Editor's note: This is the second article in a two-part series about expanding music-related web services.
The concept of Shoutmouth.com was born when Phil Frost '04 and Pete Kennedy, who graduated from Harvard in 2003, found that there was no music news site on the Internet that spanned every music genre.
"We found the demand for music-related information to be huge on the Internet," Kennedy said. "There are people across all sorts of genres getting high search counts. We noticed that there wasn't a site that covered a wide [variety] of music."
After six to nine months of research, Kennedy and Frost launched Shoutmouth.com less than two weeks ago. Shoutmouth.com is the first venture launched by the Kisko Group, Frost and Kennedy's small company outside located of New York City. The site covers news on rock, pop, rap, R&B, country and electronica, and also boasts a less-specific general news section.
In its first week, Shoutmouth.com amassed 1,000 members and published 500 short news stories. It plans to publish an equal amount of stories each week. Five writers make up a Shoutmouth.com's paid writing staff, and each writer makes 20 posts a day. Members of the site can also submit news stories, which are then modified by Kennedy and Frost before they are put up on the site.
The news on the site ranges from the artistic careers to the social lives of the artists. The frequent posting makes it hard for even the most antsy Internet surfers to get bored.
Shoutmouth is a dream come true for music lovers, but users don't have to be music know-it-alls to enjoy the site. Those who partake in a healthy dose of celebrity gossip can also find a home on Shoutmouth.com, although that is not the site's intent. Recent article titles range from "Coldplay have written their best song yet, according to Chris Martin," to "The Police confirm tour of Europe," to "Jared Leto breaks his nose." Most of the articles are written with a tongue-in-cheek tone.
Besides articles, Frost and Kennedy also post many YouTube videos and stream music on the Web site.
While Kennedy and Frost work on technical aspects of the site for the next month, one can only become a member of Shoutmouth.com by invitation. Non-members of the site have access to all of the new articles, but members can comment on stories, suggest news stories and customize preferences so that, for example, only stories about certain artists come up in the "my news" section.
Members' ability to contribute news articles and to comment on pre-existing stories is unique to Shoutmouth.com, as compared to traditional news sites.
"It is part of a larger movement called social news," Kennedy said. "We saw a great opportunity."
Frost got his Master of Engineering Movement degree from Dartmouth, a degree that entails a combination of Tuck and Thayer classes. Kennedy was also a participant in the 2002 Tuck Bridge summer business program.
"I think Shoutmouth.com is a great example of an entrepreneurial company launching a new venture," Frost said. "It might be interesting for some of the Tuck students to use it for a case study."
Ultimately, Kennedy and Frost are excited about the prospect of getting more college students involved in their site. The site has already extended invites to Dartmouth undergraduates to contribute.
"The college audience tends to catch onto these kinds of things," Kennedy said. "We think college students would be good to suggest new bands to follow."
