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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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Hawaii musicians' road to Hollywood may go through Wisconsin
A WISCONSIN-based music portal could someday put a Hawaii musician on the map.
Membership at Broadjam.com has netted artists from various locales 25 placements in TV shows, films and the wildly popular Dance Dance Revolution video game.
Broadjam also has relationships with about 1,500 program directors at radio stations around the country who scout for new music.
Those are two of the differences between Broadjam and other sites where artists promote and sell music to fans, according to Roy Elkins, founder and chief executive officer.
A San Francisco-based Web portal, fuzz.com, was recently launched as a music label, artist promotion platform and interactive community that also will track marketing success and analyze sales.
"There are competitors, but we feel we have the ... widest range of services," Elkins said.
Many sites sell music downloads, some offer review services for artists, others have contests and songwriting challenges, "and MySpace has a social network, but we have all of those things," Elkins said.
Not to mention the placement service, in which the chosen artist "negotiates directly with the show."
Broadjam's average 60-artist-a day growth to 75,000 members was largely organic -- by word-of-mouth.
"We have every genre you can imagine. Two-hundred-fifty genres and subgenres ... from (artists in) 150 countries," he said.
"Many of them send us notes saying, 'How long have you guys been around, you're the best-kept secret on the Web,' " Elkins said.
BROADJAM is eight years old and shouldn't be a secret much longer, as it has hired a PR firm.
Part of the reason this column is before you is a PR pitch about how advertising agencies needing jingles can post a bulletin on the site and choose from members' submissions.
Artists, unsigned or otherwise, can join Broadjam for free, or at annual rates from $49.95 to $199.95, depending on the benefits desired.
Fans join free and can download songs at 99 cents a pop, "and we give the artist 80 cents on the dollar. We feel that is the highest payout on the Web," Elkins said.
Hawaii Broadjam members include composer, performer and recording artist Roslyn Catracchia, former Miss Hawaii Traci Toguchi, the girl-fronted band known as The No-No Boys and more than two dozen others.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com