Funny Business
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- Gambling Drunk, Texting to Live And America's On Sale - Your Emails
- The Lloyd's Prayer, Leggo My Eggo, Plate Hate & Your Emails
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Madoff—The Holiday Drink
- Drugs, Booze and Vegas
- Happy World Toilet Day
- Coffee, Tea or My Ad?
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Trader Talk
- Black Friday: Bargain or Bust?
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- Fed to Counsel Moviegoers on How to Use Credit Cards
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
RSS FEED
Text Size 
CNBC Correspondent
You'd be hard pressed to find an industry harder hit the last decade than the record biz. Like mothers warning their daughters for centuries, people stopped buying the cow when they could get the milk for free. As free music became the norm, many wondered who would survive.
Plenty of artists have survived, it's just not as profitable as it used to be, unless you're a legendary band going on tour.
What's happening now is that artists and record labels are creating new revenue models in a huge experiment.
Tommy Lee's experiment may be the riskiest of all.
 |
Getty Images Tommy Lee |
Lee is developing eleven new songs for an upcoming album called "Public Mayhem".
While video games like "Guitar Hero" celebrate classic rock, getting airplay for new rock music is especially difficult.
So Lee and producer Scott Humphrey have put online—for free—the skeletal foundation of the new songs at The Public Record.
One song a week can be downloaded. Then anyone in the world can submit additional instrumental music or vocals. Lee's team listens to each submission and will pick the best to add in what is the biggest global music collaboration in history.
How many submissions have they gotten?
"Thousands," says the veteran rocker, shaking his head in amazement.
In fact, they've had to upgrade their technology to handle all the traffic.
On the Web site you can see some videos of would-be collaborators, including one amazing four-year-old drummer.
The new album will be out early next year. Will anyone buy it, since everyone could get the base songs for free already? "These people are already telling their friends about it," says Lee of the contributors who've been named finalists. These contributors will not be paid, but they will get credit and have bragging rights in saying they were on Tommy Lee's "Public Mayhem".
It is a gamble, but this is rock n roll, right?
One other thing this experience has taught Lee is how vast and varied his fan base is.
He uses Google Analytics to see where submissions are coming from.
Many from the US and Canada, of course, but a lot are from Japan and Argentina!
"Now we know where to tour," Lee says.
Questions? Comments? Funny Stories? Email
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes