Okay, so we’re not talking about Rhapsody or Napster, or Lala.com where you hear all the big RIAA-controlled artists and the artists receive a tiny portion of the profits. Today I was introduced to a site called Kerchoonz (sounds a little bit like Kartoonz, a rock/metal/emo music club that used to be open here in town). Kerchoonz lets you stream / download free music from what so far looks to be lesser-known artists, at least here in the US. I think the point here is that the artists can make money on their own without record labels by putting their streaming content up on Kerchoonz. It also makes it pretty easy for you to discover new music, which I always enjoy. Indie music has it’s merits and it’s flaws, like anything else. On the one hand, sometimes it really sucks. On the other hand, you’ve got people writing what’s really on their hearts and minds, and not just performing corporately produced synth-pop for the masses.
Another cool thing about Kerchoonz is they have is called Kwidgets – an all new feature in your Kerchoonz account (free sign-up) that lets you post your videos, blogs, and photos of your favorite artists anywhere you like, pretty much. You can put all that cool media content from artists you discover on your MySpace, Facebook, Livejournal, WordPress blog, or your web site if you’re HTML savvy.
I will mention one thing that bugged me – there’s an Advertisement on the site that has audio, and the ads rotate live without you refreshing the page. The ad does have an audio on/off button, but it will freak you right the heck out if your speakers are up like they should be for a music web site. Just turn off the audio and you’ll be fine. Otherwise, this site is pretty cool. I have emailed them about the talking ad, hopefully they’ll take it down before it really hinders them from taking off. EDIT: They replied back, said they’re going to have a talk with their advertisers with a baseball bat, because apparently they just don’t get “NO ADS THAT MAKE NOISE” on a freaking music site. Please continue to enjoy Kerchoonz while they work out that problem.
