New York City-based Unsigned Music Network Inc., a new music company dedicated to helping independent artists build successful and sustaining careers, has launched UMN.com, a distribution and marketing hub that offers scalable tools and services, allowing independent artists to self-market their music.
It was also announced that company founders Steve Sheiner and Greg Stricklin will serve as president and CTO of Unsigned Music Network, respectively. The third partner, Art Aaronson, continues as legal counsel. Sheiner is a former founding member of MP3.com where he served as executive VP of sales and marketing, until the company was acquired by Vivendi Universal, where he became chief revenue officer for the company’s Net USA. Prior to Unsigned Music Network, Stricklin founded Goopytone, a digital recording studio, and then Westside Technologies. Before that, he founded GLM Couriers, an entertainment-based courier service in Los Angeles, which he sold in 1997. Aaronson is principal partner in the law firm Aaronson and Aaronson, and is a 20-year veteran of the entertainment industry.
UMN.com’s back-end tools and services are offered to bands through varying subscription levels, depending upon the individual need and long-term goals of each artist. Subscriptions vary from $10 to $30 a month, and include an artist home page and URL, ability to upload songs and offer them as streams or downloads, e-mail fan list-management tools, Web page statistics and opt-in access to UMN’s licensing and publishing group. Musicians participating in UMN.com maintain ownership of copyrights and publishing.
“At a very modest fee level, UMN.com will enable musicians to connect to fans, manage the relationship with their fan base, market themselves, in addition to availing themselves of services we can provide like licensing their music to film and television and seeking out corporate sponsors,” said Sheiner.
