Farmclub.com Boosts Offerings With Guitar Center Deal.

UNIVERSAL Music Group's groundbreaking online record label -- Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com -- has taken the next step in penetrating the Internet, as the first client to sign up for a new e-commerce service offered by music retailer Guitar Center Inc.

Universal's multifaceted Farmclub unit, through a partnership with Guitar Center subsidiary Musician's Friend Inc. of Agoura Hills, has just launched an e-commerce element on its site, allowing musicians to buy musical instruments and other supplies.

Musician's Friend is already the No. 1 catalog-and-Internet seller of music supplies and instruments in the United States. The deal with Farmclub.com, which when it launched was the first full-blown online effort by a major music company, is a coup for Musician's Friend.

"(Farmclub's) traffic is growing tremendously. They've only been around since February and they have really made a name for themselves," said Robert Eastman, chief executive at Musician's Friend. "We're excited to ride that wave with them."

Farmclub has indeed been something of an online pioneer. It runs a Web site where aspiring stars can upload four music tracks; meanwhile, listeners from around the globe can vote on their favorite songs. Top vote-getting bands and musicians then have a shot at landing deals to perform on a related television show on the USA cable network. Farmclub.com's artist and-repertoire executives also can use the Web site to discover new acts for the unit's physical record label.

Meanwhile, over at Musician's Friend, executives started an affiliate program last September that now allows 20,000 small and medium-sized Web sites to link to www.musiciansfriend.com. Earlier this year, they decided to partner with large, traffic-heavy music content sites to build co-branded e-commerce sites.

That means visitors to the Farmclub.com site can buy merchandise from specially created pages that contain logos from both Farmclub and Musician's Friend. The two companies split the profits from all sales.

Musician's Friend designed and provides the infrastructure for the co-branded site.

Public-Sector Bounty

Though government contracts have dwindled in recent years, particularly in the aerospace industry, two local companies have won contracts with government agencies looking to go high-tech.

El Segundo-based Computer Sciences Corp. has won a $10 million contract to provide computer support services to a major Drug Enforcement Administration unit.

The El Paso Intelligence Center was founded by the DEA but houses officials from about 15 other federal and state government agencies, who coordinate drug, money laundering and immigration law enforcement strategies throughout the Western Hemisphere.

CSC will provide on-site computer support services to the center, and ramp-up and maintain its information systems. But the most exciting part for CSC executives is that they'll be able to work with a group of federal agencies to develop new investigative applications used to collect and process information.

"It's always interesting to get involved in operations where you're seeing your work in action, not just in the computer room," said Bob Kennedy, vice president with CSC's federal sector unit, which oversees government contracts.

While the $10 million contract accounts for only a miniscule portion of the company's business -- CSC had revenues of $9.4 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31 -- the deal brings with it a wealth of potential opportunities for the future.

It's likely that CSC will get the chance to develop applications related to the $10 million contract that were not included in the original deal, Kennedy said. Plus, CSC will get a chance to strengthen its relationships with the 15 or so agencies involved in the intelligence center, which could lead to more projects down the road.

"There are opportunities on this job downstream to work with (these agencies) in a business relationship... looking at how they conduct their business to see if there are efficiencies that can be gained, then finding the information technology to support any changes made to create that efficiency," Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, Santa Monica-based Intelligent Systems Technology Inc. has won $2.7 million in research-and-development contracts from the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, U.S. Navy and the Air Force. Intelligent Systems Technology does not bid on government contracts that supply only the government with products or services. It insists that any government-related work be adaptable for private-sector use.

"These contracts are focused on developing technologies that have huge commercial implications," said Azad Madni, the company's chairman and chief executive.