Post by mannieb on Aug 10, 2008 15:51:14 GMT -6
The Scottish Co-investment Fund, a £45 million equity investment fund set up by Scottish Enterprise, made a £250,000 investment into UK-based multi-media company Kerchoonz.
Scheduled for beta launch this September, Kerchoonz.com is a social network site offering a simple, yet innovative concept: that musicians be compensated for the music they make available to fans. While an unending list of sites allow musicians to give their music away for free, very few actually pay them. Kerchoonz pays registered bands, artists, DJ's and songwriters every time they're music is downloaded or streamed on the site.
Kerchoonz.com's model is a recognition of the changes that have impacted the music industry, driven by technology and changing attitudes among consumers. Research firm NPD's latest Digital Music Study found that the overall portion of music that consumers actually paid for fell from 48% in 2006 to 42% percent in 2007. At the same time, while the percentage of US web surfers engaged in file sharing capped at 19% last year, it continues to grow aggressively among teens while the number of files downloaded per user increased.
"Fans want free music without the hassles of DRM or advertising, while musicians want appropriate compensation for the use of their music," noted Christian Ulf Hansen, former Director of Writer / Publisher Relations BMI Europe. "Kerchoonz recognizes this reality and strikes the right balance by meeting the needs of both musicians and fans."
Fans, musicians and music industry professionals are invited to sign up in this pre-beta stage at www.kerchoonz.com