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'Musicians Wanted' YouTube Partnership Lets Indie Bands Bring in the Bucks

by Matthew Zuras on March 17, 2010 at 02:18 PM

The great twenty-something dream of starting a band, getting discovered, and selling millions of records before de-evolving at a ripe old age into rock-and-roll shame is still alive and well, especially if you take a look at the indie music scene. During SXSW this year, YouTube announced a new flavor of its existing Partner Program and is calling it Musicians Wanted. The project aims to tap into the ocean of indie talent by promising ad revenue with minimal fine print.

Bands of any stripe simply need to apply, upload a video (as opposed to a static shot with an audio track), and wait for the dollars to start rolling in. All of you accepted bands will be able to list tour dates (assuming you're good enough for someone to book you), and add links for your fans to buy music and wares. Through a combination of pre-roll, text, and overlaid ads, bands will receive a "majority" of the take. While they won't be able to negotiate terms as favorably as major media companies could, they will receive the entire share of their revenue without having to split with a label.

OKGo, who left EMI/Capitol earlier this month, was the first band to apply, and YouTube indie darling Pomplamoose, loved for those pixie-ish pop covers, created a dedicated ad for the Musicians Wanted homepage. With participants like that -- who have built incredible online fame -- indie groups are sure to flock to the new program. The only catch so far is that Musicians Wanted will be currently limited to U.S.-based bands, although there are plans to roll out the program internationally. Sounds like a pretty good opportunity for the guitar-strumming set, who can effectively promote themselves without a label, and make money in the process. The only losers are the major labels and MySpace, from whence bands will now likely redirect viewers to their YouTube pages. And, if your video is especially popular, YouTube stands to make a few bucks, as well. [From: Wired]

Tags: indie, music, musicians wanted, MusiciansWanted, OkGo, pamplemousse, sxsw, sxsw2010, top, youtube, youtube partner program, YoutubePartnerProgram

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