Amie Street - Where Music Lives
In the arena of niche social networks, comes AmieStreet. Bringing a new business model online for music online, Amie Street uses a variable pricing structure that lets fans decide the price. All songs start free and in true community pricing, rise in price the more they are purchased.
The site rewards tastemakers by allowing them to earn credit for recommending songs that go on to sell big, and the ability to download music for free is designed to appeal to broke students. Artists get 70% of the song sales.
While Amie Street has yet to break an unknown act, it has helped more than a few build audiences: The band Middle Distance Runner, for instance, has risen from being a virtually unknown outside Washington, D.C., to playing packed Bowery Ballroom shows in New York since it joined the site last March.
Filed under: Digital culture, Website Alert