Join BurnLounge: Earn Multiple Streams of Income

Rather than just tell you, as a third party, what is so unique and powerful about BurnLounge as a way to sell your music, we thought you might like to hear it "from the horse's mouth," to use an old saying.

We visited with one of the investors in this new music distribution company (and model) -- along with world-famous DJ (Disc Jockey) Rick Dees) -- and got the low-down on what some Wall Street and music business insiders are saying is the "next big Internet company."

Jack Hayford's Interview with Jerry Yerke—

JH: Jerry, you left a very successful business that you had built over many years, a very traditional franchise business, Domino's Pizza...it doesn't get any more stable, or staple if you will, than that...to invest in, and become a big part of BurnLounge...why'd you do it?

JY: The day-to-day grind of owning the brick-and-mortar business...it got to me. 4-500 employees every day. I had seven stores and really, seven stores is just a medium franchise. But I was married to the store. It just wore me out. It's funny that you should say "staple," you know Domino's sold out to Staples...they bought 'em for a billion dollars.

JH: What did you see in BurnLounge, enough so to be an investor in the company, that excited you?

JY: I'll put it this way: In the last 40 months, this thing has gone from just being a vision, an idea on a napkin, to being live with somewhere between 15 and 20,000 retailers today on March 1st [2006]. I believe that number will grow to a half million in the next couple of years. BurnLounge is something for everyone but something different for everyone. That excites me. I'm a music fan. I'm in Nashville right now. Every office I go into I see pictures of Garth Brooks, and the records from Diamond Rio, whose keyboard player is a retailer in BurnLounge by the way...so, everywhere I go I'm very humbled by where I'm at...Music City. But what's cool is, those are my partners through my online record store. For me as a fan, that's exciting. Every fan wants to be involved with their favorite artists. They can be with BurnLounge.

For my unsigned artist friends, they have told me nothing less than it's the best platform they have ever seen to promote their music. Bar none.

For the signed artist, it's another distribution model. The days of CDs and record stores are numbered. The major record store chains are tanking. It's all becoming digital. iTunes is just about to have downloaded their one billionth song! And keep in mind, they just recently went international.

I believe this, if you want to create wealth, you need to plug into growth. And this is a growth industry that's rising 300% a year right now. There's a window here. Nine out of ten people in America have never downloaded a song. My mom has never downloaded a song. But she's going to!

JH: My interest in BurnLounge is to empower independent artists to sell their music. But it's not lost upon me that a great number of current acts, signed to major labels, and even more formerly signed artists, established acts with a big fan base, have become affiliated with BurnLounge. What's in it for them?

JY: Signed artists are looking for a "band to fan" relationship. And they want to sell more of their music. From Jackson Browne to Kansas, to Metallica, who are all BurnLounge retailers by the way, want to sell more music. BurnLounge allows their fans to not only promote their music, but to own their own online music store, sell their favorite artist's music...as well as other artists' music at the same time.

And the artists who have a following, they simply make a link from their website, which gets tens to hundreds of thousands of hits, to their online record store, their BurnLounge site. KISS, for example. Huge fan following. They're retailers. They link from their site to their BurnLounge online record store. Now KISS makes money not only when their fan buys their music, but when their fan buys Motley Crue. KISS makes money. Their fan says, "oh my goodness," Green Day, I want that... KISS makes money. It's the only platform where an artist makes money when their fan buys another artist's music.

Obviously, they make more money when their own music is sold because they own a piece of the mechanical rights. But show me where Gene Simmons can make money when I, the fan of KISS, buy Natalie Cole.

JH: It seems to a lot of us in the music business that we have become a "single song" culture. To me, one of the interesting and exciting things about BurnLounge is the ability to create playlists.

JY: The coolest people in school (other than athletes) were always the guys that were making a cool compilation cassette and passing it around. DJs. DJs are cool.

JH: You mentioned Jackson Browne, is he a BurnLounge retailer?

JY: Yes, both his management and he himself are retailers. With all the music they've sold, they want to sell more. And the KISS guys, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, those guys are just tremendous entrepreneurs. They see what's going on here...and they're capitalizing on it.

The Jerry Garcia Foundation is involved with us. The Jerry Garcia Foundation's content is exclusive to BurnLounge.

JH: One of the biggest business deals in the last few years has been the Rupert Murdock-Myspace deal. Is there a deal like that in the future of BurnLounge, do you think?

JY: Myspace is an incredible concept and company. Over 40 million users now. You're right, last year, one of the biggest sales in the Wall Street/Internet world was Myspace. The concept of BurnLounge and Myspace is very similar. But BurnLounge is not a social community built on "the love of music" but for the revenue of music. The Myspace model is an advertising model. They don't sell anything to their members. They sell advertising to companies who want to market to their members. We network to sell music. We literally transact sales of music at our sites, not just tell people about great music.

Michael Montgomery, not the singer but the Wall Street deal maker who put the Myspace deal together, is engaging in a big big way right now and I get excited for the signed artist and the unsigned artist, the fans, the 13 year olds, and everyone involved in BurnLounge because, according Michael Montgomery, this is bigger than Myspace.

JH: BurnLounge has around 15,000 Independent Retailers right now. Where's it going to go in the next five years?

JY: Third parties...consultants, etc., project that by this time next year we'll have a half million retailers. We're getting ready to launch Puerto Rico and Canada. We hope to be in Australia by the first quarter of next year.

JH: And ultimately, the concept is beyond music, isn't it?

JY: Yes, BurnLounge is a digital entertainment company. Sometime this year, somebody's going to go to your site, whether you're Jackson Browne or you're JY the fan, they're going to download a track of music, they're going to get their ring tones, they're going to download a movie, a TV show, concert tickets, they'll download Spoken Word content like what Karen Taylor Good, the award-winning songwriter, is doing now. They'll be able to buy memorabilia, T-shirts, BurnLounge brand media device players...

JH: According to statistics from CD manufacturers, 30-40,000 CDs are replicated every year. Probably over 90% of them are for Independent Artists. Aside from selling other people's music, what's in this for them?

JY: The true passion of BurnLounge is to give the independent artist the platform he or she deserves. When I say "unsigned artist," that means from the Christian gal who sings at my church with five fans, to the professional touring band with 200,000 fans.

What are the chances of the local church singer, who is incredibly talented, becoming the next Amy Grant? It's not gonna happen! She's not going to get a record deal. What's the chance of people finding and buying her music that she's uploaded to iTunes? What's the chance of iTunes promoting her and putting HER on the front page of their site beside U2 and Beyonce? NEVER going to happen! But with BurnLounge that's exactly what happens.

With BurnLounge she can do that herself. With BurnLounge, she not only licenses her music to us, like iTunes or any other download site, but once her music is in the library...which takes 2-3 weeks for clearance...she can put herself right on the front page of her site along with Keith Urban or Gwen Stefani, or James Blunt. The biggest selling artists in the world.

And, when she sees her fans in church, she can tell them where to get her music (her BurnLounge store) where they'll find her IMMEDIATELY. And, oh by the way, if they buy Amy Grant instead, or some other artist, she gets paid for that too!

But that's just the beginning. HER FANS CAN BECOME RETAILERS AND SELL HER MUSIC TOO. This is what truly sets BurnLounge apart from any other download site. And THEY earn on the sales as well! It's the "street team" model on steroids.

I love Madonna. In the past, I never got paid once for all the times I told somebody to "go buy the new Madonna record." Now I do! Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising in the world! When you tell somebody to try a new restaurant or use a particular dry cleaner because they're good, people that you have a relationship with, do it. BurnLounge turns the fans into "monetarized street teams." They become business partners with their favorite artists. And the sales of downloaded music are going to the moon. All the indicators are there. It's very inexpensive to become a BurnLounge retailer. And the potential is absolutely phenomenal. "Just get in," as we say. If you love music, and want to make money selling music, just get in now.

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Read Billboard Magazine's Article about Burnlounge

Startup digital music company BurnLounge wants to democratize the music retail business.

The Web-based service provides the music library, e-commerce tools and business management software for virtually anyone to own and operate their own digital download store. The company's founders hope to recruit everyday music fans, allowing each to decide which acts they want to feature and promote, as a sort of digital guerrilla marketing play.

"It's the reincarnation of the corner record store," BurnLounge president/COO and co-founder Ryan Dadd says. "This whole concept is about the next generation of retail. It's about marketing to affinity groups, to people with shared interests."

BurnLounge is essentially a digital store franchise. Regardless of operator, each store has the same look and feel, and all carry the BurnLounge brand. All also have access to the same music library, pricing and transaction system, powered by partner Loudeye.

What sets each BurnLounge store apart is the programming that the individual operator chooses. The service lets users decide which bands or songs to feature on the home page and each genre page, as well as create and promote customized playlists.

It also provides a host of digital marketing tools. These include an instant messaging application that supports all popular IM communities (such as AOL, MSN Messenger and Yahoo; chat rooms; and message boards), DVD presentations, posters, letterheads, gift cards and a quarterly promotional magazine.

"In the music business, we've always known that personal referrals and relationships lead to sales," says Stephen Murray, BurnLounge president of entertainment and co-founder. "The problem is there's been no way to quantifiably track that transaction."

That, he promises, is possible with BurnLounge. The company hopes to capitalize on this by marketing the service to artists and their managers, fan clubs, street-team marketing groups, labels, music retailers and others with a large audience of music fans. Radio personality Rick Dees is one, and he is an investor in the company.

BurnLounge offers these companies its top-level Music Mogul service, which allows them to set up their own digital music service as well as operate an online chain of stores. Music Mogul operators invite others to open franchises under their oversight via the Affiliate level of the service. These affiliate members then invite individuals to open their own personalized stores...

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1. Go to BurnLounge (opens in a new window so you can refer back to this page).

2. If you see the "Error Message Center" page, click on "Go to BurnLounge Anyway."

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "WATCH THE COMMERCIAL." This will give you an idea of the tools you'll have available to you as a BurnLounge marketer.

4. Next, click on "BECOME A RETAILER." Read about the benefits and features of each progarm offered: FAN, AFFILIATE, MOGUL, MOGUL+UNIVERSITY.

5. You can decide for yourself which program is best-suited to YOU. However, our training (to help you MAKE MONEY SELLING YOUR MUSIC) only focuses on the MOGUL Program. This is the first level available through which you can MAXIMIZE YOUR EARNINGS.

6. Fill out the form if you are READY TO MAKE MONEY SELLING MUSIC. You will be charged $129.95/yr and $14.95/mo for the set-up of your personal BurnLounge website, as a MOGUL. IT IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT. If this is NOT for you (that's OK!), choose the FAN or AFFILIATE program, but you will not be able to maximize your income and take advantage of ALL the income streams available with BurnLounge.

7. Follow the instructions that you receive ONSCREEN and in EMAILS from BurnLounge to complete the process of setting up your BurnLounge music sales site. There will be an "advanced" section here soon, for BurnLounge Music Moguls.