Falling asleep during a concert seems nearly impossible.
However, Spencer Simonsen managed to do just that. It wasn't because he was bored. He dozed off from sheer exhaustion.
Simonsen, who was 12 at the time, was so excited to see Dave Matthews Band that he spent the whole night before the concert going through their songs, track by track.
But when he finally attended the show he had been waiting for, his eyes closed, and he was out.
To say music fires Simonsen up is an understatement. That is why Simonsen, an 18-year-old incoming UF freshman, has started his own Web site that will allow both bands and listeners to buy, share and sell music and merchandise.
The nonprofit site is located at Indiemundo.com and allows participating bands to keep all of their earnings. It will be accessible for the first time today.
The site is designed for independent bands "who want to try to do stuff in the music community but aren't quite up there yet or known by other people," Simonsen said.
Musicians have full control over their individual profiles once created.
"You can sell single songs, or you can create virtual albums where you can have a bunch of songs and can sell it to someone for $5 or $10 or any price you set for it," he said.
Regular music browsers will have their own accounts where they can search for music by artist, song name or genre. Users will transfer money through PayPal to an account on Simonsen's Web site in advance of their purchases.
Simonsen scoured the Internet only to find sites that give a percentage of a band's profits back.
"None of them give 100 percent of profits to artists, which I thought would really help the artists," he said.
He has worked tirelessly all summer with his programming partner James Gibson, a high school sophomore from Tampa. He said the team has put in more than 150 hours of work.
The inspiration for the site came to Simonsen one day when he realized he wanted to do something to help bands.
"I enjoy listening to music," he said. "I'd like to hear more independent artists get up there and get known, maybe on our site, and get known by other record labels so they can progress in their journey to get where they want to go, which is published with a major record label."
Simonsen personally funds the site with money he has saved from birthdays. The cost of the site adds up to $100 a year for the Web site and $15 a year for the domain name.
He said all of the time and money he has put into Indiemundo.com is well worth it.
"I just like music," he said.
