Plugola is a free social network and a digital music marketplace for mp3’s and videos. The Web site is strictly setup for independent artists and the music fans who follow the artists.

“When we first began developing the site, in August 2007, there were not many online opportunities for indie musicians to freely manage and market their own music in a controlled environment, not to mention a central fan base to distribute their music to,” said Erik Peterson, president and co-founder. “So we set-out to create a platform where independent artists have full control over their music and can market it to a targeted niche of music fans.”

The site also offers interactive features, which fans can utilize to enhance their online music experience.

“Besides your general social [networking] features , we designed a robust, artist-controlled affiliate program, also known as our ‘Plugging’ feature, to compensate fans for sharing/distributing their favorite Plugola artists’ music,” Peterson explained.

Artists have control over all of the options, from pricing and commissions, to marketing and promotion. The site manages all of the back-end processing and payments, so musicians can focus on their music and distribution.

Plugola was also developed to put members in control of the features that are offered.

“Gone are the days when people are  told what they should like,” Peterson added.

“Featured Artists” are organically ranked based on algorithm of fan activity, so there is no competition with labels and bands with larger marketing budgets.

“Only true talent and the activity it will generate will make artists stand out about the rest,” the co-founder elaborated.

Each member is given a free, completely customizable profile page and an embeddable digital store widget. Profiles include a social events calendar, blog, photo gallery and html. customizable boxes.

All artist tracks and videos are given their own content page along with a sharable single-track player in order to share music on other social networks and Web sites.

Members not only can access a free profile and added features to expose their projects, but they also enjoy a high return for their dowload sales.

“There are no membership, service or setup fees for any of our members,” emphasized Peterson. “We only charge a small 18% of download sales, which is paying artists 82%.”