Music to Fill-in-the-Blank By

Jul 24 2001

Uplister, an Oakland, Calif.-based company that's built a following among indie-music fans by letting them share online playlists, announced last week it will roll out a beta version of a two-tiered subscription service by summer's end.

The new subscription model, slotted for commercial release by the end of the year, will allow users "unlimited digital music downloads" for $10 a month. But there's a catch: The tracks can only be played on a computer and will expire if the user stops making monthly payments. And unlike other services in the works from major labels, the company plans two tiers of pricing; in addition to the first option, customers may also purchase tracks - for a flat fee, usually 99 cents - that they will own and can space-shift as they like.

Uplister CEO and co-founder Toni Schneider likens the first tier of the service to renting music. "Within your subscription, you can download as much as you want," he says, adding that the company will use Microsoft's digital rights management technology to prevent users from getting something for nothing.

One potential problem? At least some digital-music fans won't be happy unless they get, basically, that. John Parres, a co-founder of the "pho" mailing list - which focuses on issues related to the convergence of entertainment and technology - expressed his skepticism for proposed subscription models like Uplister's via e-mail. "It doesn't matter what Uplister or Pressplay or Duet are offering unless it's Napster-classic at five bucks a month."

Other music aficionados say that paying a small fee isn't necessarily a turn-off. Paul Pearson, recently featured as one of Uplister's "playmakers of the week," says he'd seriously consider paying to rent music from the independent-music service. "In the large picture, I don't have a problem paying fees for downloads," says Pearson, a DJ at Evergreen State College's radio station KAOS in Olympia, Wash. While he's not familiar with the specifics of Uplister's two-tier system, he says loyalty to a site would be a huge factor in whether he'd consider paying $10 a month for access to music on his computer.

Loyalty to major labels isn't much of a factor in targeting customers; unlike in the indie realm, few music fans know or care what major label their favorite artist is on. Uplister hopes to target the music fans who are devoted to smaller labels, and has signed a roster of independent record labels as initial launch partners, including TVT Records, Matador, Alternative Tentacles, Knitting Factory/Shimmy Disc, K Records and Lookout.

Because niche labels tend to attract loyal followings, Ric Dube, an analyst at the digital-music research firm Webnoize thinks that Uplister may be onto something. "The advantage Uplister should work to have over major label offerings is an understanding of its consumer base," Dube said via e-mail. "A subscription service that specializes in genres of independent artists may represent, say, less than 5 percent of available music, but could conceivably serve its paying customers better than a major label service that offers 60 percent of available music, but without any sort of special focus."

Focus is key, and Uplister hopes to be firmly in the black within 24 months. "While the majors are launching their services, the indies have needed to gather around something," Schneider says. "In terms of the indie sector, we stand alone right now."

To use the current version of Uplister, users have to download software, though this won't be the case with the subscription service, which will be entirely Web-based and more user-friendly. He says the company currently has 200,000 monthly unique visitors and a core community of users who rely on one another for music recommendations .

One potential promotional advantage is Uplister's celebrity playlists, submitted from artists ranging from Ice-T and Thurston Moore to Joey Ramone and pop-culture icons like former MTV VJ Martha Quinn and writer Nick Hornby. Of course, all the street-cred in the world is moot if the audience is of the opinion that digital music should be free.

"The problem Uplister does face is competing with free," says Webnoize's Dube. "Unless it can provide some value [that] illicit resources for online music cannot, it will have a hard time signing up paying customers."