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Well, you'd have to have all the bands in the ratings database, but you could conceivably restrict the music streaming, if you had it, to bands you were promoting. That would help alleviate the cost of the streaming by having a definitive list of artists that you're playing, all of whom have agreed to let you play their music online for free.
It'd have to be that way. No way can I acquire the rights (or the catalog) to play signed artists. The only trick is making it easy and intuitive for users to note their favorite signed artists. It could be done, though.

The bottom line is that for you, at least, the "relational" model for finding music is better than the "chart" model most sights use. That is true for me as well- the way I find most music is by recommendataions of others.

Myspace has another variation on this where fans explicitly link to the bands they like. Like I said, myspace has by far been our best experience online. Unfortunatly, it requires quite an investment (Ok, know which bands does THIS person like) that most aren't willing to make (I'm not- we've gotten a lot of interest from myspace, but I've only found one band there that I really like). The MSN Music approach is much more passive, but I think both could be available to take advantage of user preferences. And then, once you have this information, charts are easy to compile so you could throw those in for free for people who simply must have a chart (bands like charts because it gives them a competition and bragging rights if they win).

It seems like this "relational" model to finding music would be the obvious one since "word of mouth" is the best advertisement, but it seems not many sites have utilized this so far. Thus, it is one key aspect to my strategy.


Edited by JeffS (07/07/2005 17:48)
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.