5 years ago... Rock 'n' roll portal takes on music giants

02.08.99: Chrysalis Records co-founder Terry Ellis has thrown his weight behind an internet venture that he claims will have huge implications for the dominance of the big five record companies.

The venture, called StarGig.com, is a music portal that aims to give a chance to thousands of bands which have yet to sign a record company deal. The joint venture has bought 50 per cent of the Band Register, which has a database of 225,000 unsigned acts.

The site will allow people to download music free of charge. Participating bands and StarGig will both earn money through publishing, advertising and setting up fan clubs.

02.08.04: Until the emergence of the phenomenally successful iTunes service from Apple, free music on the web tended to fall into two categories - the unsigned and the illegal.

The war over illegal music has waged long and hard throughout the past five years - most obviously with the ups and downs of the Napster saga.

Other services such as Kazaa also enabled music fans to share tunes with one another - much to the annoyance of the musicians and music industry body the Recording Industry Association of America. Given such turbulence it's unsurprising that a search now for StarGig.com proves unsuccessful. There have been plenty of casualties along the way.

In order to gain legitimacy a number of services tried to offer only unsigned bands. MP3.com, now owned by silicon.com's parent company CNET Networks offers music from a large catalogue of unsigned acts. Artists can upload their music and music fans can access their material.

In many respects, the fact bands choose to use such services to launch themselves could be said to prove what file-sharers have known all along - that download services are actually complementary to record sales and can in fact have a positive, rather than negative impact.