Amie Street

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**Amie Street**


Opened:	July 4, 2006
Pricing:	USA: 0¢-98¢ per song, demand based
Platforms:	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux
Format:	MPEG Layer 3 (.mp3)
Restrictions:	None
Catalogue:	1,000+ artists, 10,000+ songs
Preview:	Streaming song clips (85 seconds)^[1]
Streaming:	Previews and purchased songs
Burning/copying:	Unlimited
Trial:	Free US$1 and REC with initial signup, most songs are free
Protocol:	Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http://), Flash
Availability:	Worldwide
Features:	Demand-based pricing, DRM-free, ability for users to earn money through RECs
Website:	AmieStreet.com

Amie Street is an online music store and social network service created in 2006 by Brown University seniors Elliott Breece, Elias Roman, and Joshua Boltuch, in Providence, Rhode Island. They have since graduated and moved the company to New York.

1 Website features
2 Investors
3 Notable artists
4 Press
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Website features

Artists upload tracks onto the site, which allows users to purchase them at a price that varies according to demand. Website users earn credits by recommending ("REC") songs to their friends. If the REC was for a good song and leads to users purchasing it, the price of the song will increase. The user will earn credit based on the increase in the price of the song after making the REC.

[edit] Demand-based pricing

Amie Street uses an algorithm to determine song prices based on demand. The price for a track starts at zero when a song is uploaded onto the site. It then rises according to the increased demand and purchase of the song. The maximum price any song will rise to is 98¢. A pricing calculator is available and it shows the simple model used to determine pricing. However, the price curve changes based on the overall volume of songs purchased on the site. As of December 16, 2006 15 buys yields a price of 1¢, 25 buys yields 15¢, 50 buys yields 50¢, and 84 buys yields 98¢.

[edit] Selling music

Artists upload their music directly to the site in mp3 format at whatever quality bitrate they choose. (Other formats are "on the way.")^[2] As users buy songs, the artist is credited. Artists keep 70% of the proceeds after US$5 in sales for each song. PayPal or checks are used to make payments to artists.

[edit] RECs

Non-artist users can earn credit as well. They do this by RECing a song. When a user finds a song they believe will be a hit, they can REC it. If the song price increases from the moment they REC it, they will receive compensation based on the price increase. For example, if one RECs a song currently at 5¢ and it rises to 95¢, the user will cash out half the spread: 45¢ $(\tfrac{95-5}{2})$ , just for RECing the song. If a user RECs a song when it is free, they are compensated with the full spread. RECing also differentiates more popular music from less, as songs that are believed to be good will be RECed more often. Users get approximately 1 REC for every US$1 they use on the site.

[edit] Social networking

Users can make connections with other users through the "friend" feature. "Friends" on Amie Street are intended to be based around musical interests. RECs are sent out to friends to make it easier to find new music. Users can message each other and post comments on freely customizable (including Meebo integration) user profiles. Also, there is a "fan" feature so users can easily connect with bands on the site.

[edit] Benefit media

On November 6, 2006 Amie Street introduced four benefit media tracks to the site.^[3] These songs are priced at 50¢ and all proceeds from sales go to the charity Free The Children.^[4] The tracks are Rushian and Waitress from the album Us Against the Crown by State Radio^[5] and Awakening and From Now On by Sonny Fortune.^[6]

[edit] Investors

As of January 27, 2007 the company is in process of raising a "Series A" round of venture capital funding.^[7] One notable angel investor is Robin Richards, former president of MP3.com.^[8]

[edit] Notable artists

Some noteworthy artists on Amie Street:

[edit] Press

Amie Street has been mentioned in several notable websites and newspaper articles.^[15] These include the Wall Street Journal,^[16] BusinessWeek,^[17] TechCrunch,^[18] Boing Boing,^[19] and Wired magazine's music blog.^[20]

[edit] References

^ Cheng, Jacqui. "Amie Street signs major artists to sell DRM-free music", ArsTechnica, 2007-03-07. Retrieved on March 28, 2007.
^ Arrington, Michael. "Barenaked Ladies: New Album. Free. No DRM. Now.", TechCrunch, 2007-03-05. Retrieved on March 28, 2007.
^ Roman, Elias. "Free The Children", Amie Street Blog, 2006-11-06. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
^ "Amie Street cranks out cool tunes to benefit Free The Children", Voices International Newsletter, Free The Children, November 2006. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
^ ^a ^b State Radio's Amie Street Music Store
^ ^a ^b Sonny Fortune's Amie Street Music Store
^ Arrington, Michael. "Amie Street Begins Data Mining and Artist Promotion", TechCrunch, 2007-01-26. Retrieved on January 27, 2007.
^ Kirkpatrick, Marshall. "Amie Street Takes Innovative Music Model Into Beta", TechCrunch, 2006-10-04. Retrieved on January 31, 2007.
^ Adriana Evans' Amie Street Music Store
^ Alexa Ray Joel's Amie Street Music Store
^ Asobi Seksu's Amie Street Music Store
^ Barenaked Ladies' Amie Street Music Store
^ Breakestra's Amie Street Music Store
^ People Under the Stairs' Amie Street Music Store
^ Amie Street Press
^ Warren, Jamin. "Online: Music At new Web store, many songs sell for a few cents", Wall Street Journal, 2006-10-14. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
^ Gangemi, Jeffery, Douglas MacMillan. "America's Best Young Entrepreneurs", BusinessWeek, 2006-10-30. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
^ Arrington, Michael, Marshall Kirkpatrick. "Amie Street articles on TechCrunch", TechCrunch, Various: 2006-07-23, 2006-10-04, 2007-01-02, 2007-01-26, and 2007-03-05. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
^ Doctorow, Cory. "Online label only charges once songs are popular", Boing Boing, 2007-01-05. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.
^ Van Buskirk, Eliot, Sean Michaels. "Amie Street & Inclue Allow Outlook Access to RSS Feeds of Music Promos... Wha?", Wired, 2006-11-02. Retrieved on February 2, 2007.

[edit] External links

Amie Street
- Amie Street Blog
Amie Street: Awesome New Music Model - TechCrunch article that first broke the company back in July after being open less than 20 days.
New Ways to Get Music - ExtremeTech review of Amie Street.

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