In the last three years, online music distribution has become one of the leading Internet-based businesses. Alofs was the head of HMV Canada, a leading Canadian retail music chain, who saw the limitations of traditional music stores. He was interested in aggressively marketing music on the Internet, but he met with some resistance from others in the company who wanted to only use the Intenet to supplement in-store purchases. For no cost, an artist can upload any number of MP3 files, and each artist is given a webpage to showcase artist information, connect with fans, or describe his or her music. The search engine greatly simplifies the process.
Users can look for new artists by typing the same of a popular, established artist.
Less popular and more genre-specific artists yield more accurate results, of course, but now the list has been narrowed from thousands to just over a hundred. CDs are only made as they are ordered, so the company does not have to deal with storage for a back catalog, like a conventional distributor. Laver's prediction somewhat misses MP3's usefulness to artists. The site is a way of getting noticed and a way of networking in the independent community. Predictably, not very well.