ReverbNation Builds Community By Empowering The Artist
Last week I had a chance to test drive music community and indie artist empowerment tool ReverbNation and was impressed by what I saw. Still in beta and launching October 31st, 
ReverbNation borrows heavily from MySpace, PureVolume, and others, but with two fundamental difference.
First, the hub of activity for fans of any artist should be on the act’s own web site. ReverbNation acknowledges this with free and useful widgets. 
Virtually everything that a band stores or creates on ReverbNation (tour dates, blogs, etc) can be dropped with ease onto their own or other web sites and blogs. Not only is the approach great for the artist and fun for the fans; it drives traffic back to ReverbNation.
Second, ReverbNation acknowledges that a bands fans are their own and unlike MySpace doesn’t lock
their "friends" list behind the corporate wall. They have created a free yet powerful fan mail tool called FanReach and ReverbNation not only says "you own that fan list and can export it"; they reward the artist for any monetization of their fans.
ReverbNation would at first glance appear to be a little late to the music community party. But with their fair and artist-centric approach and an attractive and intuitive interface, this newcomer should go far. Beta test it here.
This site is finally rockin…. Now every music fan can finally get what they always craved for…..100% music and up to the minute news at your finger tips…
Thank you Lou and Scott!!!! Rock on!!!!!!
If reverbnation is:-
“about uniting ALL the citizens of the music community around a FREE, music-specific online environment. In OURSPACE, music comes first”
then the biggest FREE in this case appears to be the FREE usage eminor gets of artists (and fans) work for whatever purposes deemed fit, with no obligation to make any payment, and no way for users to ever opt out..that is if I’m reading the following clause correctly;
“By posting Content on RN, you hereby grant Company a world-wide, fully paid, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual non-exclusive license, alone or together or as part of other information, Content and/or other material of any kind, to use, copy, store, publish, edit, translate, transmit, publicly perform, publicly display, create compilations, create derivative works of, modify, translate distribute and/or otherwise exploit such Content, to publish and promote such Content in connection with any Products and Services (including, without limitation, for any and all advertising and promotional purposes), to publish and promote such content elsewhere within RN, and to sublicense such rights through any number of tiers of sublicensees, all without any obligation to you, whether by way of compensation, attribution or otherwise. Such license shall apply with respect to any and all form(s), medium(s) and/or technology(ies) now known or hereafter developed. Notwithstanding the foregoing: (i) RN does not claim any ownership rights in or to any Content posted by you (“Your Content”); (ii) as between you and RN, you shall continue to retain all ownership rights in Your Content; (iii) the foregoing non-exclusive license: (A) does not in any manner restrict you from exploiting Your Content via any and all third-party avenues; (B) does not grant RN the right to sell Your Content except as otherwise set forth herein.”
Please correct me if I’m wrong…
What do Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Mozart all have in common? And what do they have in common with practically every other artist who’s creativity has changed the world? They are all unique. But there is something in common.
They each changed the popular music of their times by combining already popular forms in a new way. Elvis – on that famous and fateful day in Sun Studios in Memphis he let it all loose and brought it all together again differently… the blues, country, gospel and regional elements that were his influences in his youth all came together into rockabilly, rock and roll, something that had not been heard before. Elvis on Ed Sullivan also brought together the new music form and the new medium – television in a new way which has influenced generations of rock icons to first pick up their guitar.