Worth Watching: myAWOL
First ReverbNation, then TopSpin and now…
"myAWOL (my Artists Without Labels) is simultaneously a music-centric multimedia content company, a vehicle for discovering, promoting and capitalizing on musical talent, and a resource for anyone in the music industry looking to make money doing what they love. It’s part old school MTV and part new school record label, with servings of event promotion thrown in for good measure." – VentureBeat
The site is currently in private beta with roll out scheduled for the end of the summer. The plan almost feels a little too ambitious, but it’s way too early to tell. One interesting project is their MIDB (Music Industry Database) which wants to be the pro music equivalent of the exhaustive and more consumer focused IMDB (Internet Movie Database). I suggest signing up and watching how things develop.
This is pure hogwash. Go read their about us section. NO WHERE does it tell you what they do!!
This statement says it all: “We’re a brand new fresh company. We’ve been put together by a leading name in the music industry and he’s pulled a talented bunch together to make things happen.”
Pure hype. Pure bullshit.
Seriously Hypebot – why waste your time on this pointless endeavor? I’d expect you to have more editorial class than this.
If you reference: http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/10/myawol-a-music-company-that-grasps-reality/ you’ll see they’re after 8-10 million in seed capital. It’s a guarantee this disaster will be out of business by this time next year. HOW are they going to make money to pay off that investment, sustain their overhead AND grow as a company?
Gee…I did say I thought it sounded a bit too ambitious but was worth watching? Is it fair to criticize them so harshly before they launch? When somebody enters the space with s couple of million behind them I believe I should at least pay attention…even if its only so you guys don’t have to.
Its hard to tell what this really is, but if some VC sunk 8-10 M into it, its gotta have a strong model behind it. Currently, VCs are extremely cautious of investing in anything music, as they still remember Napster and SnoCap didn’t exactly do well. With that being said, there has been some activity in the discover space — amiestreet, topspin, blah, blah, blah
So, I am going to give this site a chance, especially if it beat out the 100s of other music discovery start-ups on the net that couldn’t get this kind of $ from the VCs.
Hopefully this site will have some kind of way DIY/Unsigned artists can get paid!
That’s just the point though Hansel. Millions of VC money behind this just screams horrible business plan. Do you know how many millions of dollars get thrown at disasterous music businesses every year?
Common sense will tell you it won’t last long, but for further confirmation just think through what’s at play here. Ex major label people using ex major label money. With press releases that are 100% hype-driven. Do you honestly think any innovation whatsoever is involved here?
Rand, I think you’re being a bit harsh. There’s gotta be SOME innovation here, no? Because this site targets unsigned/DIY artists, I am going to give it a shot. At least its not another music discovery site for the big labels!