Being stuck in the digital void that is Hong Kong, I can't access the iTunes store. So I have to find other places to shop for music.

My destination for now is insound. Let me count the ways.

It does the great thing of recommending music to you when you select what you like for your shopping cart.

The music selection is mostly indie or fringe mainstream electronic, hip-funk and elcectica that gets your panties itchy.

It also runs a "radio" program that is actually a listing of streaming songs of the most popular and then also the most marginal content available on the site. I have made more than a few choices based on random selections of the radio listings.

You can also watch videos from a few bands. This is the destination of music.

Selective channeling of music for consumer experimenting and choosing.

The company will soon have a bigger challenger. The under-the-radar but popular burnlounge is going to launch a free version of its "concentric retailing" software in April.

I sat down in Bangkok over the weekend with Burnlounge founder Stephen Murray. A 20-year veteran of the recording industry, Murray worked with Ryan Dadd to form Burnlounge, which basically turns fans into consumers and retailers both. Tired of seeing great artists turn into financial lepers because their recording industry contracts bind them to The Man, and tired of what Murray thought of as a "cycle" of creative brilliance and creative nothingness in the industry, after three years he launched what he reckons is the answer to badness in the recording industry.

In this model, fans find their own favorite musicians and then sell the music for the musician. They earn a commission on every song or CD sold through their site. And the marketing middleman people are left out, offering no reason to milk money from artists to pay the heavy fees for marketing.

Murray's idea is to eventually team up musicians with advertisers through consumer retail sites in the free model. And then he hopes to see a pantheon of amateur and professional artists get the money and the kudos they deserve. And the hit rates.

Burnlounge will launch in April all over the world. Will we see bunches of Asian artists getting linked up to this trip? I hope so.

 

rion
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