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*[[Brother Love]]
*[[Brother Love]]
*[[Coconut Records (band)|Coconut Records]]
*[[Coconut Records (band)|Coconut Records]]
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Revision as of 17:13, 12 October 2007

Amie Street
Pricing model USA: 0¢-98¢ per song, demand based
AvailabilityWorldwide

Amie Street is an indie online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island. They have since graduated and moved the company to Long Island City in Queens, New York.[3]

History

Founded in early 2006, Amie Street opened to the public with a pre-alpha version on July 4 2006 and was quickly scooped by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.[4] However, because the site was so young there weren't many artists available and there was frequent downtime. Amie Street's catalog and stability have grown steadily since then, adding nine members to the team[3] and creating partnerships with various record labels including Nettwerk Music Group and Daptone Records.[5] A few weeks after the initial crush of traffic an alpha version was completed and a beta version was launched on October 4 2006.[6]

Investors

As reported by TechCrunch on August 5 2007, Amie Street announced a site redesign and, led by Amazon.com, closed their "Series A" round of venture capital funding.[3] They began negotiations for the round in January 2007.[7] Notable angel investors include Robin Richards, former president of MP3.com[6] and David Hirsch, director of Google's B2B vertical markets group.[8]

Website features

Artists upload tracks onto the site, which allows users to purchase them at a price that varies according to demand. Website users earn credits by recommending ("REC"ing) songs to their friends. If the REC was for a good song and leads to users purchasing it, the price of the song will increase. The user will earn credit based on the increase in the price of the song after making the REC.

Demand-based pricing

Amie Street uses an algorithm to determine song prices based on demand. The price for a track starts at zero when a song is uploaded onto the site. It then rises according to the increased demand and purchase of the song. The maximum price any song will rise to is 98¢. A pricing calculator is available and it shows the simple model used to determine pricing. The price curve changes based on the overall volume of songs purchased on the site. As of August 5 2007 15 buys yields a price of 1¢, 25 buys yields 15¢, 50 buys yields 50¢, and 84 buys yields 98¢.

Selling music

Artists upload their music directly to the site in MP3 format at whatever quality bit rate they choose. (Other formats such as AAC, FLAC, and Ogg are "on the way.")[9] As users buy songs, the artist is credited quarterly. Artists keep 70% of the proceeds after US$5 in sales for each song.[10] PayPal,[3] Payoneer prepaid MasterCards,[11] or checks are used to make payments to artists.[10] There is some speculation that Amazon's new web service Amazon FPS would be a good match for the site as well.[3]

RECs

Non-artist users can earn credit as well. They do this by RECing a song. When a user finds a song they believe will be a hit, they can REC it. If the song price increases from the moment they REC it, they will receive compensation based on the price increase. For example, if one RECs a song currently at 5¢ and it rises to 95¢, the user will cash out half the spread: 45¢ , just for RECing the song. If a user RECs a song when it is free, they are compensated with the full spread. RECing also differentiates more popular music from less, as songs that are believed to be good will be RECed more often. Users get approximately 1 REC for every US$1 they use on the site.

Social networking

Users can make connections with other users through the "friend" feature. "Friends" on Amie Street are intended to be based around musical interests. RECs are sent out to friends to make it easier to find new music in a music "news feed".[3] Users can message each other and post comments on freely customizable (including Meebo integration) user profiles. There is also a "fan" feature so users can easily connect with bands on the site. All of this information is neatly organized on each user's dashboard[12] and available as separate RSS web feeds.

Benefit media

On November 6 2006, Amie Street introduced four benefit media tracks to the site.[13] These songs are priced at 50¢ and all proceeds from sales go to the charity Free The Children.[14] The tracks are Rushian and Waitress from the album Us Against the Crown by State Radio and Awakening and From Now On by Sonny Fortune.

On March 28 2007, Amie Street expanded their benefit media program with six more tracks to boost donations for Boomer Esiason's Foundation and the Blubrry Jam campaign to fight cystic fibrosis.[15][16] Also priced at 50¢, Brother Love and HER and Kings County each contributed three tracks to the cause.

lonelygirl15 partnership

On May 15 2007, lonelygirl15 teamed up with Amie Street to sell music featured in episodes of the show.[17]

Notable artists

Some noteworthy artists on Amie Street:[18]

Press

Amie Street has been mentioned in several notable media organizations.[19][20] These include Rolling Stone,[21] The Wall Street Journal,[22] BusinessWeek,[23] NPR,[24] The Washington Post,[25] Los Angeles Times,[26] Entertainment Weekly,[27] TechCrunch,[28] Boing Boing,[29] Ars Technica,[2] and Wired.[30]

References

  1. ^ Gallaugher, John (2007-09-06). "The Week in Geek - Sept. 6, 2007". The Week in Geek. Retrieved 2007-09-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b Cheng, Jacqui (2007-03-07). "Amie Street signs major artists to sell DRM-free music". ArsTechnica. Retrieved 2007-03-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Gonzalez, Nick (2007-08-05). "Amie Street Closes Series A Financing Led By Amazon.com". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ Arrington, Michael (2006-07-23). "Amie Street: Awesome New Music Model". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-05-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ "AmieStreet's CrunchBase entry". CrunchBase. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-08-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ a b Robinson, Blake (2006-10-04). "Amie Street Takes Innovative Music Model Into Beta". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-01-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Arrington, Michael (2007-01-26). "Amie Street Begins Data Mining and Artist Promotion". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-01-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Kafka, Peter (2007-08-06). "Amie Street Has Amazon Money. What's The Plan?". Silicon Alley Insider. Retrieved 2007-10-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Arrington, Michael (2007-03-05). "Barenaked Ladies: New Album. Free. No DRM. Now". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-03-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ a b "For Artists". Amie Street. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  11. ^ Chowdhry, Amit (2007-03-27). "Greylock Partners Leads $4 Million Series A Investment In Payoneer". Pulse 2.0. Retrieved 2007-10-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Your Dashboard
  13. ^ Roman, Elias (2006-11-06). "Free The Children". Amie Street Blog. Retrieved 2007-02-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ "Amie Street cranks out cool tunes to benefit Free The Children". Voices International Newsletter, Free The Children. November 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-03. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Buy Brother Love, Fight Cystic Fibrosis". Blubrry Blog. 2007-03-28. Retrieved 2007-05-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Boltuch, Joshua (2007-03-30). "Buy Good Music, Fight Cystic Fibrosis". Amie Street Blog. Retrieved 2007-05-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (2007-05-15). "LonelyGirl15 Soundtrack Will Use Amie Street Artists". Listening Post. Wired. Retrieved 2007-05-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Popular Artists
  19. ^ Amie Street Press
  20. ^ Amie Street Buzz
  21. ^ Futterman, Erica (2007-07-03). "Master P's Latest: So This Is What Profanity-Free Hip-Hop Sounds Like". Rock & Roll Daily. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  22. ^ Warren, Jamin (2006-10-14). "Online: Music At new Web store, many songs sell for a few cents". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ Gangemi, Jeffery (2006-10-30). "America's Best Young Entrepreneurs". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Kramer, Melody Joy (2007-01-11). "Web Sites Making Music for Your Ears". NPR. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  25. ^ Pegoraro, Rob (2007-07-06). "Goodbye, AllofMP3.com..." Faster Forward. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ Healey, Jon (2007-05-14). "CD or not CD?". Opinion Daily. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ Schonberger, Chris (2007-06-06). "How much is the Game worth to you?". PopWatch Blog. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ Arrington, Michael (Various: 2006-07-23, 2006-10-04, 2007-01-02, 2007-01-26, 2007-03-05, 2007-06-03, and 2007-08-05). "Amie Street articles on TechCrunch". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2007-08-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Doctorow, Cory (2007-01-05). "Online label only charges once songs are popular". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (2006-11-02). "Amie Street & Inclue Allow Outlook Access to RSS Feeds of Music Promos... Wha?". Listening Post. Wired. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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