By Antony Bruno
DENVER (Billboard) -
Not content to let MySpace, iLike and
Facebook take all the online music thunder, Buzznet is roaring
into the Music 2.0 market with a vengeance.
In the last few weeks the company has acquired
music-focused blogs Stereogum and Idolator, and brought on
Universal Music Group as a content partner and equity holder.
Additional moves are expected in the weeks to come.
According to GM of music Scott Boyd, this flurry of
activity is all focused on a single goal: create an online
music destination for the fan, by the fan and of the fan.
"There's a void out there," he says. "You see music fans
jumping from site to site to piece all the information they
want together . . . Our goal is to put that all together into
one place and have an experience that is largely programmed by
the users of the community. Not just user-generated content,
but really creating the whole experience."
That goal stems from the service's roots as a site to
upload camera-phone pictures. Users would post and comment on
photos that were from concerts that members attended. Buzznet
soon evolved into a very music-focused site and began enlisting
artists to create their own profiles and tour blogs. For the
past three years, it has served as the official online
community for the Coachella music festival and has created
similar services for the Vans Warped tour.
Just don't call it a social network. The company prefers
"social media site." It combines social networking components
like member profiles and "friend" lists with a growing roster
of content that members can organize however they like.
Boyd says the newly acquired blogs will remain as
stand-alone entities, but will integrate posts from each into
the main Buzznet site in order to provide context around
individual artist searches and profiles.
"So if you're looking into a particular band, there's a
review from Stereogum and a news story from Idolator and
there's a photo gallery created by a kid who was at the concert
last night," Boyd says. "We can add value by bringing that
content into our bigger community and spreading it around."
Buzznet's deal with Universal Music adds full-song
streaming and music video to that mix of spreadable content.
And expect more soon. The company won't comment on it, but
Buzznet is believed to be the recipient of $25 million in
recent venture funding. During the course of last year, it also
brought on a stable of Internet veterans that includes Boyd,
who joined last October from AOL Music, as well as several
former Yahoo sales executives, and named former Feedster
president Tyler Goldman CEO.
It's also been aggressive in reaching out to artists, many
of whom host contests on the network, particularly those
requiring some sort of media sharing. Avril Lavigne, for
instance, launched a model search for her clothing line via the
site, while 30 Seconds to Mars invited fans to upload
pro-environmental videos and make donations to environmental
charities.
It's this kind of hands-on programming and production that
Buzznet hopes will set itself apart from the MySpaces of the
world.
"I don't think it's that interesting to just do an audio
streaming service," Boyd says. "That's incredibly important,
but our users want the editorial around that. They want to
create their own programming around that. So that's just one
part of the piece, not the end-all, be-all."
Despite the recent activity, Boyd says the company now
offers only 50% of what it ultimately hopes to make available,
in terms of services and content. Some of the remaining 50%
will come from internal work needed to integrate its recent
acquisitions, but expect more label deals and possible
acquisitions in the near future.
"The overall strategy is having the best and deepest
experience," Boyd says. "If other sites offer that from an
editorial or product end, we'd absolutely consider it."
Reuters/Billboard
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