Dance: Dealing With Online Demand

Dance and electronic enthusiasts are a particularly computer-savvy bunch. Whether declaring their likes and dislikes on message boards or sharing MP3 files, they are serious about their music. So serious, in fact, that they want their music now, not later—regardless of whether or not they are paying for it.

While many artists, producers and labels perceive this as a big problem, not everyone regards it as a threat to their livelihood.

"The Internet made the track happen," says Josh Gabriel of hot production/remix duo Gabriel & Dresden, referring to "As the Rush Comes," which the pair recorded under the Motorcycle guise.

"The track received the lion's share of its hype from the message board and file-share culture," Gabriel's musical partner Dave Dresden adds. Consequently, the pair signed the track to revered U.K. imprint Positiva.

Gabriel & Dresden, as well as many others in the industry, are proving that digital technology is not all gloom and doom. It does offer, like a Doris Day film, rays of sunshine.

In fact, those in the trenches of dance and electronic music—a singles-oriented, time-sensitive genre—are well-poised to benefit from digital delivery. They simply need to understand that today's enthusiasts want their music on their terms.

Artwork and the physical disc are not important. Today's fans have been raised on a steady diet of music files. For them, that's what music is about—not how it is packaged.

"We have a computer-savvy and youthful audience," Astralwerks GM Errol Kolosine says. "The physical manifestation of product doesn't matter to them. Today's kids have been raised in a virtual world."

Thus, they desire music that they can take everywhere. "They also want it unconditionally," Kolosine adds.

While illicit peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing may never go away, legal digital download services like Pressplay, BuyMusic and Apple's iTunes Music Store prove that people are willing to pay for the music they want.

On recent visits to the iTunes Music Store, tracks by Junior Senior, Jennifer Lopez, Moby and Massive Attack, among others, were in the top 10 of the site's dance and electronic charts.

Remixes of tracks by such acts as Annie Lennox, Jewel and Sugar Ray have also been available for sale at the site.

Labels like Astralwerks, Ultra, Twisted and Tommy Boy will soon make their respective catalogs available on iTunes. K7 is the first independent European label to do so.

Recently, New York-based independent label West End made its entire catalog available for digital purchase. Individual tracks—priced between 79 and 99 cents—are sold at the label's official Web site, westendrecords.com.

Getting on board the Net

Former Tommy Boy artist Amber says labels fought the Internet for far too long.

"They needed to get on board years ago, instead of thinking the Internet would just go away," she explains. "These days, you need to be proactive."

This helps to explain why artists like Amber believe that now's the time to take matters into their own hands. Amber says her next album, which she will self-release, will be carried by both traditional and online distributors.

And if Amber has remixes of her songs done, rest assured that they will be available for sale. This is not always the case with remixes of dance and electronic tracks—many are done solely for promotional purposes.

Therefore, club DJs and dance/electronic enthusiasts not on the receiving end of promotional material will do what it takes to secure music that is not available commercially.

The birth of P2P file sharing leveled the playing field. "It allowed all DJs access to music that was previously only available to the elite few who receive promotional discs," one club DJ explains.

Doing business in this manner has created an atmosphere of total disarray, the DJ adds. "The average person thinks, 'Why buy the cow if the milk is free?' There needs to be a system where digital downloads are available and purchasable."

That said, the music needs to be available and for sale the moment promotional copies are sent to club DJs and radio programmers. If not, illicit MP3s will proliferate.

This trend has not been lost on labels. Since enjoying success in the iTunes store with the remixes of Lennox's "Pavement Cracks," J Records has become more aggressive with digital distribution. The label recently made remixes of tracks by Deborah Cox and Monica available on its site.

"Apple has between approximately 3% and 5% of the market," notes Jennifer Fowler, associate director of new media for RCA Music Group. "So, while we're seeing modest sales numbers, we are making money on remixes that we don't normally release commercially."

For the most part, everyone agrees that every kernel of music must be made available to fans. Giving people the chance to own this stuff is a win-win situation for all involved, Fowler notes.

Still, it comes down to making the music available for sale immediately. Otherwise, bedroom DJs will continue to swap MP3s.

Such swapping or sharing, though, could potentially assist labels and artists in determining future hits. Release a "virtual promo" and see if and how it spreads. If it explodes on the Web, a hit may be on the horizon.

This is precisely what prompted the formation of PromOH3, the virtual dance/electronic promotional company helmed by OH Music founder, DJ/producer George Calle.

Since forming nearly one year ago, PromOH3 has delivered one dozen tracks to a mailing list comprising 250 individual members and 21 record pools. Calle estimates that each e-mail—which includes a direct link to the PromOH3 site where a specific track can be downloaded—is forwarded twice.

In June, the link for Dee Robert's "The Greatest Love (I've Ever Known)" received 3,500 hits, Calle notes.

Currently, this service is free to DJs and tastemakers, who can be added to the mailing list by e-mailing promoh3@aol.com. But, Calle says, it will slowly evolve into a membership-with-password model.

Calle sites saving money as another reason for starting PromOH3. "I just couldn't justify pressing up vinyl for my releases on my label OH Music," he explains. "With record sales way down, my postage costs to send out promotional vinyl was not making sense. Why should I spend $5 to mail out one promotional 12-inch when I can do it much cheaper with a virtual promo?"

Presently, PromOH3 is primarily used as a tool for Calle's own label. But unsigned artists like Aymie Ramirez ("Cream") and Francesca Gramm ("Instant Gratification"), as well as labels like Henry Street (Krista's "Let Me Be Your Angel"), are using the promotional service.

DJs in the mix

Unsigned acts and independent labels are also discovering DJintheMix.com. London-based Eddie Gordon, formerly of Neo Records, launched the digital promotion company July 4.

Gordon explains that DJintheMix is first and foremost a promotional tool for labels and artists to target the DJ community. In addition to spotlighting music, the site houses a DJ community board and DJ chart system.

Labels are charged between $250 and $600 per track for the service, which is far cheaper than the costs incurred in vinyl pressing, distribution and postage.

Traditionally, after pressing and mailing, it could take a label two months to receive feedback on a particular track.

With a site like this, Gordon says labels and artists receive feedback within 48 hours. "Reaction is part of the downloading process," Gordon notes.

There are now 1,500 DJs registered with the free service, including such international jocks as Roger Sanchez, Pete Tong, Judge Jules, John Digweed and Paul Oakenfold.

Strictly promotional, Gordon acknowledges that the site "may evolve into a sales territory. But we're walking before we start running."

Artists, especially those on independent labels, wholly support such promotional services. "This is the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to get a record heard by many DJs," Colin Thorpe says.

Thorpe, formerly of production/ remix outfit T-empo, produced Autumn Groove Featuring Ataklan's house track, "Sun Starts to Rise" (Soulstorm Records), which has been featured on DJintheMix.

"The DJ is the conduit to the public," Thorpe says. "You need the DJ to champion the music and the public to then buy the record."

Virtual promotional music may very well become the best medium to communicate directly with club DJs, confirm label owners like Patrick Moxey (Ultra) and Rob DiStefano (Twisted).

"But we're still a couple years away from this being the norm," says Moxey, who adds that his label has sent virtual promos to radio programmers to great effect.

Berlin-based Tosh Cooey, founder of the Twelve Hundred Group— which provides technology services to European labels like K7, Tresor, Plus 8 and BBE—concurs.

"All white-label promotional 12-inches will eventually be replaced by virtual MP3s," Cooey says. "This critical mass should occur in about two years."

Until then, people like Gordon will continue to press on, so to speak.

Gordon says. "We said this at last year's Billboard Dance Music Summit, long before the iTunes Music Store arrived: 'Digital distribution is the only way forward.' "