Mr Shigs Amemiya and Mr Tobi Wirz founded iMusicianDigital a few years ago. What’s that? A quickly growing-up digital distribution. An electronic label. An exciting chance for many bands and labels. Something new – and, at the same time, absolutely essential in this specific moment - in music industry. Something revolutionary? Maybe. Now, Emergenza is part of it. Let’s take a look to my interesting conversation with iMusician’s CEO. To start with, I would like an introduction on the History of iMusician: which was the idea behind the company, when and why it was founded. "We started off as typical indie industry mix of label-management-publishing with a bit of booking on the side. But with CD sales about 20 – 30% of what it used to be, our core business was suffering though there''s no shame in that... There''s not a single label our there right now not feeling the pinch. We decided to get into digital about 3 years ago but were waiting for the right business model". Tell me why did you choose this particular area (digital musical distribution)? Do you think it is a quickly growing-up economic and artistic field or what else? "We don''t believe CDs will disappear in our lifetime but whereas CDs will continue to sell, we strongly believe that "The Label" will have to change from a CD-centric (with digital on the side) business model to a digital-centric (with CDs on the side) business model. To that end, once the digital industry picks up just a little bit more, iMusician Digital plans to support musicians with advances, assistance with CD manufacturing and filling the role of a traditional label". Which specific goals do you have for iMusician? To me, it seems a really exciting small revolution in music industry: it moves from the magical thought "do it yourself". Don’t wait for a classic – and extinguishing - label distribution, but prove yourself immediately with the digital market. Let’s see what you can do, we’ll help you to do it. Am I wrong? "Well yeah. You have some good points there: musicians have to look after themselves more and more because there''s hardly a label out there that has the cash to build musicians these days. After a few years in the wilderness and doing it on their own, most musicians realize that there is a lot they can do by themselves and that by the time the record deal comes around, they don''t need it anymore. iMusician Digital is part of a rapidly evolving market that didn''t exist 3 years ago". Are people, band, musicians and labels well replying to your services? How many bands and musicians have you enrolled till now? "It''s been the solution so many musicians have been waiting for so we''ve had a terrific response. In Switzerland where we piloted the business model and our procedures, we''ve signed over 300 albums in about 6 months which certainly isn''t too bad considering the size of the market". About the services: explain us in which way iMusician Digital rules the distribution to the most important online music stores like iTunes, Napster, eMusic or Yahoo and to the other ones. And, above all, tell us about the advantages in opening an account on iMusicianDigital.com. Things seem simple. "At present, there are only 3 serious companies who give artists "direct access" to the digital music stores: CD Baby (physical and digital distribution), Tunecore (digital only) in America, and us in Europe. Being American, CD Baby and Tunecore focus mostly on the big American shops - iTunes, eMusic, Napster etc. iMusician Digital being European however, has to put its music on these big American shops as well as the main European shops like Musicload, HMV, Virgin, Fnac etc, so in a sense, is "more international". However, there is one thing that sets us truly apart. At iMusician Digital, we really push you to be as active in the real world as possible because it''s