I’m getting a tremendous number of hits on the Burnlounge piece I posted a while back. In fact it’s been co-opted by marketers for the site plastering their sales pitch in the comments section. (My delete button can’t keep up.) But their fervent defense of the site has caused me to spend more time there, researching, poking around, pondering and finally concluding: Burnlounge sucks. For now.
There is hope. After all the thing looks great and we all know that shine wins out over substance in the music marketplace more often than not. Even so, if Burnlounge is ever going to dethrone iTunes – as it says it wants to – it needs to increase its catalog. And stop alphabetizing by artist first name…unless that’s all the artist has. My suggestion would be that Burnlounge begin by beefing up the “Sh” section and, after re-alphabetizing by last name, continue by filling in the holes in the “Gr” section. Just a suggestion. Don’t look surprised when your new company tanks. It’s unwise to underestimate the demand for “Sh” and “Gr” artists.
John says:
I tried to send this email to burnlounge and it told me it was too long.
I am trying to figure out how to contact burnlounge directly via email. I don’t find any corporate info on their website (not a good thing when you are thinking about giving them $144 to be a retailer)
Anyway, it seems that their only success will be in signing up retailers and then running with the money when the whole concept crashes. The biggest reason I think they will crash is outlined in the letter below. It is just way too easy to buy direct from them without going to the retailer’s site. They offer no way to find your retailer on their main website. Internet companies selling wholesale cannot expect their retailers to succeed if all the customer has to do is delete the filename extension and buy directly from http://www.burnlounge.com Unless they fix this, I suggest no retailer give them a dime. It will be like buying a franchise to a sub shop that eventually sells no sandwiches. How long would that sub franchisee last?
Here’s the email I was trying to get to burnlounge execs if anyone knows how:
a friend of mine recently became a distributor and asked me if I wanted to become one. I noticed that you can go directly to http://www.burnlounge.com and go around the retailer by buying directly from you. I also do not see an easy way to find retailers in my area.
That means my customers will have to type in my complete file name or I won’t get credit for the sale. Usualy in multi-tiered sales networks like this, it is not so easy to buy directly from the wholesaler. This is a mojor draw-back to your system and I think it will ultimately lead to your failure.
If a customer has to type in a longer web address such as http://www.burnlounge.com/myretailname instead of just http://www.burnlounge.com to get their music and they see they can buy without me then, with the exception of customers that I tell they have to go to my address only, I believe I will lose some of those I tell about this.
They will remember the name burnlounge.com but to expect them to remember my extension also will be too much for some of them leading them to potentially buying directly from you.
I think that if you are going to be signing up retailers than you need to have the main page say, “search for a retailer in your area” and if one is not available or if they cannot find one through an easy to use directory by searching for thier friends names by city or by name or other ways, then you can say, “no retailers found in your area, do you want to learn more about being one?”
I have extensive experience in the internet working with many execs at in the Bay Area and I think that changes along these lines will ensure your success and ultimately the retailer’s success and I may even become one.
thank you
and I hope to hear from you soon.
john
gmellow says:
Something to note. Ryan Dadd one of the co-founders of Burnlounge happens to be a music consultant to Christian music labels. see http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_23/b3786084.htm
Bobby Wade says:
Burnlounge is a scam, check out
http://burnloungescam.blogspot.com/
alex says:
It’s free for an artist to upload their music onto the burnlounge network. Simply send in a license request form(downloaded off the internet), send it in along with your music and artwork. Wait two weeks or so for them to upload your tunes, then sign the Standard License agreement they send back to you. Which, by the way, pays the artist a much higher percentage than I-Tunes.
kc shankar says:
Hi there, regarding what you had mentioned about burnlounge, especially with regard to the artists first name as opposed to the full name, I guess that does make sense. There are quite a few artists out there who share the same first name like Georgie boy – Wham.
But can it really dethrone iTunes, now given what you had mentioned and taking it all into account, I say, no chance whatsoever.