Burn Lounge Is Coming

With Apple and EMI finally realising that DRM is a dead duck, Burn Lounge gets ready to step in and give the rights back to the bands - and the fans...

When Apple first introduced the iPod, everyone was scrambling to get their hands on this sexy piece of kit. From the techno-savvy early adopters that want everything as soon as it's launched, to the consumers who'd migrated from Sony Walkman's to portable CD players, the iPod was THE must-have item to possess.

Then the problems kicked in - you had to download the software known as i-Tunes onto your computer to download and store the songs. Worse still, songs that were downloaded from i-Tunes could only be played on an iPod, due to software known as DRM, which locked in the copyrights. On top of this, artists paid (and still do) a hefty price to Apple to sell their songs on i-Tunes. So from a company that claimed to be the saviour of music and moving away from the way the music industry was being run by greedy music executives, Apple had become the same kind of dictatorship, albeit in a different form.

Now, because the public won't stand for this kind of one-upmanship, a new company has stepped into the fray, and this one looks like it's not only the ideal solution for the bands, but their fans too. Called Burn Lounge, it offers both bands and fans to "open" their own music store online and sell their songs and albums (although videos and other digital media is planned for later). However, the difference here is revolutionary.

By taking the best of MySpace, i-Tunes et al, bands can have a store for as little as $30 per year, where they can sell digital downloads for their albums and make a bigger profit for themselves. Now, instead of paying the likes of i-Tunes a bigger slice of the pie, most of the revenue for each album sold goes back to the band, with only slight deductions for the cost of running the servers. Fans, too, can become involved, by having their own store and selling their favourite band's albums for them - much like an advanced Street Team, but with the added bonus of promoting your favourite band and being paid for it.

With success in America behind it, Burn Lounge is now expanding into Canada before further plans into the UK and beyond. It promises to be an interesting time for digital music downloads...