kidmercury

I've talked about them before, but I think they're so good, that I have to mention them again.

TuneCore.

Basically what they are doing is sending power to the edges -- decentralizing it. They are helping unite all the web services out there that musicians need and putting it into one simple, easy to use package -- thus enabling small organizations (musicians, rock bands, etc) to easily leverage all the services that exist out there, thanks to the Internet. And TuneCore is doing a very good job of it.

They are a bedroom rock star's dream come true: record your music from your bedroom, upload it to TuneCore, and it'll be in all the major digital stores. And now, with select albums (but not all albums), they'll even sell them through Amazon.com as a physical CD. The CD is produced on demand for each order sold.

Interestingly, TuneCore selected my song for Eminem to be enabled as sale by CD. They probably did this because my song for Eminem is my top-selling song -- information they have access to, since they distribute my songs and pay me (and since they hold earnings for me, distribute earnings to me, and allow me to purchase new services with my earnings, they are a candidate for the pending world-changing disruption in the banking sector).

But why is my song for Eminem my top-selling song? Most likely because a lot of people are searching for Eminem (like a lot lot, as he is very popular and has a new album out), and because my song for him is an attempt at ranking in the search engine for queries for his name or new album, Relapse. So search engine marketing has gotten me enough sales to get additional visibility via Amazon's store. So basically, TuneCore and possibly Amazon are going to have spam problems -- always the threat for infrastructure players on the web. The solution here is for TuneCore and Amazon to create an ecosystem of remixers -- people who can remix what they've aggregated into offerings for niche communities. Amazon lets affiliates create their own stores with products they like; Amazon also has "guides" that let people make collections of books they like. It seems likely to me that as TuneCore grows it will find it advantageous to embrace similar strategies, or work with someone who does.

One of the reasons I love TuneCore so much is because it empowers musicians; it is the ultimate example of a company that is helping the underdog take down The Man. TuneCore is a part of the coming renaissance in music, in which musicians are increasingly set free of the propaganda fronts that rule their world. They are helping musicians take the power back.

And so, the song for the post is "Take the Power Back" by Rage Against the Machine.

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