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MUSIC FANS:
Support your favorite band! If you like what you hear, let
the artists know about it by picking up some of their music and
downloading their ring tones. |
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BANDS / ARTISTS:
Our contract is simple and NON-EXCLUSIVE.
Provide MP3s and ring tones to your current fans while gaining
global exposure through our built-in audience of rabid music fans. |
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RECORD LABELS:
Expose your artists to our audience. You keep all music and
publishing rights while we provide digital MP3 distribution, ring
tones and global exposure to your label and your artists. |
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ZOOMOOZIK
Zoo-mu-zik (n): an online music community for bands, fans and the industry; the
world’s first all-digital recording label, retail and distribution site for MP3 downloads,
ringtones and streams; a data base of unsigned groups with valuable consumer information for A&R
execs, publishers, promoters, booking agents and record companies; a resource for artist
questions on legal and business issues; provides “robot” management and consultation.
Zoomoozik comes along at a time when the music business is a cutthroat jungle, providing a level
playing field with state-of-the-art technology, a place for unsigned bands and artists to have
their own online guide and record label to help them develop their careers in the music industry
by selling MP3 downloads and ringtones within an online music community.
In short, welcome to the future of music, the world’s first online, digital label, created by a
wide-ranging group featuring several veterans of the music business, including a
publishing/copyright solicitor, several talent executive, promoters, web programmers and graphic
designers along with experts in direct online marketing, building data bases and simply “putting
businesses together and getting them launched.”
The latter was the task of Chief Operating Officer Michael Scharf, a direct marketing whiz who
helped put together the first online loan system at TRW with partners like Beneficial Finance
and Sun Microsystems, and his partner, Chairman/CEO/Director Stephen Strauss, another expert in
the area of incubating new businesses with a career that included opening the initial House of
Blues in L.A. as General Manager, going on to become Senior Vice President for Billboard Live
and running his own Chilmark Entertainment Company, which managed Coolio, among other artists.
Along with another TRW veteran, Guy Connor, whose specialties include direct response marketing
and data bases, the three music fans set out to create a place for musicians to sell their
downloads and ringtones, to learn about the ins and outs of fending for themselves within a
supportive, hip environment which can nurture their careers, a transparent alternative to the
fading major label dinosaur. Strauss, a true believer in the House of Blues’ original One
World/One Love philosophy who left the company when he felt the company betrayed that goal,
shares a similar idealism with his Zoomoozik partners.
“There are 10,000,000 acts on the planet, 250,000 with record contracts,” says Scharf. “Our goal is
the other 9,750,000. We are offering every band out there the potential of worldwide
distribution.”
"This is an independent digital record label for independent minds," says Mark Cuddy, an
industry talent vet who heads his own entertainment company and will serve as an L.A.-based A&R
rep for Zoomoozik. "We're an experienced staff of passionate industry pros who understand
musicians' visions and what it takes to turn them into reality. We care about the success of our
artists."
Zoomoozik is a turnkey operation for bands to set up their own businesses. Song downloads will
be sold for 99 cents apiece, as well as ringtones, which, along with online advertising,
comprises the money streams for the site. Later, Zoomoozik will also include a preference engine
for searching your individual tastes as to genre, band name, member name, etc., while the site
will track and compile information for online charts of most visits, most downloads, most
ringtone sales, etc., a rich consumer data base that can also serve as a way of developing and
locating commercial-ready bands for major labels.
“Record companies can now target their investment and dramatically reduce their risk, which will
allow them to sign more new bands,” says Scharf. “They now have a chance to know more about the
potential of those groups than ever before with the information our site provides. You can
actually measure this stuff.”
A virtual record label which includes a CEO in the backwoods of Mississippi, a COO in Orange
County, CA, programmers in Edinburgh, Scotland, web designers in Toronto, an English expatriate
copyright solicitor in St. Louis and a graphic design team in Orlando, Zoomoozik’s reach is
global, though its appeal can well be local.
“It’s a bridge for unsigned bands which need the services a label would provide,” says
Zoomoozik’s Orlando-based art director, Jacquie Phelps, who also organizes music events and sees
the site as the “perfect tool for promoters to find local acts to book… This is a way of doing
something positive for musicians, rather than just take the money and run.”
Zoomoozik’s Dennis R. Sinnott, who as EMI Music Publishing Head of Copyright, negotiated deals
for the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John,
Queen, Jeff Beck and Deep Purple during his 35-plus years as a publisher, sees this as a very
exciting development. “This is the direction the industry’s moving toward,” he explains. “Those
in control might not like it, but the Internet has opened up more doors. This is a tremendous
way of distributing music. We also offer an expertise, advice and help which can be good for
artists. People tend to underestimate the intelligence of musicians. This gives them true
control over their careers.”
Zoomoozik allows any band the opportunity to upload their songs to a page on the site for free.
Zoomoozik also offers an enhanced level of service, for a small, one-time fee. All sales of an
artist’s music, ring tones and videos are split 50-50 after accounting for outside costs.
“The Internet has been like steroids for the direct response business,” says Zoomoozik principal
Guy Connor. “This company will revolutionize the music business. It will give everybody an even
playing field, offer online support and teach them the rudiments of the record business. It
provides musicians with an economical platform to promote, and sell, their wares. The music
industry hasn’t interfaced well with the digital model to this point. The powers-that-be never
embraced what was happening in the online world. They fought it tooth and nail instead of
letting it gestate and grow organically. We’re ready to change all that.”
With what COO Scharf calls “an amazingly small amount of money and a tremendous amount of sweat
equity,” Zoomoozik is ready to launch, with an impressive start-up staff that includes, aside
from Strauss, Scharf, Connor, Sinnott, Cuddy and Phelps, New York City-based talent exec Anthony
McIntyre, Atlanta-based club promoter Josh Strauss, Mississippi-based graphic designer Michael
P. Maness and chief technology officer and security specialist Steve Sanchez.
“We have opportunities others can only dream about,” insists Scharf. “We look forward to
programming our own video and audio channels online, allowing each individual fan to program
their own Internet radio station, based solely on Zoomoozik tracks.”
“These are people who love music, like I do,” says Phelps, who says she gets to combine her love
of graphics and promotion with her new Zoomoozik post. “Why is it that music is such an
important part of our lives and musicians with the talent to create it can’t succeed? What a
shame! I scream for those talents every chance I get. Zoomoozik is just another chance for me to
scream.”
“We’re unique among online music companies because we’re a real label focused on the success of
our artists,” concludes Scharf. “We’re different because we’re 100% digital and 100% online,
which enables us to service an unlimited amount of artists around the world. This is the future
of the music business.”
Zoomoozik: An idea whose time has come: the ultimate empowerment of music artist and fan. Can
the industry be far behind?
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