ADP Program to Assist New Artists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 18, 2000

Artist Development Program to Assist New Artists

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Arson Group, a new Internet startup specializing in Label Services, has announced the Artist Development Program (ADP). ADP is a new program designed to assist new and emerging artists promote their projects using the Internet.

   ADP participants will receive a website, email list management, MP3 encoding and distribution to major MP3 sites such as MP3.com, Riffage.com, and other high traffic MP3 portals". The Arson Group will also promote the band to online radio and media outlets. The Arson Group will also perform web-marketing services such as search engine placement and viral marketing for participants projects.

   The major labels have stopped engaging in artist development," says Arson Group President Joh Padgett. Were just trying to help the wider music industry by presenting them with better developed artists that will be able to maintain a longer career span than has been the norm for the last several years."

   ADP will be focused entirely in promoting participants via the Internet. The MP3 revolution has changed the face of the music business. Every time someone like Lars Ulrich (of Metallica) goes on record against MP3s he unwittingly sends hundreds if not thousands of people flocking to their computers to find out what the controversy is all about. This can only mean good things for digital distribution," says Padgett. Padgett thinks that the recent controversy over Metallicas suit against Napster, Inc. will boost interest in the budding online music scene. If hes right, that could translate into millions of new audience members searching for music from the Net.

   The ADP program is already beginning to attract participants. After the recent announcement by The Arson Group about their Best of the Net CD series, emails and calls started coming in from bands interested to learn how they could get on the series. We hope that through our ADP program, we will be able to put one of our graduates on our Best of the Net series," says Padgett. Due to the minimum standards for the series, many of the emails and calls we have received have come from artists who dont yet qualify for the Best of the Net series, but can benefit from the ADP program."

   Another key to the ADP program is the career counseling participants will receive while enrolled in the program. Advice on copyright and publishing issues, contract negotiation techniques and performance critiques will help the artists grow professionally and have a better understanding of the nuts and bolts of the business aspect of music.

   Participants will be asked to pay a monthly fee for participating in the program, part of which will be credited toward any future service arrangements made with The Arson Group. The monthly fees paid by participants are mainly to cover our costs. As much as I would like to provide a free service, this is a business after all is said and done," says Padgett.

The Arson Group is in its first round of financing and is currently marketing its business plan to investors for specific project funding. The company was founded in August of 1999 by Joh Padgett and his partner Rodney Campbell and until recently has been funded by their own resources.

         Rodney Campbell has been instrumental in development of Jeepwarehouse.com, a site that has been online since 1996 and is a division of Polo Jeep, a Jeep dealership in Muncie, IN. Joh Padgett has worked in the music business for 13 years serving as President for All Owt Records, a now defunct independent label, as well as Havoc Entertainment, a radio syndication company that folded in 1992. He has also served as Radio Promotion Director for SURF Records, an Indianapolis-based independent label home to such artists as Ma Kelley, Birdmen of Alcatraz, The Magical Attraction of BOOTY and other Indianapolis mainstays of the music scene.

Contact Information

Ian Caruthers
The Arson Group
4717 E. 11th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46201

Ian@arsongroup.com
   
(317) 356-8797 phone
(815) 461-4003 fax