MP3 STAR HITS THE CHARTS June 16 2000 dotmusic.com Dance act Darude is set to become one of the first MP3.com artists to hit the UK charts. Darude, otherwise known as Finnish 24-year-old Ville Virtanen, first gained recognition when he posted up a 60-second clip of "Sandstorm" on digital music portal MP3.com. The track reached number one in the MP3.com dance charts and hung around the top for a couple of months. Soon, "Sandstorm" was picked up by a couple of record labels and ended up a hit in the Scandinavian clubs. Already a number one in the Finnish dance charts for 16 weeks, the track has been championed by Judge Jules and is now catching on in the UK. And all this from a musician who started out on the Internet. "The Internet is a very good place to make your records public", says Virtanen, the brainchild behind Darude. "I guess I can be an example that it can be done." Darude's page at MP3.com is still active and he has earned $896.19 in advertising-related earnings as a result. But, as Ville explains, you can't go to the site to buy your copy of "Sandstorm": "I removed the full-length tracks because my record company wanted me to do that." However, Darude encourages fans to remix his work and put it online, and plans to make more music available through the Net. "I'd like to put out some one minute demos or something like that because so many people can access it that way. The Net is so easy." comment on this article e-mail this to a friend start a discussion [about i-drive] writing index thoughts dotmusic index musicbank index Problems? Questions? Suggestions? Contact me: mail@tobyslater.com back to top back to home page

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