Tunited: ‘The New Music Industry’ Website To Be Launched In April

FFounders of Tunited, a new music community website set to “revolutionise the music industry”, just launched a blog to beguile the time before a full roll-out of the project in April 2010. The brainchild of Live 8 and Ultravox legend Midge Ure, Tunited could be buried among the hordes of music oriented start-ups, but the promised features and Midge’s loud statements give me a feeling that everything’s not so easy. Dotted Music have dug deeper to find out what this service can bring to musicians.

Originally, the website was going to be launched on January 10th, but was delayed due to technical issues. The blog, which was launched this month instead, is now up and running and is already loaded with posts on the industry and music in general. What I checked out in the first place, though, was the About and Take the Tour sections.

What the hell is it?

Tunited logo

The platform is aimed at music lovers and musicians alike, at this point being more of interest to independent artists. “It will be a level playing field where artists are not judged on which label they are signed to or even if they are signed to a label at all, but they are judged on the quality of their music and how they engage with their fans,” the description says.

Tunited promises 100% of profits from musicians’ music downloads and maximum transparency. “We’ll let you know the why, where, how and who of everything on our site and give you a context to place it in. For example, we will be showing you where every penny goes of a 79p download.”

The site is based on four cornerstones: Create, Collaborate, Promote and Enjoy. Here’s a description for the Promote section:

Now this is the section to be rinsed for all it’s worth. Tunited has a pool of industry experts, A&Rs and producers poised to give advice and feedback on Tunited’s artist roster and scout the latest talent to sign. Add to that some marketing advice, a facility to produce merch and press up CDs at a low cost as well as a contacts list for industry people and you will be set. Listeners can promote the new music they love too by recommending bands and uploading tracks to playlists and widgets.

Sounds kind of familiar, but still not bad huh?

Asked if Tunited gives any priorities to particular music genres, the service’s Managing Director Matt Stanley told Dotted Music: “Tunited will be multi genre and we will attempt to cover as many genre within the editorial as possible.” He added, however, that Indie, Rock and Dance Music are expected to be three of their biggest categories.

And here is why you may care, if you are an artists yourself: you can become one of the first 100 profile artists featured on the website when it launches. Just submit your details (and upload a demo mp3) at this page. The competition closes at midnight on 31.01.10.

If you are not a musician, this service – self-proclaimed “a music lover’s paradise” – might be your destination as well. Head to the blog for more info.

Conclusion

It’s too early to praise what haven’t been launched in full yet, time will tell. But Dotted Music stays tuned. I might get a bit more of useful comments after meeting the company at MIDEM next week.

PS: I love how Tunited is impregnated by powerful mottos. Remember I mentioned Midge‘s loud statements at the beginning? Check this out:

“With Tunited, we’re not just opening doors for new artists – we’re blowing the doors right off, Italian Job-style!”