My good friend Tony's little brother Gian, aka PROF1T, is a talented aspiring music mogul. Like most teens his age, he has a MySpace page where his fans can listen to his tracks and add them to their pages if they are so inclined. According to my oldest and dearest friend Rose (Tony's wife), her tween aged little brother and his elementary school friends are fans of PROF1T. They have him in their Top 8 and listen/download his music. PROF1T also has the good sense to send regular updates in bulletins, comment on his fans pages, and maintain a constant presence online. He's a true indie artist, doing what it takes to get his name out there. I recently noticed a new widget on PROF1Ts page, created by BETA Records. Gian's fans can (for free) have his songs sent to their cell phones. The Beta Records ringtone widget can be embedded into webpages/blogs/and (most importantly) MySpace profiles. I have seen other ringtone widgets online, but most of them were not free and were primarily used for tracking the most popular ringtones. This widget allows anyone with access to a computer the ability to get their songs on phones around the world. If you go to the Beta Records site, you can see the array of free tools they offer members. They have a "charts" area that profiles the "Top 8" artists from several genres. I checked out their blog (which hasn't been updated since Oct 2006) and was disappointed to not see any updates, however a quick Google search unearthed this recent news: Via ENewsChannels - April 23, 2007 "BETA Records Invites Unsigned Artists to Dance, Party, and Interact with Music Industry Executives at the Famed Key Club nvites you to a special event May 1st at the Sunset Strip Key Club as part of MUSEXPO 2007, the annual gathering of the world’s leading music executives, producers, managers, and new media content experts. BETA Records founders Chris Honetschlaeger and Georg van Handel invite all unsigned artists to visit the BETA Web site and join using promo code #90500. Party invitations will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Artists can also attend MUSEXPO 2007 (www.musexpo.net) and can qualify to win a $2,500 BETA Records gift certificate from the Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. Several BETA artists will showcase their talent during the event." It seems like Beta Records is part of a whole wave of online tools giving independent artists more and more ways of getting their music out to their fans, on a global scale. I am curious to see what other web resources Gian uses to build up his fan base. He is quite the entrepreneur and I do not doubt that he will achieve anything he puts his mind to. Gian aka PROF1T, is a great example of how today's tech savvy kids are empowering themselves in ways that were totally unavailable to me (who is only 25). Sheesh! I'm impressed - both by this generation, and the speed of these remarkable advances in making technology accessible to the masses. In Related News This isn't new but for the Nerds who I love so much, via Lifehacker: How to make as many ringtones as you want for free.