From...

May 26, 1999
Web posted at: 3:57 p.m. EDT (1957 GMT)

by Lessley Anderson

(IDG) -- Getting discovered may have gotten a tad bit easier, with the debut of a new MP3 service called Download This, which is being offered as part of a deal between Net music company Tunes.com and its partner sites, RollingStone.com and hip-hop magazine TheSource.com.

The new download section on Tunes.com offers artists, known or unknown, the chance to create a homepage where they can describe their music and upload artwork, photos and as many as 5 songs in the MP3 format - all for free. Once the page is complete, it is stored in a database searchable by the site's visitors by artist name, genre or musical influences (as described on a "Sounds Like" section of the artists' pages.)

The real allure for artists will no doubt be the promise of stardom - editors from both "Rolling Stone" and "The Source," have promised to take time from their normal workload to listen to MP3s posted by the hopeful artists and select promising ones for a promo spot on the front page.

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This "hot picks" approach is designed to give consumers an inroad into a potentially overwhelming deluge of unsigned bands. "It will give people an intelligent head start on what's good," said Tunes.com's VP of Marketing Jo Sager, who said the company expected a "morass" of artists to jump at the chance to be discovered.

TheSource.com has branded its editor-selected section as "TheSource.com's Unsigned Hype," playing upon a popular section of the magazine, by the same name, in which lyrics from unsigned hip-hop acts are featured by the editors who "discovered" them.

TheSource.com editor Jeff Jones said acts featured in the section are often signed by labels, big and small.

Both magazines' editorial staffs have also agreed to promote some of the artists "discovered" through Download This in the pages of their print magazines.

Though winning a spot in the magazine won't be easy, posting music through Tunes.com is. Artists need only download a copy of Music Match Jukebox, or Real Jukebox, encode MP3 versions of songs off their CD, then drag and drop into the Download This template.

Sager says Tunes.com will remove any page featuring music that is obviously pirated from the copyright holder (in other words, an Alanis song posted by someone not Alanis,). There will be some censorship, as the company will also remove anything that doesn't "sound like music - people who submit animal noises and other inappropriate things."