Amid all the controversy over pirating recorded music on the Web, one online music merchant has turned up the volume on its marketing efforts.
Takeoutmusic.com, New York, is starting up several business units.
Takeoutmarketing.com offers services to marketers interested in reaching college students. And Takeoutpop.com – geared toward females between the ages of 12 and 25 – features news, contests and horoscopes, as well as free promotional downloads of certain artists, says CEO Mori Ninomiya.
Through Takeoutmusic’s promotional efforts – including newsletters – the company has amassed a database of about 28,000 names, all of whom were obtained by consent.
“The number may seem small,” says Ninomiya, “but they all wanted to be there.”
The site also reports 148,000 visitors per month.
Takeoutmusic is also about to roll out Takeoutstore.com, which sells downloads of compact discs and rates them on a chart based on sales.
In addition, it’s preparing to kick off Takeoutradio.com, an online audio service that allows record companies five hours to showcase their new artists.
Takeoutmusic’s network of young sales representatives based at 400 college campuses nationwide aids the promotions. For example, the reps distribute sample records downloaded from the site and work to get them mentioned in chat rooms and on the bulletin boards of Web sites attracting students. The reps also promote sample discs to college radio and club DJs.
Seeking Marketing Partners
In another effort, the company is looking to partner with marketers, targeting the sites its audience frequents in order to raise the visibility of its products, spark consumer interest and drive product sales.
“This is just a formalization of what we’ve been doing since last July” when the site launched, says Ninomiya.
He insists Takeoutmusic only uses secure music-download technology from Liquid Audio for its online products, and not some of the less-secure technologies that allegedly don’t respect copyrighted recordings.
At press time, a copyright infringement case related to digital music downloading was pending in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Resolution of this issue is generally viewed as being far from over.
Network
