The Music World Changes Even More: Unsigned Artists Are On iTunes

This is great news for all those wonderful musicians struggling to get their work out there and by-pass the nightmare of “big” music industry complications. “Jonny” posts an article on the great music industry website, Distorted Loop, writing, “Pure Play Music has reached a digital distribution deal designed to bring its catalogue of 1.5 million tracks from unsigned artists to iTunes, eMusic, Amazon and Napster. As part of the partnership, one of the four distribution channels, iTunes, will be giving Pure Play Music its own drop-down category on the front page of their Web site. Music enthusiasts can log onto iTunes, listen to the artist’s song, and, if they like it, click on a link that directs them to the artist’s personal profile page at Pure Play Music.”

Richard Labrum, Vice President of Business Affairs for Pure Play Music says, “We are very happy. We are pleased that we can offer all our artists an opportunity to seel and monetize their music through these four industry staples. This partnership will serve as a springboard to enhance the visibility of our artists, and enhance the platform their music can be heard on.”

Pure Play Music offers artists a site where they can upload their music for radio play. Artists grant Pure Play non-exclusive commercial rights to their music. Jonny writes, “ Pure Play currently features and promotes over 6,000 acts from a total of 42 countries, all of whom have been vetted through the stringent Pure Play A&R selection and legal process.”

This next step, partnering with sales venues like iTunes, is a major new development. “The online distribution model is changing,” says Lebrum. “We are spearheading these efforts to enable artists the maximum amount of exposure with a minimum amount of risks. By forging partnerships with outlets already established in the space, we can leverage their connections, and they benefit from our vast catalogue of world-wide artists. The new era of distribution is now, and we are thrilled to take the leadership role.” And, with the iTunes 8 Genius service, the opportunity for the work of these artists to be presented to a much wider audience is simply phenomenal.

Currently, Pure Play Music makes its catalogue available to over 25,000 music retailers worldwide through its six genre-specific satellite radio streams as well as existing partnerships. Also preparing to launch at the end of 2008 is “Pure Play People”, which is a social networking platform that will tie it all together — social networking, radio broadcasting and direct purchasing through venues like iTunes — allowing musicians to completely by-pass the old model controlled by the record labels.