Fuzz to fuss over artists

Web site keyed to musicians’ needs

By PHIL GALLO

San Francisco-based music startup Fuzz has created Fuzz.com to allow artists to manage their careers as a business, connect with fans and sell music, merchandise and concert tickets.

Fuzz calls itself a new breed of music company that integrates a next-generation music label, an artist promotion platform and an interactive community that engages artists and fans to promote, share, buy and sell music. Company facilitates sales, fan interaction and management; it has been compared to Reverb Nation and Pure Volume.

Fuzz.com can be used to promote, stream and sell music, and it will soon allow the sale of merchandise and concert tickets. Artists can track and analyze sales, fan demographics and the success of marketing campaigns. Fuzz will also use its label to release albums by artists using the service.

Among the acts currently working with Fuzz are the Nightwatchmen and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. The Fuzz label has signed four acts, among them the Lovemakers out of Oakland and Greg Garing, an ace Nashville sideman with a single solo album to his credit.

"We believe the best way to build a new business model is to look at what the artist needs and build the company from the ground up based on those ideals," said Fuzz CEO Jeff Yasuda.

Fuzz strives to be artistcentric, technologically innovative and socially responsible.

Susan Kevorkian, who manages the consumer program at IDC, said, "Technology providers like Fuzz offer music labels and artists digital tools to reach fans more effectively than is possible with traditional music marketing strategies and physical media distribution alone."