Web muscle

Everyone knows the Web is a marvelous device for sharing — or, if you prefer, stealing — music. Until recently, though, it has been primarily an outlet for the mass delivery — licit and illicit — of music. Now it may be morphing into something new — a vehicle for the discovery, exposure and popular winnowing of new musical talent.

Think of the scores of thousands of MP3 files that aspiring pop stars have uploaded in the hope of discovery that lie dormant in the proliferating junkyard of free online music. Think of the ease with which music can be self-produced — and then just as casually ignored by a public overwhelmed by electronic media.

For a few technologically savvy songsmiths, at least, that’s about to change.

The London-based singer-songwriter Sandi Thom just landed a record deal with RCA/Sony BMB after Webcasting performances from her basement for 21 consecutive days. By the end of her three-week run, Miss Thom, 24, was playing for up to 70,000 Web surfers.

“As Web sites get more and more advanced, they offer more things,” says Aaron Novak, who markets Stickam, a comprehensive multimedia tool that enables artists to host music and photographs as well as stream live performances on their Web sites.

“It’s becoming more of a social space than a place to just share music,” Mr. Novak says. “The bands themselves can directly communicate with the fans. It’s a much better experience, and there’s an audience out there that wants that.”

Stickam, which is free of charge, was introduced in February and already boasts more than 30,000 users. The Los Angeles-based company expects that number to swell to 150,000 by summer’s end.

“The Web is increasingly becoming a place for new music to be discovered. We’re only at the beginning,” says Ali Partovi, chief executive officer of GarageBand.com.

Internet-based music is “better than it’s ever been, and there will be more of it to come,” says Geoff Byrd, a singer-songwriter from Portland, Ore.

Mr. Byrd, 29, caught a draft of Internet-generated buzz when his debut album, “Candy Shell,” drew enthusiastic reviews on the Internet radio station Live365.com and on Microsoft-owned GarageBand.com, where four of his songs topped the site’s listener-feedback chart.

Mr. Byrd, who warmed up for Hall & Oates last month at the Warner Theatre, is touted as “the world’s first Web-born pop star.”

“I was on the Internet 12 hours a day,” recalls Mr. Byrd, whose music blends melodic pop-rock, soul and funk. A former high school history teacher, he says he poured as much energy into developing his Web site (www.geoffbyrd.com) as he did into songwriting.

“I printed up cards with nothing on them but the Web site — a white card with black ink,” he says. “I went through 50,000.”

He also made copies of “Candy Shell” available through CDBaby.com and established a presence on MySpace.com. “It starts to get exponential after a while,” he says.

In two years, Mr. Byrd’s success online translated into a traditional record deal with Granite Records, an indie distributed by a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.

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