The Coincidence of Musique
by Brent Crampton
photos by Misha

With the every internet slob to zoo animal coming out with a website, it is no surprise that domain names are hard to come by.

But what are the chances two entrepreneurs would be looking for the same domain name, at the same time, in the same city?

That's what happened when Dan Pieper wanted to start a website for free music downloads, and Ethan Bondelid began a website to promote his electronic music production company.

To break it down, over a year and a half ago, Pieper bought the UltraMusique.com domain, and then soon after, went to buy the EssentialMusique.com domain. Unfortunately, by the time Pieper got to it, Essentialmusique.com it had been bought by Bondelid, just minutes before. Oddly enough, Bondelid originally wanted the website url for his company, Musique, to be Ultramusique.com. Since Pieper had already bought the website, Bondelid went for EssentialMusique and snatched it up just before Pieper could.

Confusing?

It was also confusing to Omaha natives when the two websites came out at the same time. "I had people coming up to me thinking that I was the guy throwing the boat parties" Pieper said. "All along they were just confusing me with Bondelid's company."

Pieper and Bondelid didn't know each other at the time of the domain name incident. As word traveled around, they soon made acquaintances. Strangely enough, both websites were focused on the same types of music, mainly various genres of house with hints of breaks and techno. The difference was they covered different aspects of the industry. According LJ Munz, the web designer for UltraMusique.com, Ultra's main feature was providing high quality mix sets of local and international deejays. Everyone from international deejays such as Carl Cox, Hernan Cantaneo and Sasha, to local guys like Myth, Slick Cell and Glenn Okada. Through the past year, UltraMusique.com has recently gained an hit count of 1,000,000 a month, with most of the traffic coming from an international crowd. Their biggest market, according to Pieper, is coming from Germany, Brazil and Poland. These are just a few of the far-away cities the site is attracting through a grass-roots promoting tactic.

Bondelid's company, EssentialMusique, focused on local events in Omaha. Whether it be weekly events at top notch bars and clubs, or infamous one-offs events like the recent "Something Wicked - Goth Ball," or any of the boat parties, EssentialMusique was the company that brought electronic music into the club scene in Omaha. Bondelid also successfully brought some of Omaha's best talent under one roster, names like Myth, Superstar Dj Lee and Wizzo.

Almost as if the two were destined to be together from day one, EssentialMusique.com and UltraMusique.com have recently merged together under Ultramusique.com. Now with local and international traffic, the promotional company is looking to be very promising.

"Our mission is to make Ultramusique more of a lifestyle web site, rather than just music downloads and events" said Bondelid. With a website focused on people interested in the nightlife, fashion, art and music scene, they are striving to bring about a new image and lifestyle, "instead of what's been handed to them," said Bondelid.