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Streaming-music sites cue up an amazing playlist of songs, a variety of features and plenty of customer stickiness for advertisers.
Forget all the fuss about Napster and other potential online threats to the music Industry's revenue stream. Enjoying music over the Internet doesn't have to be a moral dilemma or a legal issue. There's actually a way to package It that benefits everyone from consumers to record labels to advertisers.
It's called self-contained streaming-music sites. We're not talking tuning services that allow users to listen to a radio station using their PC. Same technology, different use. And it's not MP3s, either. These are sites such as NetRadio.com that program their own "channels of music. Users download nothing but a media player, unless they already have one. And they get to listen to virtually any kind of music one can Imagine.
For anyone who likes music-and who doesn't?-these sites are paradise. They make It possible to sample many different genres and learn about different artists, all without ever having to plunk down a nonrefundable $20 for a CD. But if the listener does like what's playing, buying the disc is an easy enough proposition. All of these sites provide convenient links to music sellers such as CDnow and Amazon.com. It's the kind of organic synergy businesses dream about.
And it's not just music retailers that stand to benefit. Advertisers of am kind can cash in. These addicting sites have a significant stickiness factor: Users want to come back for more because the content is constantly changing and the music is always evolving. So even the most mediocre of these sites Is worth a look-and a listen.
NETRADIO.COM
The Point: "Go channel surfing."
Vital Statistics: Launched October 1995. Owned by NetRadio Corp., based in Minneapolis.
Target Demo: Each of the site's genres hits a different demo.
Traffic: 3 million unique listeners each month.
Content: The site's clearly stated pitch is Listen ("120 programmed music channels"); Buy ("Choose from 250,000 titles"); and Learn ("About music and artists"). And the site delivers on all three counts. All those big numbers might make things sound unmanageable, but NetRadio smartly breaks the content down. You aren't faced with 120 channels. Instead, you get 16 genres, including Jazz, Broadway/Movies, Rock, World,...