In my opinion Amie Street is one of the most exciting new businesses I have seen in a while.  So what’s the basic idea?  

Business Model:
There are a number of elements:

An ‘iTunes’ for Independent bands and musicians.  With Aime Street they can get an audience, get paid and perhaps get ‘discovered’.

Listening members join for Free and can download songs that start off Free but as those songs gain in download popularity, the price increases to keep pace with demand up to a .98 cent cap.

Bands receive 70% of all revenues for their songs after the first $5 to cover set up costs.

Some Core Functionality:

• There are no digital media restrictions so downloaders can use the files in multiple because there are no big labels or their lawyers breathing down downloaders necks.
• People who recommend music to others gain music credits when those songs begin to earn revenues.  Those credits can be used for more downloads.
• Amie Street has multiple music genres, single songs and albums and you can sample songs before download.

Likes:
Word of mouth will drive this business from a number of dimensions.  This is such a well thought out business model which gives significant benefits to all.  Aime Street makes money, the bands make money and listeners can download new songs for free and get credits if they recommend new music plus there’s a real incentive to spend time on the site and ‘discover’ great songs before the other Aime Street members.

Also this should really help musicians in a number of ways…the ability to get their music out to a potentially wide audience, make some money and if they regularly top the Aime Street charts, they could land themselves a contract with the smart record companies who should follow ‘chart’ activity within Aime Street.

Dislikes:
There really isn’t much to dislike about Aime Street.  A question I have is what happens when a band or vocalist gets signed?  Will Aime Street need to go and ‘pull’ those songs from their site? Also will this create true fans and followers for the bands or will they become a weekly fad as they hit popularity and then become passe.  What am I talking about?  That’s just the music business!  Sorry but I really am scratching my head and am not finding much to dislike.  I recommend you check out Aime Street.

Amie Street really does seem to be a great deal all around…especially if you are interested in ‘discovering’ a band before they go through the image machine.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would pull out my headphones to invest $750K in Aime Street.

http://amiestreet.com/welcome

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Zlio is an interesting online service begun in France but seems to be making its way to the US and other countries. 

Business Model:
Users of Zlio can set up their own online store for Free in under five minutes even if they don’t have anything to sell by choosing products from a catalog of thousands of products.  The users earn commissions for every item sold within their store and Zlio takes responsibility for all fulfillment of the purchased items.  The core role of users is:

1)  Create an appealing ‘store front’
2)  Choose the right products that work with their store’s personality
3)  Promote the heck out of their own store among friends, search engines, blogs you name it.

Everything else is handled by Zlio.

Some Core Functionality:

• Store Setup
• Submission to search engines
• RSS feed for each store
• Inclusion in Zlio Directory
• Unique store URL for promotional use

Likes:
There is a strong viral element to this business model which is driven by its ease of setup and use combined with the inherent need in the online community to create a personal presence.  As Zlio gets a ‘cut’ for every item sold, providing they have negotiated decent margins with the product providers then this should be a revenue heavy business. 

My guess is that Zlio has struck a number of deals with product fulfillment houses and therefore never actually ‘touch’ a product.  This is likely a pure order pass through business where the usual costs of marketing are not required – the marketing occurs virally through individuals creating their Zlio store and promoting the heck out of it within their own networks. A very efficient model!

Dislikes:
There’s a certain ‘pyramid’ flavor to this business but the realty is they are on to a winner and will make significant cash providing they have struck the right deals and have an efficient backend.  One slight challenge will come if the price points of the products offered are not competitive with alternative ‘stores’ online.  If no one actually sells product through their stores then the viral marketing will eventually dry up.

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would jump over burning baguettes to invest $500K in Zlio.

http://www.zlio.com/

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com