Petra on Burnlounge.com

[Viktorbass]

Hey all you Petra fans! You can get most of Petras online now. Go to www.burnlounge.com/georgiaburn and check it out. You can be apart of the music industry as well. Watch the video!!

Tommy

[SkyCaptain]

Hey, Tommy! Welcome to the Zone. God bless all you guys in Viktor. Can't wait to hear the album!

Mark

[Viktorbass]

Hi Mark.
Thank you for your kind words. We hope Viktor will bless you as Petra has. Louie is always been so thankful for his fan base over the years. Hes not much into computers but if any of you have any words for him, I will be sure to pass it on.
We have 2 more weeks in the studio with John Lawry and the CD will be complete. Be looking for it on www.viktorband.com. We posted a couple of tunes on the site. Check it out!


Blessings to you Mark.
Tommy

[Michael]

Darn! Something about I guess "Viktorbass" got me in a "V" frame of mind, and I thought you had said most of Petra's VIDEOS are available online. But it's just the CDs. Well, that's nothing particularly new... you could get 'em from ChristianBook for a long time (in fact, if you go to http://www.guidetopetra.com/TheList.html and click the picture of most any album, I have links directly to the song downloads), and I understand they've been available on iTunes for even longer (I don't use iTunes... I'm conceptually opposed to a closed system of vendor (Apple), hardware (iPod), and software (iTunes), especially when the software is foisted on the user during another download (QuickTime; pretty tough these days to upgrade it without accidentally installing iTunes at the same time).

Yes, I do realize the ChristianBook downloads are MS format stuff, which locks out Mac people. So for those who choose to sequester themselves in the Apple ghetto, they'll have trouble using it. What format are the BurnLounge downloads? Surely they come with DRM (which, of course, is easily defeated by burning one single CD and then ripping it back into the computer, so what's the point but that's just me).

[Historymaker]

Burnlounge is a company that is BARELY 6 months old... and from what I can tell, the marketing is primarily twofold and is designed to spread by a community driven, word of mouth approach.

Basically unheard of before (in fact I even read somewhere here that Petra only gets a few cents for every CD sold), artists can now get 40 to 70 cents on the dollar for material on Burnlounge. So, the average cost of an album is $9.99 on Burnlounge. Every time it's downloaded, the artist makes $4.00 to $7.00 depending on what the artist has negotiated with Burnlounge (NEW releases, of course... backlog acquired from the major companies like EMI do not apply). That's REALLY darn good and the key of what will make it grow is artists like Brian Duncan, who will soon be releasing a new song on Burnlounge on a weekly basis, then mail blasting it to his extensive mailing list, letting his fans know that they can download his new music on Burnlounge. As Burnlounge grows, Indie bands can get unprecedented distribution such as the California based 'Press Play' Christian rock band that's already gotten over 20,000 downloads. Not bad for an Indie.

For the fans (non-artists), the hope is that they will realize buying from Burnlounge puts more money in the pocket of the artists they enjoy, but also gives them the opportunity to start their own online music store featuring the music they love... such as rap stores, country stores, Christian rock stores, or even Petra stores. Not only do the artists they love get a bigger percentage of the proceeds, but so does the store owner. As an independent retailer, the individual gets paid a nickel for every song (single track) downloaded from Burnlounge and about 50 cents for every album. Though admittedly it isn't a whole lot, it's more than you get for downloading music from Itunes or any of the other outlets... especially when you consider it's music the individual didn't write, record, produce, etc. I make 50 cents when someone buys a Madonna album from me.

Plus, there is the multi-level marketing avenue that we all know and love, which allows you to sponsor other stores, make a percentage off their sales, who sponsor other stores, and other stores, and so forth, until you become a millionaire in 4 months. Okay, maybe not, but it IS a cool system and I've already gotten my first checks. It's not for everyone, that's for sure... and frankly, not everyone will see the benefit for themselves as fans, but artists are jumping on to this thing like there's no tomorrow.

Jackson Browne, Brian McKnight, Metallica, Hootie and the Blowfish, Kevin Max, Ted Nugent, Sheldon Reynolds (formerly of Earth, Wind, and Fire), are just a few of the artists involved with Burnlounge as the investment is small and the potential is limitless. Check out Ted Nugent's blurb about it on his website:

http://www.tednugent.com/burnlounge_info.shtml

It's new, and it has a LOT of competition... but give it time, and the artists will soon be pushing Burnlounge harder than the rest... because that's where they can make the most money, and money talks.

Oh... and you mentioned videos... I can't say anything for sure about Petra videos (as more than likely the same or similar legalities to getting a CITAS DVD would apply to getting it downloadable online), but soon TV shows (Survivor, 24, American Idol), sports games (NFL, MLB), movies, and ring tones will all be available for download from Burnlounge. This thing is bottom floor.

Okay, commercial over. But call in the next ten minutes and I'll include my free 'Abs of Gelatin' workout video...

[Edward]

Yeah, I hope that it works out for them. The boys that own CCLI have started their own site, designed to set every one of their 200,000 churches us with their own faux bookstore. It doesn't pay much more than iTunes.

CDBaby gives the most control to the artist, but the end user knows little about it.

This burnlounge thing won't get jack from me until they are Apple/Safari friendly.

[greenchili]

What format is burnlouge anyways... wmv?

FWIW one does not need to run Itunes to use an Ipod. There is plenty of alternate software out there for loading it up. There is not a single DRM song on my ipod. MP3's all the way baby! Plus a handful of .jpg's and .mp4 files.

That's probably my only qualm is I have to convert any video I want on it to .mp4, but then I don't really use it for that much. Just converted a bunch of slideshows I created for my niece on it so I could show it to them without burning a SVCD.

[gman]

burnlounge might be good for awhile, for those who get in on it early. But, it is MLM, and the goal seems to be to recruit as many people as possible to open music stores. At some point, maybe soon, there will be more online music stores through burnlounge than there is demand for the music. I could be wrong, but as I understand it, a burnlounge store might be setup to focus on a particular artist or groop of artists, but ultimately you can purchase anything from the burnlounge catalog through that store. So, you've got how many thousands or millions of online stores all selling the same thing?