Last night, I saw the future of the music business and it is Guvera! With the industry on life support due to a mixture of greed, bad business, and creative decisions, and the billions of dollars lost every year due to free downloads, Guvera is set to come to the rescue, at least, on the latter front.
Guvera provides a way for content owners such as artists and record labels to generate revenue from their music, making it readily available and 100% free and legal to consumers. Content is paid for by advertisers looking to target consumers in a revolutionary way with branded channels. The ground breaking technology includes three interfaces: one for the consumer to log in and search for and download free music, another for the advertiser to build channels and targeted campaigns, and a third for the artist and label to control any rules or restrictions regarding which brands are allowed to pay for their music to be downloaded.
TGATP thinks Guvera is pure genius! The motto of the company should be “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” and one wonders why no one thought of this sooner! It is basically a way for the artists to finally get paid for downloaded music which was previously pirated while recognizing that free downloads are here to stay. I would love to see Guvera reach out to unsigned acts and do deals with them, as well as, the established artists and labels.
The pre-launch event was a small very private affair (only one crasher was spotted!) with performances by Mos Def, the Bravery, Jim Jones, Marie Digby, and burlesque from the Pontani Sisters, as well as, appearances by the Donnas and rock superstar, Alice Cooper. (Alice was just a really great guy working the crowd and offering to take pictures with everyone.) With this much talent at the pre-launch, I can’t wait to see what they pull off for the official launch!
Guvera.com will launch in the US at the end of March 2010 and will offer content from Universal Music Group, EMI and IODA with more media companies to follow. The company’s consumer facing website is www.guvera.com.
Visit www.guveralimited.com for a presentation for advertisers and agencies.
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