assuming that happens, this is a nice idea.
The guitarist in the example could then find a piece of keyboard music that matches the riff and then a piece of drum music that complements the other two.
The system's editor mixes the different pieces together and allows the artist to edit them into a complete song. Once it's done, he or she can publish it.
That's interesting enough in and of itself, but the system also makes sure that any artist who contributed part or all of a song gets credit--and therefore payment--for the song if and when it sells any copies.
Once published, the song becomes publicly available for downloading, including for purchase, and if money starts to come in, the artists share 85 percent of each dollar earned.
Additionally, once a song is published, each contributing artist is alerted that their music has been used, letting them know that they may have some money coming in, or at least letting them know that someone has utilized their contribution in a complete song.
From the fan side, there's a nice component to MixMatchMusic, as well, because it allows end-users to take the songs on the site and create easy mashups with them. And this, too, gives artists a way to get their music out there, especially to community of music lovers who like independent tunes and who like to play with that music for their own needs.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
