Melody Management is helping music artists to get seen, get heard and get paid. Sound like a pitch from a giant record label? Not so fast.
The Columbus-based company is part of a drastically changing landscape for the music industry � and it hopes to be at the forefront of that movement when the company officially launches Feb. 1.
Melody is filling a niche with the widespread mobility of technology and music. The company distributes, markets and offers copyright protection in the way a traditional record label would � but it offers those services online in a way it claims is cheaper and more profitable for the artist.
The company offers something else that labels do not: A buy button. "You never know when someone is ready to buy," says CEO Glen Johnson.
Johnson says artists using Melody earn 90 percent of the profits � instant profit. "We take what labels and net-labels do and try to simplify them through technology," he says.
The company has an internal central management system that allows the artists more time to focus on other things � like music.
The music industry has been turned on its head in the last decade. CD sales are down as file-sharing becomes more popular � even as record labels flex their muscles with lawsuits.
"The college kids are smarter than us," Johnson says. "They'll just write the next music sharing program. (The labels) said 'Geez, we'd better start figuring out the next business model.' I think Melody Management is on the cusp of that next business model."
There are 28 artists currently working with Melody, but Johnson says the company's success is limitless.
"We're just getting started," he says. "We're hoping to rock the world."
Source: Glen Johnson, Melody Management
Writer: Colin McEwen