T-Pain's Nappy Boy Digital not the online experience listeners are looking for
Trent Reznor isn't the only music celebrity getting his digital swerve on by going independent and using download data to plot likely tour stops on Google Earth. Hip-hop and R&B star T-Pain kicked off his own online distrubtion label, Nappy Boy Digital, earlier this month. But the Grammy-winning artist isn't thinking much beyond selling online, argues Markus Robinson of Black Web 2.0, saying that a the site won't thrive without the promised but undelivered social layer, free downloads and other features consumers are beginning to expect. You'd think an artist who depends on technology like voice processor Auto-Tune to stay on key (as evidenced by a live performance with Doug E Fresh) would be more savvy.