I've been following Gideon Marken's blog for a little while now. He's been designing and building some very cool stuff for artists. Apparently, he's been following my drivel for a while too. He spoke up when I last blogged about Myspace. Gideon certainly deserves some podium. Here's a quick email interview with Gideon:

> Who is your average user?

I'll have to generalize a bit, but based on the data: s/he would be from the US or UK - probably interested in electronic music (as the site hosts more electronic music styles than any other), has a broadband connection, hit the site through Google, uses Windows XP, and if the person joins, would most likely join as a member/fan.

> What value are you providing them?

To artists, I'm providing a collective destination, a system for managing their music, a set of tools for promoting themselves, and an opportunity to take advantage of the site through all those means. The true value of this depends on those who use it. Some have transformed it into deals with indie labels, while some just post a few songs and not take it any further. Although, if your music rocks, it can often just speak for itself, and people will start talking about it. That's the good thing about a review system, playlists, and charts, they all provide songs and artists with opportunities.

Now the value to the members/fans? They benefit from all the great music on the site, in addition to having so many ways to get at the music. You don't have to join the site to listen to the music, but you do need to join if you want to take advantage of some of the cool tools like the station and playlist builder. Fans can grab ringtones and songs for free, build their own site on ArtistServer, and run a blog, all for free. If they wish, they too can upgrade their accounts and gain more storage space in addition to more stations, etc.

> How are you providing that value? What services are you providing?

I think I blended the answers to these questions above. I have a chart covering all the features the site offers:
http://www.artistserver.com/join/ - I could go into any of the features in more detail if you like.

> How do you generate revenue?

I started offering the upgraded accounts last month, and since I don't draw a salary, I should have my monthly expenses covered by account upgrades alone. That's not saying I'm having a lot of upgrades, it's just that there's no overhead, no office, no staff, no letterhead, no accountant... just me :) I'm also pulling in some money from Google AdSense, but nothing significant. I'm working out an internal ad program to help the site generate more revenue. It will allow artists to sponsor genres on the site - thus giving them priority positions in their targeted genres. This should help generate some savings so I can
purchase additional hard/software. And last but definately not least,
I've generated revenue from the supportive community that uses the site.
To date, they've given $808 to the site, which went towards helping me upgrade the systems earlier this year.

Asside from that, I work as a contract programmer building Web applications here at my home office.

Rock on, Gideon.