Bands reach fans throuigh Internet

SAN FRANCISCO -- By members' own account, Maldroid went about its debut a little backward -- or maybe not in this age of digital media.The Oakland, Calif., indie rock band was discovered in early 2006 when its music video won a YouTube contest. That led, among other things, to an appearance on "Good Morning America." Until then, they had never performed in a show together. The band's strategy was deliberate. Maldroid's Ryan Divine, who had played in another band, didn't want to start at the bottom, hoping to be discovered. So before Maldroid was even fully formed, he spent almost two years developing the music video. "I feel like the music industry is crumbling and bands are forced to be on their own," Divine said. "We're using the Web to manage ourselves and find our audience."Maldroid's origins underscore how the Internet is reshaping the music industry. The band uses tools such as YouTube and MySpace, as well as a new generation of music-oriented sites such as Fuzz, Snocap (now part of Imeem) and iLike to sell its music and build an audience. Now, as the band goes on its first national tour, the musicians already know they have fans in certain parts of the country."We've built this audience having never toured before, except to put up videos and talk to people on the Internet," Divine said.That the music scene is changing has been painfully clear for the past decade. Apple said this month that its iTunes Store had surpassed Wal-Mart as the nation's No. 1 music retailer. Meanwhile, CD sales continue to plummet, and digital music sales are not making up for the loss. Artists and record labels have switched their focus to other ways of making money, such as selling merchandise and concert tickets. They're also experimenting, from Radiohead releasing its album online last year and letting fans determine the price to Judas Priest selling its 1982 album "Screaming for Vengeance" through the video game Rock Band. In recent years, MySpace, which sprouted from Southern California's music scene to become one of the world's most popular social networks, has played a profound role for artists, offering a place for bands to showcase their music, connect with fans and post news about concerts and releases.But a new wave of Web sites is also starting to attract the attention of musicians and fans hungering for even more tools and resources. San Francisco startup Fuzz, for instance, is building music communities online, starting with the Bay Area's independent music scene. Imeem, another San Francisco startup, allows fans to spread the word about their favorite artists by posting playlists and other widgets on their social networks and blogs. And on Buzznet, users can upload and share photographs, videos and news about their favorite bands. For the independent artist, the sites supply the tools and the opportunity to produce buzz and draw a crowd without having the backing of a major record label. On Imeem, which has about 25 million users and whose catalog includes about 115,000 independent artists, bands can see how many hits their playlist, music, videos and photographs received, and even chart their hits over a period of time. "Artists are stat junkies just like mathematicians might be," said Steve Jang, chief marketing officer for Imeem. "It's an important part of being online and digital. It's not just about getting content out as widely as possible, but it's also about knowing what's resonating and percolating." Naturally, independent artists are not the only ones taking advantage of the Web. The big record labels have struck a series of alliances. Last week, Universal Music Group formed a licensing partnership and invested in Buzznet. Imeem also struck deals with the major record labels, including sharing advertising revenue. And this month MySpace announced ambitious plans with three of the four big music companies to sell music, wallpaper, ringtones and other paraphernalia on its site.It's a necessary move. "If you're in the business of promoting or managing a band, you have to get into those places as well as on the radio or the top section of the iTunes Store," said Mike McGuire, an analyst with research firm Gartner Inc. "You have to get into the networks and get their songs into that environment and ecosystem." On the Net:Buzznet, buzznet.comFuzz, fuzz.comiLike, ilike.comImeem, imeem.comIndie911, indie911.comMTraks, mtraks.com(E-mail Ellen Lee at elee(at)sfchronicle.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)