(via TechDirt) Talk about reinventing: Tower Records, which is in the throes of offline troubles, is trying to do something new online: it plans to open a new online service this summer, called TowerPod that lets consumers create their own podcasts using a catalog of some 6,000 songs, which Tower will provide free.
None of the major labels want to be part of this, mainly because of copyright concerns, but Tower has signed up Independent Online Distribution Alliance, an indie music trade group/distributor. Acts in the IODA include hip-hop group Blackalicious and rock flashback Peter Frampton.
Tower intends to generate revenue from the podcasts by selling ads on the most popular ones: Any money generated will be split up among a large group that includes the user who created the podcast, the artist, the label and the publishers who created or own the music, as well as Tower itself.
But as TechDirt says, “It’s definitely an interesting experiment, though especially after seeing just how many hands are in the pie for any revenue that comes out of this experiment, it may very well be too little, too late for Tower Records.”
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