After 1 billion downloads Apple has something to truly be proud of.But that pride may be short lived, as Burn Lounge attempts to gain some of Itunes precious market share.
At the outset- going to one of over the 15,000 (3-28-2006) individually owned burnlounge websites is much like Itunes- click on tracks and artists, listen to music, and hit the "buy" button.
Burnlounge.com has a philosopy- or so its seems- to stay away from the glitz and glam of the multi million dollar ad campaign Apple has bombarded us with over the last few years. The idea is to "give back" to the members of the 'network that it is creating. The revenue that would normally be spent on advertising is shared among the site owners in terms of a 50cent profit share per album sold- and a finders fee for those that bring other members into the burn lounge family. 50 cents may not seem much- but compare that to some royalties that artists are awarded from their respective record labels- burnlounge retailers share per sale could actually beat the signed musician. This network is composed of music fans, musicians, dj's , singers, and rappers as they all take the plunge into maintaing and owning their own digital download site. For all of the mentioned, a very minor cash outlay gives you the ability to do something you probably would never get with Itunes- that is the ability to change the top 10 albums / tracks on your home page. The slick interface provided by Loudeye (a company Microsoft is invested into) is fully customizable giving you the ability to choose tracks to sell to your friends, family, and the rest of the world.
If, you happen to be a musician, you are given the option of sending a cd of your tracks to Burnlounge corporate headquarters and according to several representatives of the company within 3-4 weeks you will be able to sell your tracks at a negotiable 50-75 cents. The price for your own site.. it starts at $29.99 for the basic site ,which allows you to sell your own music and receive your share of your download revenue up to a maximum of $440 - the music mogul package which allows you to create groups of music retailers- and when your group of retailers sells mp3s- you get paid from their sales. A pyramid? Hardly- this is multi level marketing with an excellent product for sale that actually sells itself. Everyone knows whatmusic is.The sales pitch quite frankly is this: "Do you like music?"- how simple could that be?
So why should Apple look out? - Well, this is just the type of viral citement that has built such businesses as My Space, Flickr,and Youtube. Added to this is the fact that Burn Lounge will be offering movie downloads, concert tickets, tour merchandise, mp3players and a whole slew of other gadgets you can sell.For more information go to www.burn76.com and fill out the form- or take the plunge and go to http://www.burnlounge.com/djdick , watch the video and click on "become a retailer".
http://www.articlebliss.com/Article/Burn-Lounge---Will-it-take-a-Bite-out-of-Apple-Itunes-/8597
