New record label goes Internet-only

Warner Music Group (WMG) has decided to take advantage of the growing popularity of music downloads on the Internet.

At the Progress & Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit, WMG's CEO and Chairman, Edgar Bronfman, said his company is planning a new label that would release songs only in digital formats, freeing up artists to release songs without the pressure of providing enough content for a whole album. Bronfman refers to the new venture as his company's “e-label.”

The e-label will allow artists to retain ownership of their materials in addition to copyrights. These preserved rights, in addition to the fact that artists will not be required to produce an entire album, have been designed to attract young artists to the new label. The label plans to release songs performed by an artist in clusters of songs far smaller than the typical album, probably at a minimum of three songs.

Warner Music is making a pretty smart move with this new label. The company doesn't have to invest a lot into physical distribution of media; it can simply make the two or three songs by an artist available and sit back and see if the public will eat it up. It's really not a bad “minor league” for artists that Warner Music wants to try out.

Besides new talent, the new label may also be an attractive distribution method for mainstream artists who may have songs that don't fit into an album or who prefer to release clusters of songs while working on album projects.

The idea behind a purely Internet-based label is an attractive one, and I wouldn't be surprised to see other companies follow Universal and Warner's lead.