Music webisodes back for season 2
Offbeat “Organic Groov” expands to second venue

“Organic Groov,” the unique neo soul and spoken word video webisodes, expands into a second venue, “Digital Funtown,” which combines in-house productions with user-generated content

Wrapping its first season, “Organic Groov,” created by producers Joseph Flowers and Frank Goss, sells featured artists’ music through Amazon Direct, splitting revenue with the musicians.

“Our goal is to be a place where independent and established artists will feel comfortable working with this new model. “We’re not into owning anybody’s rights,” said Flowers, managing partner of marketing and analytics company FLW International, LLC.

“If you have talent we can bring you a huge audience. We want to be the number one outlet in these genres.”

The most successful videos “Organic Groov” currently garner about 100,000 views, although, he lamented, “the bar is so high in the online space. Sponsors want to see a million hits. But if you were to rank a neo soul/jazz show online we’d be in the top five in the country.” www.digitalfuntown.com.

“Organic Groov” promotes its content via social networks and distributes its video through the Limelight and Edgecast networks. They’re looking for a corporate sponsor for the launch of streaming on the site.

Floyd Webb of E22 Digital Filmworks handles video production for “Organic Groov.” Surachai Sutthisasanakul is audio engineer. Corey Mixter edits and shoots.

There are four more episodes left in the first season of Organic Groov. The next episode, featuring saxophonist Audley Reid’s performance, went live Monday, July 20. “As the show gets more traction we’ll do more,” Flowers said.

Flowers came up with the idea for Digital Funtown in 2007. “I thought, ‘we know how to write software,’” he said, “‘why don’t we try to create content and create our own brands?’”

Digital Funtown launched in December 2007 with 19 shows. After refining the site and focusing on the more successful programming, they had their “hard launch” last August.

In March, Flowers partnered with Frank Goss, general manager of Loop Jazz Club CloseUp 2, to create “Organic Groov.”

Flowers, Jamarr Nance, and FLW partner Lana Goldshteyn opened My Soul Café in South Shore in early July. They plan to begin shooting and webcasting performances there in September. “We’re thinking about branching into world music,” Flowers said.

Digital Funtown continues to produce a steady stream of video with actors from Second City, Annoyance Theatre, IO and other venues.

FLW International is at 1147 W. Ohio; phone, 312/239-2174. See —Ed M. Koziarski

Ed M. Koziarski is co-director of the feature film “The First Breath of Tengan Rei”. Email: Ed M. Koziarski