Internet Underground Music Archives
- Some of you may have noticed from my ad in this issue of our news
letter that I have a new CD out called ‘‘RIDER’’. As you might expect,
I am very excited to finally have my music available to the public
and I certainly hope it brings enjoyment to all who hear it. This
is a project that I started back in October of 1995 with the writing
of that first bass line. When I thought back and recalled all the
good times spent writing and recording the music and then getting
it ready for CD release it suddenly occurred to me that the job was
really only half done. The next step is as important as the first.
That next step is finding ways to get that music out to you, the
listening public. I want to tell you about one of the newest ideas for getting
independently released music to the attention of the consumer. It’s
a computer on-line service called the Internet Underground Music Archives
or IUMA.
- With a little high-tech help from the Internet, getting our music
out into the world where you, the listener, can discover it has become
far easier than it was in the days when the record companies had an
effective monopoly on distribution. We now have a way to bypass the
bottleneck of both the record company and the distributor. One of
the best tools for doing this is the Internet Underground Musical
Archives through which your songs can be up-loaded onto the World
Wide Web and down-loaded by fans around the world. IUMA is the first
and largest high-fidelity Internet music outlet, setting the standard
and creating the future of music distribution right now. As of Feb.
1996, IUMA receives in excess of 20,000 accesses per day, and offers
the works of over 800 independent musicians to an estimated 30 million
Internet users. This on-line community includes a global audience
of fans, radio station programers, club promoters and music industry
A&R representatives. IUMA is considered the #1 Web site for independent
artists and is frequently accessed by top record industry executives.
- IUMA provides a basic service that allows you;
- (1) To have one song of up to five and one-half minutes in length,
plus a 20 second excerpt to be made available with each song.
- (2) To have up to 2 pages of text such as biographical info., contact
info., press reviews, show dates, or lyrics (optional, but recommended).
- (3) To have 2 images such as cover photos or artwork.
- (4) To have IUMA handle on-line merchandising on a consignment basis
for your CD, Cassette, VHS Video, Vinyl Record or T-Shirt. This is
a very valuable service because they utilize toll-free ordering and
have the ability to process checks and credit cards. They also offer
additional extra cost services such as the addition of more songs,
images, text, video clips and the providing of statistical reports.
- Users can down-load three audio versions of a song. There’s the AU
format which is like AM radio. Then there’s MPEG audio that is available
in stereo and mono. MPEG stereo is very good quality, almost equivalent
to a CD. Then there’s RealAudio, which works a bit differently and
doesn’t require any down-load time. It has the audio quality of AU
but you can listen to it in real time and still browse, look at pictures,
etc., without interrupting the audio stream.
- The basic package goes for $240 for a year and IUMA will design the
artist or bands web page and will also create a free logo if you don’t
already have one. There are special price breaks for re-signing for
the next year, and bands or artists may update their site with new
e-mail addresses, tour dates, personnel changes, etc., throughout
the year for no additional charge. The statistical option that’s offered
reports on a quarterly basis on the number of individual hits a band
or artist’s location has received. There are too many additional details
to list here but I will give you all the addresses and phone numbers
you need to contact IUMA directly at the end of this article.
- I plan to go on-line with my CD as soon as I can and I’m going to
get the additional song option. My total IUMA package will cost me
$300 which means that since I’m getting 1000 CD’s I am only adding
$.30 per unit to my overall costs. Taking my usual optimistic view,
I can re-coup that expense by merely selling one CD per state, but
the bigger point is that I’m getting exposure for my music all over
the United States and possibly the world. Now I know that getting
my music heard on IUMA will not guarantee me success but the additional
exposure certainly won’t hurt me and, again taking the optimistic
view, you never know who might down-load a song and be interested
enough to want to do more than just buy a CD. The music business has
always been built on hope and dreams, right! The odds are certainly
better than the lottery and besides music is a lot more fun.
- Needless to say, I am very excited about the possibilities that going
on-line opens up for me. For those of you who might also be interested,
IUMA can be contacted several ways;
By mail; IUMA, 303 Potrero St. #7A, Santa Cruz, CA. 95060.
By phone; 800-850-IUMA, FAX; 408-426-5918.
By e-mail; info@iuma.com
By web site; http://www.iuma.com.
- Keep On Rockin’!
- David Thompson
Rock & Roll for the road
All songs by David Thompson
Now available at Herreid Music
or for more information visit Rider at http://www.iuma.com
Back