While more than a few record labels rally behind the "three strikes and your out" approach ISP providers are being urged to adopt in tackling illegal mp3 sharing, Aardvark Records is taking a customarily different approach. The independent label is paying its artists’ fans to share music.
The label is adopting a new method to encourage people to share and pay for its tunes - by turning fans into retailers. Aardvark launched its own branded digital music download store today after signing a licensing agreement with the online music platform People's Music Store http://peoplesmusicstore.com/aardvark. The store allows users to design and open their own storefront, selecting a batch of songs from a library and then selling them; earning themselves 10% of the profits to use towards buying new music.
How big can an individual store be? Users can sell up to 50 DRM-free albums from a indecently wide range of high-quality electronica, rock, pop and other music.
People's Music Store was founded by Ged Day, who launched Bleep.com for Warp Records -- "the first" DRM free 320 Kbps MP3s store, back in 2004. This is a key factor in the platform’s credibility. If it all sounds rather like Burn Lounge, you couldn’t be further from the truth. People's Music Store is a completely different animal, not only due to its cred-laden genesis as part of Warp/Bleep, but because it never charges storefront owners. Storefront owners only have respect and free music to gain so they have no incentive to barrage people with spam.
Aardvark director, Alex di Savoia, said: "While this solution isn’t going solve the situation of illegal, it is a cooler, friendlier way forward for the music industry. It was a short hop, skip and a jump away from our established practice of encouraging fans to share our embeddable music widgets. Now, fans receive a reward from sharing… accruing points which count towards free music."
"We're thrilled to be working with Aardvark. The label has a wide range of genres which fit nicely into our platform," said people’s Music Store founder Ed Underwood.
"I think People’s music Store addresses the 'peer to peer' issue, by enabling 'peers' to advocate legitimacy themselves," said co-founder Ged Day when speaking about the appeal of people’s Music Store for labels and music lovers. "As is standard for music download services (Bleep, iTunes, etc.), artists and labels are paid a cash royalty for all sales. Our standard split is 60/40 in favour of the supplier and this applies whether the customer paid using cash or points."
ENDS
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For more information regarding this press release or Aardvark Records, please contact Alex di Savoia: Tel +44 (0) 1326 376 013 or email alex@aardvarkrecords.co.uk or visit www.aardvarkrecords.co.uk
About Aardvark Records
Established in 2001, Aardvark Records is one of the UK's most creative record labels with an international reach disproportionate to its small size. Its staunchly independent stance and pioneering spirit have produced a string of well-received releases worldwide, spanning a variety of music genres: dance, pop and rock. Aardvark Dance’s current hit-making writers and producers include: EricM, Zetan Spore, Thabani, Everett Young, Yahel and Jeff Alford.
Aardvark Records was amongst the first labels to launch its own branded music and video podcast broadcasts. It was also one of the first labels to provide music videos to services such as Google Video, YouTube and ROO TV. An early adopter of internet radio broadcasters as well as digital DJ and video pools, it recently became one of the first record labels to utilize CD on Demand technology to release its albums.
Recent partnerships include the direct-to-customer ringtone seller Voeveo, ringtone aggregator MobileStream and game developer Audio Surf.
About People’s Music Store
People’s Music Store is an independent company set up to give music fans the power to champion and promote the music they love. In an industry dominated by corporate music download services, the service offers a friendly alternative which puts music-lovers at the forefront.
The music service encourages members to create their own free storefront, populated by their favorite tracks from across the catalogue of over 600,000 songs, each at DRM-free 320Kbps.Peoples Music Store’s user base are committed music fans who serve as passionate curators or guides to the latest releases in their chosen genres.
Fan/Shopkeepers have complete control of all music sold in their store. They can showcase all of their favorite albums, share recommendations, and connect with others. Shopping at People’s Music Store is just like browsing in a favorite independent record store – this online music service has no pushy sales gimmicks, just lots of people all showcasing their favorite music.
For more information about People’s Music Store, please contact Ed Underwood:
Tel: + +44 (0) 20 7478 4408 email: ed@peoplesmusicstore.com
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 Additional Information
 People's Music Store
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