Musicane links artists, fans
By NORA SORENA CASEY Special to the Daily Press
A local start-up has figured out a way to take major record labels out of the equation and bring music straight to the masses with just the click of a mouse.
Musicane, a new online music distributor founded in a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, allows artists like multi-platinum rapper Lil Wayne, Trent Reznor and the Black Eyed Peas to sell their music directly from their Web sites instead of relying on labels or iTunes.
The business has come a long way in the last three years to earn their clean, white offices on Abbot Kinney. The first meeting of this online music dealership took place around a kitchen table in Santa Monica. There the four original members, President and C.O.O. Vikrameditya Jain, CEO Sudhin Shahani, Josh Zibit, and Kale McNaney, began to plan a new way to sell music online in the face of fading CD sales, Internet piracy, and iTunes.
As the company has grown, so have their services. Musicane is now trying to build a social shopping network online. Users can compile a list of their favorite artists and recommend artists to other users, as well buying songs and albums directly from the musician’s Web site. Jain sees their next move as expanding their online network to sell merchandise and other music-related products.
Musicane has certainly grown to a broader community. For two years the four founders had their business located in an apartment in Santa Monica. The four met in their college years in Boston and moved to Santa Monica to work with Jain once they graduated.
Their original plan was a little hazy; They wanted to create an international music destination online. Over time that concept was refined and changed to its current form, which depends on the opposite idea of spreading their sales through already existing Web site destinations.
“Your business model evolves,” said Jain. “It always changes to adapt to changes in the industry. Maybe you won’t do it exactly the way you planned.”
Jorge Hernandez, co-founder of BJH Music Entertainment Inc., believes that Musicane’s strength lies in its ability to turn young consumers’ interest into an immediate purchase, before they get distracted and move on to something else.
“They are being bombarded by so many things,” he said. “Its a great encapsulated experience where if they get into it they can buy it at that exact moment.”
Musicane also benefits the artists, who can make more money from their own sales by setting their own prices and not using major labels, and they keep customers on their Web site. Jain brought up how typical artists like Brittany Spears sells her music from her Web site.
“She sells CD’s, but whose buying CD’s?” asked Jain. “She should just be selling digital downloads.”
Musicane setup sounds good to prospective customers and users alike. Jay Marcus uses iTunes almost every day, but he said he would switch if something better, and less expensive, came along. He was also intrigued by the sharing music feature.
424,“I wouldn’t just be looking for people I know,” he said. “I’d be looking for whatever is hot.”
Musician Josh Dick performs on the Third Street Promenade four times a week, and is currently working on an album. He plans on getting his music out there any way he can and knows that the Internet is a very important part of that process.
“Oh yeah, that sounds very cool,” said Dick, upon hearing how Musicane works. “If it were practical, pragmatic, if it were cheap and something I could afford.”
Hernandez has found it affordable and a good business investment so far. The idea that has certainly paid off for the owners, although it has brought them away from Santa Monica.
“I don’t think anyone thought you could actually do this,” Hernandez said. “I think it’s the novelty of someone actually coming up with a solution.”
Musicane links artists, fans
“I don’t think anyone thought you could actually do this. I think its the novelty of someone actually coming up with a solution.”
— Jorge Hernandez, Co-founder BJH Music Entertainment Inc.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 1, 2008. Read the original PDF.