PassAlong Networks — Digital music catalog provider with ‘viral distribtuion’

I came across this company whilst doing a search for digital music catalog providers. I do not have any direct experience with them but they do seem to offer the full range of services you would require to build a music store. I would put them in the same category as MusicNet & Loudeye (perhaps MoonTaxi aka PureTracks) but with the added bonus of a ‘viral marketing’ component.

They have a system that allows users to forward playlists to friends via email, IM, etc. The recipient hears 30s samples of each song and is offer the opportunity to purchase the song. When a song is purchased the originator of the playlist receives a 10% credit toward a new track download.

However, I would be a bit skeptical of their catalog. Their website claims ‘over a million tracks available for download’ however several press releases, albeit some over a year old, mention numbers in the 200-500,000 range. They have published deals with a few of the big indie aggregators (Orchard, IODA, CD Baby) but there are many, many more; it would be good to know with whom they have deals in place.

Also, all descriptions of their service describe ‘permanent download’ rights such as burning to CD (limit of 10 burns), transfers to portable devices (max of 3 devices) and playing on other PCs (max of 5). There is no mention of subscription based licensing being supported.

Lastly, they are have a store presence on eBay which is currently listed as eBay’s largest store. It seems that eBay measures ‘largest’ by number of active listings under that store. If PassAlong has the over 1M tracks it claims it’s no surprise that they are eBay’s largest.

PassAlong Networks – Music Distribution Platform Developer and Song Catalog for Music Fans, Artists and the P2P Industry

NYE with Dick Clark

Ok, so I know that Dick is a fixture on Times Square for NYE but come on now.

Watching Dick Clark ‘call the ball’ was quite surreal. I thought I had had WAY TOO MUCH to drink when I heard him. When one of the designated drivers made a comment about his speech I knew it wasn’t me and that Dick was well past the end of his career. You gotta wonder who in their right mind thought that putting him through that was a good idea.

Yes, I know I’m about 13 days behind the news wave on this one but I’m still recovering from my CES (Vegas, bhaybee, VEGAS!) jetlag.

Also, I’ve openned up the comments; posting is no longer limited to logged in users. I’ll keep it this way until the spam becomes a problem.

CES posts are on the way…

I’m still trying to digest all the info I gathered at CES. I have a ton of pics to post including some fab-damn-tabulous shots of George Thorogood. Yes, that George Thorogood.

Gibson had a huge tent in the parking lot with a stage. George played Thursday and Friday nights (I went to both) for about 2hrs each night. There were only about 100 people in the crowd so I was able to get very close to the stage.

I’ll post the pics as soon as I figure out how to make WordPress create thumbnails.

Did I mention that they also had an open bar?