Founded in 2007, by Dey Martin, acting CEO and President, mTracks is an online music community for independent artists, labels, and music fans. The mission behind the site, in beta as of May 2007, is to become the number one online destination for music, and serve as the ultimate band-to-fan site. The site was built with the independent music creator in mind, giving them the ability to promote their work in the same space as signed bands. Martin also wants the music consumer to get the most bang for the buck and hopes that mTraks will help users discover new independent music that isn’t available elsewhere. Currently mTraks has deals in place with over 6,000 record labels, and is selling more than one million songs on their site.

Martin, who also owns the independent record label Naked Jain Records, has 20 plus years of production and licensing experience. When we spoke he couldn’t reveal too much information about registered site users or upcoming feature releases, but he did mention that mTraks will soon offer a way for independent bands to give their music away on their own websites for free and still make a profit. Look for more concrete details on this feature as the site nears full scale launch in the summer of this year.

When asked about whether or not mTraks would recommend new music for users based on their previous purchase behavior, Martin replied that this feature does not exist and probably will not be added in the future. He did state, however, that in the future if you self-select a favorite genre of music, song recommendations within that genre may be displayed to site members. Martin also wanted to share that since mTraks is based in San Diego, one of his priorities is to stay involved in the local community by sponsoring events like the San Diego Music Awards, an event mTraks co-sponsored to benefit both artists and schools.

mTraks Quick Stats

* 1 Million + songs for sale
* 6,000 record labels
* Site visits have tripled every month since September

To Watch or Not

Although Martin was hesitant to reveal any concrete information about revenue, mTraks does have a pretty sustainable business model in place. Essentially they make a percentage of each individual music sale and monthly subscription purchase, which could prove extremely profitable if the site continues to grow. In addition, mTraks is able to differentiate themselves from the other competitors in this space by offering DRM-free music, MP3 tracks that are compatible with both the iPod and the Zune, and tracks that are near CD quality.

mTraks will be celebrating their one year anniversary of their beta site launch with live music and festivities this coming May at The Casbah in Little Italy. If they decide to make the event a private party or sell tickets, StartupSD might be able to score some tickets that we would then give away to our reader community. Definitely stay tuned for more information.

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