Promoting bands: Startup taps the Web

Singer, songwriter and keyboardist Kelly Crisp has amassed 6,000 friends on the MySpace.com social networking web site.

That's a heck of a lot of friends, but the click-throughs are nothing the Chapel Hill indie-rock musician can bank on to sustain her artistic career. What Crisp's band, The Rosebuds, really craves is not virtual friends, but loyal fans. A fan is likely to see the band perform live, buy the husband-and-wife duo's compact discs and promote the group by word-of-mouth and by blogging.

With a core base of fans that can be quantified like any other business customers, more musicians such as Crisp could quit their day jobs and make a full-time career out of making music.

That's the idea behind Reverbnation.com, a Durham startup's Web site, designed as an online fan club and virtual manager for working musicians who dream of making it without backing from major labels.

"We're musicians, we're not celebrities," Crisp said. "We just want as many people to listen to the music as possible."

The Rosebuds are among the 100-plus musicians and bands that have agreed to test Reverbnation until the site launches publicly this fall. The artists are uploading concert schedules, sound files and biographical information.

The bands are also building links to their fans' home pages, blogs and favorite song lists. Reverbnation wants to create a searchable fan database that bands and club owners can tap into to promote shows and CDs. The fans could be searched by genre, age and geographical location.

A musician's economic value -- and by extension Reverbnation's -- will be measured by the number of fans that use the site.

"It's not just sales anymore -- it's eyeballs," said Jed Carlson, Reverbnation's chief marketing officer. "It's how many hits is your MySpace page getting. That's insight [for the music industry] into who should we call, who should we sign, who should we produce."

Backed by $2 million from venture capitalists Novak Biddle Venture Partners in Bethesda, Md., and Southern Capital Ventures in Raleigh, the site is being developed by a team of seven marketers, Web developers and music industry veterans in Durham and New York City.

The cash is expected to last through 2007 to give Reverbnation a foothold so it can compete with established sites such as MySpace, GarageBand and PureVolume. The money was awarded in late July to eMinor, the Durham company that created Reverbnation.

"We're hoping our funding takes us to the point of having over 100,000 artists on the site," Carlson said. "Then the opportunities, whether it's [an] IPO or being acquired, will present themselves."

A limited number of such sites are expected to emerge as the dominant information clearinghouses for the music industry. Until the winners are clear, many musicians are hedging their bets and posting their pages on multiple sites.

"We're diversifying our portfolio," Crisp said of The Rosebuds' decision to go with Reverbnation.

Reverbnation is free now, as it attempts to generate as much online traffic as possible. The site is not likely to maximize its buzz if it doesn't attract celebrity artists, famous clubs and big-time agents as members.

At some point, Reverbnation plans to start charging concert venues for advanced searches of fan databases, and charging the fans for merchandise sales, music downloads and other services.

The site also plans to make money by letting bands target their own fan lists to cross-promote other artists' shows and music. The musicians would share in the revenue. The fans will have the option of blocking unwanted messages, Carlson said.

Joining the site and basic functions will remain free for musicians, fans, clubs, studios, agents, lawyers, licensers and others in the music industry, Carlson said. The site will try to draw a critical mass of bands and fans by letting visitors stream music, swap play lists and cross-link to their home pages and blogs. The more people join the virtual community, the higher the site's revenue potential.

An Internet presence is valuable for any small business, and Bohemian hyperbole aside, a music career depends on the same rules of business as selling mattresses. But the Internet has proven an imperfect marketing and research tool for selling music. One problem is sensory overload.

"We have an e-mailing list, but only about 25 percent of the people who get it actually open it to read it," said Glenn Boothe, owner of the Local 506, a club in Chapel Hill. "The problem now with e-mail is that it's so easy."

With Reverbnation, the e-mail would be directed at a target audience. A search might identify female fans of independent rock who are 18-28 and live within 25 miles of, say, Asheville. Groups with fans who meet the search criteria could agree -- for a fee -- to e-mail their fans and encourage them to see other musicians perform. Reverbnation would take a cut by providing the search engine.

"They can leverage their band equity through a direct e-mail campaign on behalf of somebody else," Carlson said.