Boston Online – Dick and Bert’s Boston Music Home Page – Interview

Boston Online

Dick and Bert’s Boston Music Home Page

An interview with Brett Fasullo and Richard Marr
by Kerry Joyce

Dick and Bert’s Boston Music Home Page is “one of the craziest sites you’re ever going to see,” according to one of its creators, Brett Fasullo. Judging from the amount of interest Dick and Bert’s has generated, he might be right. The site provides a comprehensive guide to the Boston local music scene. We invited Brett and Richard Marr, (a.k.a. Dick and Bert) over to our office, so we could get a better understanding of Brett’s enthusiasm for the present and future of the World Wide Web.

Do you guys spend a lot of time surfing the Net?
Richard: I’m on-line an average of 60-100 hours per month. Our site consists of 10 major categories and many sub-categories that are always in need of updating. We have 150 band links, many of which we went out there and found, and we designed the rest. Just recently, I found two Boston bands on the BayBank Web Site. I’m constantly out their digging for new information about bands and everything else involved with our site. It takes a lot of time.

So when you find these bands floating around out there, do you then declare: “I hereby discover you in the name of Dick and Bert’s”?
Brett: No, we usually don’t tell the bands anything unless they ask us to update or correct information. We just provide Boston musicians and industry professionals with a link to our site with no strings attached. We are a public service data base.

So bands don’t have to pay to get on Dick and Bert’s?
Richard: Not if you already have your own Web page already floating out there in cyberspace, then we will provide a link. But bands should let us know they are out there. We can’t find everything.

Brett: The only people who pay us are those who don’t have a Web page already. We charge a flat rate of one hundred dollars for the entire year for a Web page, including a sound file.

Do you think the music on the Web is changing the music industry?
Richard: All of the record companies are getting their own Web sites.

Brett: The records comapanies are being forced to do it because they don’t want to be seen as not keeping up with the times, they need to master the technology as it develops.

Has the Internet helped you promote your band, This Is Not Here?
Brett: Yes. We’ve been been solicited by record companies big and small because of what they’ve seen about us on the Net. It gets you out there. A band can get a following outside of their home city without going on tour. Many bands, like ours, are doing very well selling music via the Internet.

Are there any exciting changes or innovations beyond what’s going on today, with music on the Internet, that we can look forward to in the coming months?
Brett: Definitely, Hal Leonard Corporation just bought a substantial interest in Baudway Communications, the company that houses Music World 3, the home of Dick and Bert’s. They will be introducing “Music Interactive” by the end of 1995. It will include music publishers, instrument manufacturers, retailers, band videos, and more. It’s going to be this giant interaction center where products services, and information will be bought, marketed and exchanged, and you won’t have to leave your house.