Route Note, Music Web 2.0 For the Musician

New on the music scene in social media is Route Note, a service designed to enable musicians to use the social web to manage their music library. Designed with the indie artist in mind, Route Note puts the strength of contract negotiation and marketing into an easy web based package. Route Note entered its public beta phase this week.

The focus Route Note puts on the musician is its ace in the hole. Navigating the landscape of music distribution and copyright law can be a daunting task for all but the most experienced artist. Having a tool that makes that easy is key to success. Route note wants to be that tool.

By giving independent artists access to a complete spectrum of online music distribution services and putting more control into the hands of musicians, Route Note is providing a gateway to more than just distribution services like iTunes or eMusic. Route Note is also giving artists a way to license their music for use in film, television, radio and downloading.

Once a musician has signed up for Route Note, they can upload their own music mp3s to the site. Route offers access to what it touts as 90% of online music sales, as well as a self promotion tool kit to help artists sell their music on their own sites as well. The self promotion tool kit includes banners, widgets and other goodies ready made for the musician to use as needed.

The musician can choose where their music will be sold - Route Note gives them complete control over which of the official services they want to use. So far Route Note has distribution agreements with iTunes, LimeWire, AudioLunchBox, and eMusic. Part of the control offered by Route note includes sales information management data and tracking services that will put the artist in touch with their real sales.

Route Note will be charging no fees for an artist or band to upload their music. The artist retains 100% rights to their music, and makes 90% of each sale. The other 10% goes to Route Note. Route Note does not require exclusivity in their user contracts, which means an unsigned musician is able to get that much sought after record deal without problems. Route Note is accepting limited beta signups on their site.