For Many New Artists, Internet Is Gateway of Stardom

`Going online before offline.` Large Internet portals such as AOL and Yahoo! are fast emerging as an effective promotional tool for recording companies, according to music industry magazine `Billbord.`

Female rocker Avril Larvin, in fact, ascended to stardom through the Internet. Larvin`s first single titled `Complicated` was introduced to the public last year through `Breakers,` a AOL site playing new artists` songs. Before it hit the radio wave, the song was clicked over the Internet more than 350,000 times. Five days before releasing her debut album `Let Go’, the recording company opened all of the songs in the album to listeners over the Internet.

`Breakers` deals with genuine new artists who have never been on radio wave before. `T.A.T.U.`, a Russian female duo, also soft-landed on the American pop market via the Internet program.

Yahoo! has introduced such popular artists as Rapper `50 cents` and rock band `Strawks`. Its streaming radio service `Launchcast`, in particular, is gaining great popularity among Internet listeners by playing songs that suit tastes of individual users.

New artists even win hearts of people who are most unlikely to become their fans. Songwriter and singer Jason Muraz, who used to perform at college campuses, found that his songs have a great appeal to teenage girls after Launchcast began to play his songs. He saw sales of his albums soaring more than 40% three weeks after the debut at the Yahoo! program.

The merit of such Internet portal programs is that they can cover new artists in various ways unlike radio or TV, which are limited in service hours. Internet programs offer not only songs but also interviews and recording sessions.

“Additional information services create long-lasting impressions of new artists to music fans in various ways, which is why they often lead to strong sales,” said Cortney Halt, manager of new media at Interscope Record.

New artist programs at AOL and Yahoo! were in fact first launched in 2001, but they began to emerge as a key marketing tool for recording companies only recently. “Competition is increasingly heating up for spots in such Web sites,” said Adam Wenburgh, Vice CEO of Aristar Record.