It’s hard to talk about the tech revolution without tipping your hat to music platforms like Napster. The infamous tech giant — which many pundits argue irrevocably altered the course of the $25 billion industry’s future — helped popularize a digital music listening experience that simultaneously bulldozed the door down for online music fixtures like iTunes, Spotify and Pandora.
And though technology has transformed the listener’s experience for the better, the same can’t always be said for musicians. Record labels have buckled down, writing increasingly more tyrannical contracts dictating what artistic rights they own (#FreeKesha). Moreover, according to Sameer Kelkar, an artist using streaming services like Spotify still needs to rack up a million views in order to earn a measly minimum wage.
Kelkar is the founder of an
-based service called The New FM, which he launched earlier this year in the hopes of remedying those less-than-favorable conditions for musicians.
“The New FM aims to unleash artists from the chains of record labels — specifically indie artists,” he said.
Marketed as a “Reddit for music,” the service wants to flip traditional distribution channels — from advertising to radio DJs and club promoters — on their heads, in favor of a more democratized model that focuses on the voice of the consumer.
“Why isn’t there a central network where listeners and musicians are the only two groups of people that matter in the equation of selling music?” he asked.
It works like this: artists upload their music, and listeners can upvote songs they like. Songs with more upvotes see a little more airtime, and the idea is that the exposure they get garners sales. Artists who choose to upload songs retain the rights to their music and are charged nothing upfront for the service.
Kelkar said musicians make 80 percent off an overall sale. And indie music lovers — unlike, say, their top 40 foils — may be more than willing to fork over cash for tracks if they know profits go directly into the purses of bands they like.
“It truly is a grassroots revolution,” he said. “Indie artists basically have nothing right now in the market to actually fight for them.”
To be sure, The New FM faces an uphill battle — not only from the YouTubes, Capitol Records and Spotifys of the world, but also from more established services like Bandcamp who operate under a similar model.
The service is currently operating in beta, with a live Kickstarter campaign that hopes to raise as much awareness as it does actual capital. If all goes well, Kelkar said he’s set a tentative launch date for the close of the year. Until then, he’s relying on word-of-mouth to gain favor with local artists, heading out to local music hotbeds like Wicker Park with flyers in hand.
And getting in front of those artists is key. Kelkar said the service will have to grow organically as more musicians sign up, but he’s confident momentum will start to swell. A service like his will be near impossible for artists to refuse, he predicts, because The New FM is free and allows musicians to focus on the thing they care about most.
“They just want to make music,” he said.
Image via Shutterstock.
Do you have a story you want to share with our readers? Shoot us an email or follow us on Twitter @BuiltInChicago.
