A few years back, Brown University students Josh Boltuch, Elliott Breece and Elias Roman hit on an idea to apply the social power of the web to solve the age-old challenge of connecting musicians and fans through their music. Rather than charging .99 cents or as much as $1.49 for a song, or $10-15 a CD, the three envisioned a marketplace where eager fans could get a taste of new music for far, far less--and at the same time reward the artists with greater royalties and wider fan bases too. Their idea has been brought to life as Amiestreet.com, (pronounced like the name--"Amy"), and it's attracted not just the finest in musical talent--but also venture funding from web retail giant Amazon.com, who has backed a major site release this past year, with big plans for the future.
Local Lowell musician Melvern Taylor hasn't failed to notice. His and his Fabulous Meltones' fabulous new CD, "Love Songs for Losers", is currently available for FREE on Amiestreet.com (that's no misprint--get it while it's HOT HOT HOT) and it's taken the leading edge on a new wave of musical entrepreneurship. Don't worry if it's a little bit more by the time you get to it--the premise at Amiestreet is simple--the more people download a song or a CD, the higher it goes up in price. Be the first to discover something great, like Melvern Taylor's latest, and it can be yours for free! As an added bonus, if you recommend your favorites to others, you can also get cut in with a cash bonus from Amiestreet based on how high those songs go up in price on the site. For fans, this means even MORE great music for the money, and it's all DRM-free and fully iPod compatible. This week's Amiestreet top 25 includes names you might know: Guster;Taj Majal; Nick Lowe. Next week, however, Milltown recording stars Melvern Taylor and His Fabulous Meltones will be hoping they're the ones reaching out to a whole new group of fans. Check them out!
submitted by KadBarma
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