eListeningPost service monetises musician's work through email distribution

Receive exclusive tracks or previews by email

4 December 2006 12:51 GMT / By Amber Maitland

One of the biggest problems facing record companies and musicians today is how to make money from music sharing online. Although sites like MySpace allow artists to get in touch with fans through free music and blogs, the pages aren't often monetised.

The guys behind eListeningPost think they have the answer. They're calling eListeningPost “Music 2.0", and have already convinced EMI that their innovation is a good one.

The new service delivers email containing music tracks straight to your inbox, and lets you listen to the tracks up to five times. Not only that, you can forward the email on to friends, who will also be able to listen to the music. A click lets you buy the track directly through eListeningPost at one of three prices that the artist chooses, or takes you to another site where you can download the track.

All proceeds from the sale go directly to the artist or recording label.

Designed to help musicians make money from their work, eListeningPost also lets them add advertising to the emails and receive 60% of the profits from them.

The tracks are protected using DRM from RealNetworks and Microsoft, although the purchased files bought through eListeningPost will be in MP3 format.

It costs £35 to set up an account, after which distribution costs a £5 subscription a month.

EMI has agreed to trial the service; Sony BMG and Warner Bros are also in talks with the company, which is able to provide the labels information on the number of times the track or video has been played around the world, along with consumer feedback and ratings.

Full tags

Audio, Online, eListeningPost