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Steve Thaemert is the President/Artist Rep. for Indiedrive Inc. a company that offers a unique way for independent artist to sell their music using a USB flash-drive.
Indiedrive Inc. is not a record label but a music store. Artist sell their music through the site and control what they put on the flash-drives and set their own prices.
Customers can then browse through the music selections and buy the USB flash-drives that they want.
The drives are guaranteed to work and are double checked to make sure that they are virus free.
Below is an interview that we recently done with Steve.
Indiedrive Website- http://www.Indiedrive.com
1- Will you tell us a little bit about your company, how long has it been around, its start, what your drives are etc...?
Steve: The Indiedrive concept originated a couple years ago when I was at a show with my band and one of the other bands there was selling their music on flash drives. We thought, "Hey! What a great idea." It has taken two years to launch Indiedrive... but we finally got it going - making Indiedrive.com the first dedicated USB flash-drive album storefront in the world. With CD sales dropping steadily, we believe flash-drive albums will serve as a way to suppliment a bands income, and ultimately will replace CD's altogether. Besides, flash drives are a convenient way to transfer MP3's and other fun stuff. Bands get their music out there in a new and exciting way, and the consumer gets exclusive material on a high-quality reuseable drive. Everybody wins!
2- Since your drives are USB I'm guessing that they're compatible with both MAC and Windows based computers?
Steve: The flash drives we use are compatible with almost everything that has a USB port, and work in both MAC and PC systems. Our drives are among the smallest you can get, and are very high quality with fast transfer speeds. We decided to use the cooler, higher-quality drives as opposed to the cheapies, and offer something unique that we can guarantee will last. We also welcome bands who have their own flash drives to sell those at indiedrive.com too, but we can't guarantee anything that is not a genuine indiedrive.
3- Your site list the genres of Rock, Country, Blues, R&B and Hip-Hop. Are you open to other styles of music?
Steve: This is something that was very intentional. I've always hated going to music websites and having to browse through 300 genres, half of which I've never heard of... I mean, cmon. There are so many genres and sub-genres out there, I wanted to take a different approach. We put those general categories out there, but we also allow the bands to choose their own "keywords" to really describe themselves.
I think it empowers the bands, and lets them decide exactly how they want to be labeled. If you want to label yourself as an experimental-funk-gospel-punk band, than go for it.
4- If a band/artist is interested in selling their music through your site what do they have to do to get things started?
Steve: The first step in selling your music through Indiedrive is to put together your album. A flash-drive album can be made up of MP3's, videos, lyric sheets, pictures, photos, artwork, buddy icons, ringtones - I mean, you name it. We only use 1gig drives, so there is plenty of room to be creative. A band can register right at indiedrive.com and set up their artist page and add their album(s). Once registered, one of our artist reps will contact them and arrange a file transfer. We have several options available to get the files into our database. When someone orders a drive, we fill the order and ship it out, and mail out checks to the bands every month. The cool thing about Indiedrive is the fact that we are in personal contact with every band on our site... we're here to help in any way we can.
5- What do see looking ahead for your company? Are their any specific new ideas that your working on now?
Steve: Well, we are in phase one right now - so we have a lot of new ideas on the table for phase two. We are trying to offer laser etching on our drives, as well as more choices in drive shapes and sizes. We are currently populating the site, which we expect to take a few months... in that time we would like to see a few hundred bands selling drives at indiedrive.com. We are also always networking and finding new ways to promote the bands selling drives through our site.
6- Anything I missed that you would like to share with our readers?
Steve: The main thing that I would like to express to anyone interested in trying the whole flash-drive album idea is that it is absolutely free. The idea behind Indiedrive is to create a marketplace where people can browse through flash-drive albums just like they would at any other music store website. We are creating this by empowering the indies, not taking their money. This company was started by independent musicians, and that's really where the heart of Indiedrive is.
Band Name: Kate Tucker & the Sons of Sweden
Style: Indie / Pop / Rock
Location: Ballard, Washington
Website: http://www.katetuckerandthesonsofsweden.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/katetuckermusic
Record Label: Red Valise
Influences: Mazzy Star, Portishead, Blonde Redhead, Radiohead, Starflyer 59, Morella's Forest, Velour 100, Beth Orton, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Neko Case, Cat Power, Robert Deeble, Damien Jurado, Josh Ryan, Innocence Mission, The Police, Crosstide, Bloc Party, Low
Below is a recent interview the band done with us.
1. The first thing I need to ask you about is the band's name and how you chose it?
We live in Ballard, a Scandinavian fishing village on the Puget Sound. There is a Sons of Norway Hall down the street from our house. We always wanted to play a show there, even though we are Swedish. So we are called the Sons of Sweden. Someday we will storm the Sons of Norway Hall.
2. Who are some of your musical influences?
We grew up in nineties Seattle (except Kate who listened from across the country). The underground scene here was dominated by Tooth and Nail bands. We still listen to Starflyer 59 obsessively. Morella's Forest is Kate's guilty pleasure. Others that are often referenced during songwriting sessions include Mazzy Star, Stars, Pedro the Lion, Shout Out Louds, Wilco, Neko Case, Bob Dylan, R.E.M. The Smiths, The Cure...
3. What do you hope people take away with them after hearing your music?
Whatever they're looking for.
4. Besides your own music what was the last music CD that you listened to?
Boxer- The National
5. Where can people buy your music?
Amazon.com, Itunes.com, Sonicboomrecords.com (our favorite record store!)
6. Has anything strange or funny ever happened to you while performing on stage?
Only the unmentionable.
7. What's the one dream place that you would like to perform a show at?
The now defunct Crocodile in Seattle, WA (it was our favorite place to play)
8.Anything we missed that you would like to tell our readers?
We feel privileged to have occupied a bit of your time. Thanks for the love.
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Indie Music
