Earbits Offers Free Streaming For Social Sharers

The music industry is finally on the mend, it seems. Piracy rates are down, sales are up, and for the first time since 1999, the industry saw an increase in revenue last year. We’ve made a nearly complete transformation from physical albums to digital ones, from having music available in certain places to having it with us always. We are listening to music more than ever, and artists and labels are finally starting to figure out how to continue making a profit when the music world is more like the Wild West than ever.

Some order has been brought to the chaos by the simple concept of free and legal music streaming made available through tools like Pandora and Spotify. These services offer free music streaming up to a certain point and with ads. Users can also pay to become preferred customers that no longer have limits or ads. For each song streamed, artists earn a fraction of a penny.

Earbits is another streaming website, but they’ve taken on a different approach to the whole ordeal. There are no commercials, and it doesn’t cost anything to listen. Earbits has partnered with 480 labels to be allowed streaming rights to over 8,000 artists on more than 300 channels. But this music is all from independent artists, hand picked from around the world by an Earbits team.

So how do they make it worth artists’ and labels’ time if they aren’t earning money through annoying commercials? They’re launching a new campaign that uses social currency to pay for streamed songs. Basically, users can play songs in exchange for credits, or “Groovies,” they’ve earned through different actions.

It costs 10 Groovies to play a song. That might sound cumbersome, but Earbits is making it easy to earn points. Users earn 500 Groovies just for opening an account, and for every music recommendation they share on Facebook or Twitter they can earn 100 more. If they like an artist page on Facebook, they can get another 50. It adds up pretty quickly.

Later updates planned will add other rewards for doing things like attending shows and purchasing merchandise. Users can also earn “karma” points, which is essentially a way for artists and labels to track which users are loyal to them—and potentially a way for them to send further rewards their way.

These days, most supporters of independent music are very aware of how important it is to support artists they enjoy. That’s why Earbits shows such amazing potential. It’s an easy way for listeners to feel as though they’ve done their part for their favorite artists because they get rewarded for doing so.