Amie Street: Awesome New Music Model

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1. tom
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 5:32 pm

   This is beautiful. I would NOT be SURPRISED if it completely takes over Pandora and the MySpace band section

2. anthony
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 5:34 pm

   I still miss mp3.com.

   I found great non mainstream music …bought a few albums too

3. Nick Gavronsky
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 5:53 pm

   Wow, seems like a very cool business model. Interesting to see how well it will work. I could definitely see this growing and taking away market share from others. I think they should get a few mainstream artists on there to help boost its marketability.

4. Nick Gavronsky
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 5:55 pm

   Change that thought, it actually might function better for undiscovered artists considering the RECing system they have in place. At least that way the undiscovered stuff has a better chance at being discovered.

5. Robert Dewey
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 6:41 pm

   Looks pretty interesting. I’ve been thinking that the music industry is moving strongly towards artist independence. Record labels have been screwing over artists for years, and iTunes is a joke when it comes to profit for the artist.

   Let the free market prevail.

6. Elias
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 7:14 pm

   Hey all, I’m Elias, one of the Amie Street founders. Thanks so much for checking out the site, we really appreciate that. We are working on a sample song solution (say that 5 times fast) and will have that up ASAP. Please feel free to email me with comments or suggestions (elias@amie.st)

7. Celulares
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 7:56 pm

   Music 2.0 pioneer terra naomi should be able to do well financially on this site

8. Kevin
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 8:00 pm

   That is one of the best sites you have profiled in a long time. Looks like a great find.

9. Eric Cogan
   

   July 23rd, 2006 at 9:08 pm

   I have no doubt they’ll be getting some VC money soon.

10. Michael Arrington
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 9:37 pm

    kevin - thanks, I agree with you.

    Eric, I agree with you too, although music is always tricky.

11. Skeptic
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 10:08 pm

    Just one question (other than what does ‘very alpha’ mean?)… you wrote: “Since the vast majority of bands are not concerned with people stealing their music - they just want people to listen to it ”

    You are aware that bands get paid by labels, who effectively run the RIAA, right? When you say “the vast majority” where do you get this information from? I think a source here would add some legitimacy to your argument.

    And, for the record (intentional pun), the vast majority of bands make the vast majority of their money from touring. Sources and further reading: http://www.magnatune.com/info/musicians
    http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_8/pfahl/
    http://www.musicbizacademy.com.....oughts.htm
    http://www.firstmonday.org/iss.....retschmer/

    How about “since a lot of INDEPENDENT bands”… next time?

    Otherwise, neat site, but I’m sticking with Pandora.

12. Not Skeptic
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 10:09 pm

    Are my comments being filtered now???

13. Michael Arrington
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 10:14 pm

    i haven’t deleted any comments from this post yet. let me check the spam filter.

14. Michael Arrington
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 10:17 pm

    yep, it was in the spam filter because of the links.

    Most bands don’t have labels. they want and need exposure. I’m not sure where to go for support for this statement - it seems obvious to me.

    I think your point on touring is a good one. In my opinion bands will need to tour to make most of their money (plus merchandise). Music will become free or near free over time.

15. ideas man
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 10:49 pm

    there have been soooooo many music business models it’s hard to say which has a chance in

    however, it’s important to keep trying because one will finally work, and the revolution will start.

    i may come up with a business model for music in my many business ideas. i have so many ideas i started a blog about it cuz my firend coworkers were getting sick of hearing them.

    sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always thinking out side the box: http://businessideahaystack.blogspot.com/

16. theBag
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 11:49 pm

    Michael you said:

    “If you REC a song at 1 cent or above Amie Street will pay you half of the difference in the prices. So, if you REC a song at 10 cents, and it ends up at 90 cents, we will pay you 40 cents (half of the 80 cents difference).”

    What happens if 5 people recommended the same song? Does that mean for arguments sake, they all recommended the song at 50 cents, when originally it was 0. Does this mean all 5 people that recommended the song get 50 cents deposited into their account?

17. Michael Arrington
    

    July 23rd, 2006 at 11:56 pm

    theBag - yes, I believe it does. They aren’t giving out anywhere near all of revenue, of course. A song might sell a thousand times while moving from 5 to 50 cents, so even if they give 5 people 45 cents in credit, it won’t affect them much.

18. Sharpshoot
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 12:23 am

    Incentive led pricing is always going to be a winner if it gets the righ reach. Maybe they can rank people on how much they earnt, get a competition element going.

    Good to see other Young Entrepreneurs, intelligently constructing their businesses. Well done guys.

19. Elias
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 12:32 am

    Sharpshoot- good call on the competitive element aspect of the REC system. If you go to members.amie.st, log in to your account and view someone’s profile, you will see a green box entitled “Street Credit.” This is literally a tally of credit earned by the user on Amie Street via the REC system.

20. Sharpshoot
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 12:58 am

    Thanks Elias. I definately like the way you’ve constructed the brand. Amie Street - where music lives and also the amount of “street cred” one has. Very Cool! MySpace eat your heart out

21. StephenZhai
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 1:32 am

    我都要哭了!
    我终于,终于,终于知道怎么用Trackback了!

22. Benno
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 2:41 am

    I really like the idea of changing prices in response to demand. It makes you go looking for the free songs and not donwload just the top artists.

    I have to agree with Kevin… this is one of the best sites you ahve profiled in a while.

23. mike
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 3:44 am

    Interesting model and cool site.

    I agree with Michael and Skeptic that touring will be important for artists to make money. As Krusty the Clown said more than 10 years ago, “The T-shirt sales! That’s the sweetest plum!”

    Part of the goal for a site I run is to make it simpler for bands to spread the word about their shows (which they can list for free) and for music fans to find new live music in their area:

    http://tourb.us

24. cg
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 5:28 am

    this model is way too confusing to the average consumer. people like iTunes cause of the speed and ease of the transaction. i read this article and I’m still confused on how this site works, and I have a college education. This referral system is bunk. I like the demand based pricing though, but i’m wary of someone perhaps spending $1000 on their own music to jack up demand and create a false price for their song.

25. dbai
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 5:40 am

    Ya, music is such a tricky thing. Not only manipulated by RIAA, it always controlled by the originators. How to persuade both of them to freely doing exchange out from the traditional ways? Although Ami Street looks exciting, but I’m sure I will still live with that cute donkey…

    Anyway, I like Amie more than Pandora~

26. nm
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 5:53 am

    cg- a band spending $1000 to inflate the cost of their tracks would be counterproductive, as they would now have an artificially expensive album. if the market decides that their music is worth $10, then many people will download it and drive the price to $10. if the band manager decides that the music is worth $10 and downloads it himself several times, then he’s just priced his band’s music beyond what anyone is willing to pay. of course, they get 70% of the proceeds, so really they end up spending $1000 to earn $700, which would have been an acceptable business eight years ago.

    as for it being confusing… a) it’s not at all confusing. b) people will either not care about getting the $0.25 back anyway, or they will really care about it and figure out the system. either way, they will almost certainly recommend good music to like-minded friends. we’ve been doing that forever; there’s no reason to incentivize it, but it’s awesome that someone did.

27. TH
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 6:12 am

    Great model. There’s such a forest of social networking sites though, that building a large enough user base to support the “economy” is a challenge, even with great content.

    Could it be possible that in a while, after the model itself proves to be viable, a larger socnet site makes a move, buys the business and attaches this as a component of their current service?

28. Michael
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 6:42 am

    MusicFreedom.com has a very similar model w/ a much larger selection of bands…. still cool though.

29. Justin
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 6:47 am

    This looks like a great way for smaller indie groups to sell their music while maintaining some integrity. The whole bidding up of the price by popularity is a great way of using a supply and demand model for sales - I like!

30. Dick Costolo
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 6:59 am

    The best thing about Amie Street is the fresh thinking these guys have brought to a business where the entrenched players only see two choices (which can usually be summarized as “how we do it now” and “total anarchy”). Really innovative and creative approach; I hope they are wildly successful. Great profile.

31. Ryan
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 7:18 am

    Audiri has all of these same features and more
    http://www.audiri.com

32. ben
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 8:49 am

    i am interesting in the pricing algorithm:

    1. it seems price bases on recs. if so, how to deal with the pricing spam which mentioned by nm.

    2. is it possible that price declines?

33. Daniele Levy
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 8:50 am

    I like the concept…any business model that enables the user to make some money while doing sometehing they enjoy doing has great potential to succeed.

34. PayPlay
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 10:01 am

    Agree with Skeptic on all points.

    Also, is 334 songs a good selection to start a site with? Especially when you pocket people’s money into “Amie Street bank account”.

    Vast majority of existing independent bands already sell their tracks digitally and on CDs thru CD Baby, TuneCore, etc. Why would they want to undermine the efforts that those companies put into promoting their music, why would they be giving most favored nation status to Amie St?

35. gunn
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 10:35 am

    i’m from the band waterlog and i absolutely LOVE this site. we have utilized tons of places as an outlet for our music and this one appears to be the most promising. With so much free music available, it’s good to know there is a place were fans can pay a reasonable amount for your music while taking some ownership themselves in the artist/band. Our music started off free and as folks take interest we have started to benefit from the growth along with the fans - makes sense to me. it seems like the battle between money and music has been solved. good job and you have our support!
    - break on thru! !! !

36. Elias
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 10:41 am

    Hey Ben- the pricing algorithm is not directly based on RECs. The only way to artificially inflate the price is to keep buying it under different accounts, which means that whoever inflated it paid for it, and if the next few users to buy it don’t believe it is worth that much, the price will go down, leaving the “inflator” to have paid for essentially nothing. That inflation, as nm mentioned earlier, would not be a good plan.
    PayPlay- we actually didn’t plan to launch the alpha for another week, during which time we would have added more content than the 334 songs that you saw, but things change and we got BLESSED by techcrunch.

37. Jonathan Dugan
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 11:21 am

    This does sound like a good business model in music, for the BUSINESS and the content owners. Long term, it may not be so good for people, especially if there is no cap on pricing. On first pass, the generate scarcity in the information space - a story which has made many billionaires many times over.

    The model raises some serious concerns over information access, and having to pay to know information exists. Imagine this model in other areas more central to people’s lives, not just music. Then imagine that the price to access the information is based on popularity: eventually we have essential and important information sources that only the richest people in the world can access - simply by artificially generating scarcity by raising prices as adoption increases.

    While we have that model now for physical things (not everyone gets to buy a $10M jet… they are scarce), the models for information do not have to be that way. In fact, the wider adoption of information, the price can go DOWN because with wider adoption, a lower margin is possible to recoup costs. The incremental cost for adoption is essentially zero.

    Significant kudos for 70% pass through and no DRM. If the price goes too high, people will simply use your service to find good stuff and get it elsewhere cheaper, free, or by illicit means.

38. Josh
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 11:42 am

    Hey Jonathan–Thanks for the kudos. We do cap the songs at 98 cents to keep the prices fair, because we also believe that the best information (music) should be available to everyone. Thanks again for your support.

39. Lucas
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 11:45 am

    Excellent point Jonathan. Fortunately, our algorithm prevents excessive use of market power which comes along with scarcity. No matter how popular a song becomes, the algorithm has a ceiling of 98 cents. We use some datapoints as well that smooth out price spikes. So the probability of a song going from 0 to 98 cents in a single day is very low. Yes the algorithm also prevents the scenario of maxing out the market, which happens when everyone in the community has purchased the song, and the wild price fluctuations that come along with that bottoming out. The song is still popular so it should still have value, but we throw in some adjustments because of the obvious change in market potential. Keep the feedback coming. It’s really helping out a lot. Thanks guys.

40. Brian Balfour
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 12:48 pm

    A partnership between this site and popular site Purevolume.com would be EXTREMELY powerful.

    Love the site, love the model. This will do well as long as they market it to the bands right.

41. Peter
    

    July 24th, 2006 at 4:37 pm

    very cool stuff. it’s always nice to read about someone doing something new/interesting - ‘flippin the script’. i figure we get that about once a month round here, if that.

42. Nathan
    

    July 25th, 2006 at 6:03 am

    Do Amie St promise not to be evil with their “Patent Pending” as mentioned at the bottom of their splash page?

43. Elias
    

    July 25th, 2006 at 3:08 pm

    Hey all- Amie Street does solemnly promise not to be evil in general, much less with the patent pending! Also, if clicking the link at the top of the page to Amie Street doesn’t work, just type in members.amie.st

44. Maor
    

    November 1st, 2006 at 7:19 am

    I love Aimie Streets bus model but there are some sites who fall between the line and I’m not so sure thier not ripping off the artists like SellaBand, check it out:
    http://www.theplugg.com/2006/1.....hype-real/

45. Daniel 张
    

    November 4th, 2006 at 12:32 am

    I like music, and I like make friends.

46. Jesse Rubenfeld
    

    December 4th, 2006 at 9:59 am

    Anyone know what happened to the Amiestreet.com website? It doesn’t seem to be working.

47. salmanraza
    

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48. qifengy123
    

    February 28th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    wowgold

49. JACK
    

    March 3rd, 2007 at 1:47 am

    I like the concept…any business model that enables the user to make some money while doing sometehing they enjoy doing has great potential to succeed. - http://www.chinabboss.com

50. JAME
    

    March 3rd, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    am nice gentle guy i need girl that be my happy………..thanks you can mail at dammy4ever2u@yahoo.com