Domain Lexicon Adds '.mu,' '.mp3'

With Internet domain names ending in ".com" becoming increasingly hard to come by as the Web expands, some artists and labels—looking to have greater control over their brands online—are registering their names with newly created alternative domain tags, including such music-oriented suffixes as ".mu" and ".mp3."

SamsDirect Internet, an Agoura Hills, Calif.-based seller of Internet addresses, says that several major record companies—including EMI, Universal, and Sony—have quietly registered thousands of ".mu" domains and that dozens of artist domains—janetjackson.mu, garthbrooks.mu, limpbizkit.mu—have been registered by management or other representatives. Such major radio stations as KROQ-FM Los Angeles have signed on. And a number of fan sites, such as aerosmith.mu, are popping up.

New.net, another Internet domain name seller, is making inroads with the ".mp3" tag. The company recently signed a deal with MP3.com to offer thousands of ".mp3" handles to acts that post their music on the Web; they can register through MP3.com for an "artistname.mp3" address.

Companies marketing music-related domains say the value of an alternative address, in a world dominated by ".com", is differentiation.

For its part, SamsDirect—which is focusing all its efforts on music, as it exclusively markets the emerging ".mu" domain—says some labels are using ".mu" to plan niche, grass-roots campaigns centered on "underground" Web sites. "They can use a dot-mu to let fans have a meeting place to see and hear messages about a group that don't smack of commercialism," says David Sams, CEO of SamsDirect. "Dot-com usually means, 'Here's the release, here's the tour dates.' This is more viral marketing."

Others are using their ".mu" as their primary site, including former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (aka "Posh Spice"), who worked with EMI to grab victoriabeckham.mu and is taking an active role on the site.

"A number of the artists are getting dot-mu sites because years ago they did not get their dot-com," Sams says. "It went to the fan club or the label."

A NEED FOR ALTERNATIVES

The companies marketing alternative domains say ".com" has lost its meaning. Created in the late '80s to denote "commercial" Internet sites, the suffix became so popular in the '90s that private individuals began claiming addresses.

Other major suffixes, such as ".org" and ".net"—called "top-level domains" (TLDs) and accessible to any Web browser—also had their identities muddied. New TLDs cannot be created without the blessing of an Internet standards group known as ICANN. But companies like SamsDirect have discovered ways to market little-used TLDs into more common Web handles.

ICANN originally gave out two-letter TLDs to every country worldwide, big (e.g., ".uk" for the United Kingdom) and small. Among the smallest is the African island Mauritius, which was given ".mu"; the administrator of Mauritius' domain approached SamsDirect in 2000 to market it.

Sams and his wife had already helped pioneer the concept of alternative domains with ".cc", the handle of the Cocokeeling Islands. Officially marketed by SamsDirect as a ".com" alternative, the suffix took off when Clear Channel Communications signed up hundreds of its radio stations for ".cc" addresses. SamsDirect followed that with ".tv," the handle of the island of Tivalu that has since been marketed to TV broadcasters.

Sams says that among niche domains, ".mu" has the widest potential appeal: "This domain is going to be more valuable the more focused it is—if we don't just throw it out there like dot-com and dot-org were."

Trademark disputes have also been more carefully handled in the ".mu" world, with individuals warned at sign-up of SamsDirect's anti-cyber-squatting policies and the company offering to hand over a domain to trademark holders with paperwork proving their rights to a name—something 'N Sync's lawyers did recently when a fan grabbed nsync.mu.

The standard price is $50 per year to register a ".mu" address, but in a promotion, SamsDirect is charging $4.95 for individuals for a one-year trial. Sams says this has proved popular with music fans, particularly at colleges.

Some companies have developed an option to marketing pre-existing domains or waiting for ICANN to create new ones. New.net has created several dozen niche-focused domain extensions—including ".arts," ".video," and ".mp3"—that are not official TLDs.

Steve Chadima, New.net chief marketing officer, says, "We saw a marketing opportunity and picked names with cachet, some with purposefully narrow appeal."

Under New.net's deal with MP3.com, domain registry is $35 per year, the same as for a ".com" address. New.net hosts the addresses on its own servers and has agreements with Internet service providers (ISP) to program their services to instantly recognize the new suffixes. (AOL and Microsoft remain holdouts among the major ISPs, Chadima says.) Web surfers whose ISPs don't recognize the specialized addresses can download a plug-in that retrofits their browser to accept the secondary suffixes.

Even a top-level domain like ".mu" faces an awareness challenge. SamsDirect plans to announce a major marketing partnership in September and is putting all its advertising dollars behind a branding campaign to launch right after Christmas.

"People once said no one would accept 888 as an alternative to 1-800," Sams says. "These suffixes are like a zip code—it's important, but it's not the name of a city. What makes these suffixes valuable is the significance they bring."