JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Seen through a reflection on a mask display, local group Ho'onua performs at Thursday's OC Tunes release party at rRed Elephant. Also at the party was Matthew N. Goff, at top, the sole propietor of the Web site Matt4hire.com.
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OC Tunes
Two companies unite to create a one-stop Hawaiian tunes shop
FANS OF HAWAIIAN music have easier access to dozens of local artists on the Internet, through a new partnership between Oceanic Time Warner Cable and online music retailer BurnLounge.
OC Tunes made its official debut Thursday during a VIP reception at Chinatown's rRed Elephant Cafe. The event featured live entertainment by Na Leo and Ho'onu'a, along with a presentation by self-described technology "geek" Peter Kay and the opportunity for new artists to sign up with the Web site.
"One of our core philosophies is to promote island talent," said Alan Pollock, Oceanic Time Warner's vice president of marketing. "A lot of people watch OC-16, so (OC Tunes) is an extension of that. First it was island TV, now it's island music."
Users who log onto the OC Tunes Web site at www.octunes.com are greeted with a branded storefront with links to purchase music via BurnLounge for 99 cents per song. Windows Media Player is required to download and play all music, with all tracks delivered via Microsoft's proprietary .wma format.
BURNLOUNGE was launched in 2004 by co-founders Alex Arnold, Ryan Dadd and Stephen Murray and has since garnered support from some heavy hitters in the mainstream music industry.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Local group Ho'onua performs at Thursday's OC Tunes release party at rRed Elephant.
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People can sign up with BurnLounge via virtual storefronts such as OC Tunes to simply purchase music from their favorite artists, or take things a step further and open their own online music stores. Stars like Rick Dees and Carson Daly and companies like Cadillac have all partnered with BurnLounge to sell music. In the next two years, the company also hopes to have music videos, television shows and even full-length movies available for purchase.
In Honolulu, local radio personality Lanai Tabura is an investor in BurnLounge as well as an independent music reseller.
"Right now, we have the largest catalog of island music in the world," Tabura said. "It's a concept that's going to change the music industry. We're putting in 50,000 songs a week, the majority of which are independent artists."
While BurnLounge has licensing deals with all four major U.S. record labels, it's been Tabura's goal to sign up as many local artists as possible. OC Tunes should increase awareness among listeners around the world, he said.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Also at the party was Matthew N. Goff, the sole propietor of the Web site Matt4hire.com. Goff showed his enthusiasm by sporting an OC Tunes face tatoo.
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"We have a group on BurnLounge called Lynden. They put their three songs (online) and outsold Madonna in the month of February. They got a huge record deal out of it ... with CBS."
EVEN ESTABLISHED acts have decided to join forces with OC Tunes. Ho'onu'a's Christian Yrizarry has watched traditional means of distributing music dry up as a profit source, and hopes that legal digital downloads will mean more money for artists.
"We wanted to get involved early because just being a part of the industry, we already see what's going on," said Yrizarry. "In five years, tops, record stores will be obsolete."
In 1998, Ho'onu'a sold more than 50,000 copies of its first album. By the time "Take You to the Jam" came out in 2003, illegal file sharing had become so pervasive that sales initially dropped by more than 75 percent. With OC Tunes, more local artists will have the chance to profit from the digital download revolution.
"It all depends on the numbers," Yrizarry said. "If more people start downloading legally, that's when we have the potential to make a lot more money than we could with the traditional methods of distribution."