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Licensed to carry songs
Streamwaves aims to fill Napster's void with a straightforward format 02/13/2003
Three doors down from the Gypsy Tea
Room, Jeff Tribble is hatching his plot for world
domination. Inside a former furniture showroom, the 39-year-old CEO of
Streamwaves.com stands in front of a giant
mural of American recording artists. "This," Mr. Tribble says with a sweep of his hand across a
vacant expanse of cement floor, "will be a focal point of the
music scene." He's not talking about the local grunge and rave halls that
line Deep Ellum near downtown Dallas. With backing from
partners including Tom Hicks and Emmitt Smith, Mr. Tribble has
quietly crafted a business positioned to become a leading
supplier of popular music streamed over the Internet to
millions of computers across the globe. Men at work Over the last two years, as Napster crumbled and other
dot-coms bombed, Mr. Tribble busied himself closing licensing
deals with major record companies including EMI, BMG,
Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. As the recording industry began its massive legal assault
against Internet music file-trading services, a dozen
Streamwaves workers started assembling a library of 150,000
digital music tracks and albums. Meanwhile, Sean Catlett, head
of technology, ramped up server capacity. Two months ago, Streamwaves.com opened its electronic doors
on the Internet and began taking subscriptions ($9.99 per
month; $7.95 monthly with a one-year commitment.) Mr. Tribble says music lovers are flocking to his service
because it holds several key advantages over competitors such
as Listen.com
and MusicMatch
Jukebox. First, users don't have to download or install any
software. "People don't want to mess with a program," says Mr.
Tribble. "We're giving them a straightforward way of listening
right from the browser." And it is one of the few services that is
Macintosh-friendly. In fact, the company is luring Mac users
with a 10 percent discount on monthly subscription costs, plus
an additional 5 percent discount for members of Mac user
groups. Second, access is portable to any Internet-connected
computer. Users can go to the Web site to hook into their
playlists and stored music selections from anywhere in the
world. Third, the library being assembled for Streamwaves includes
entire albums, not just the tracks getting radio play, from
artists such as Eminem, Alan Jackson, Bon Jovi, Santana,
Sheryl Crow, Nelly and Natalie Cole. Finally, because of the way it has configured its servers,
the service works well over dial-up Internet connections. You
don't need a broadband account for high-quality sound. As a legal alternative to KaZaA, Morpheus and other surviving music-swapping
services, Streamwaves won't satisfy everyone. Tracks can't be downloaded or moved to portable music
players. They can only be streamed to computers for immediate
play. But the design and flexibility of the Streamwaves model is
already a hit. "We get e-mails all the time saying, 'We never did want to
be taking this music for free, but we didn't want to pay $15
for one song, either,' " says Mr. Tribble. "They're telling
us, 'We just wanted the product you guys are finally
offering.' " Up, up and away Since launching, Mr. Tribble says, the number of
subscribers has grown into "the thousands." He says
Streamwaves has already ascended into the short list of the
top five streaming Internet music services, passing Musicnet and Pressplay,
services backed by the Big Five record companies. Streamwaves' marketing campaigns, led by vice president of
product marketing Paul Jung, are just getting under way. They
include distributing one-month-free access cards through
Transworld Entertainment (FYE stores), CompUSA and other
outlets. There are still gaps in the selections. Streamwaves doesn't
yet have access to the Rolling Stones collection, for example.
A search for the Beatles also comes up blank. Mr. Tribble says the service will respond to user wishes.
"But we're just starting to get where we can analyze how
people are using us," he says. "It'll get better over time."
Streamwaves offers an impressive list of jazz, classical
and techno/dance albums. And it has developed an effective
interface that helps users discover and explore creations
similar to music they already know. Last month, Streamwaves announced a deal with
Hewlett-Packard that gives users of myhpclub.com
and mypresarioclub.com 30-day trials. More deals
are in the offing to raise the visibility of the service in
the next year, Mr. Tribble says. Beyond that, the company plans to make its Deep Ellum
headquarters into a showcase for radio station promotions and
live events. "This place is really perfect for us," says Mr. Tribble as
he gazes out on Elm Street through the massive corner windows
of his new corporate digs. "It's going to be fun down here."
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