Canadian Band Could Make Big Money Off Tea Party Name

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A Canadian rock band may not like American conservative politics all that much, but they might soon change their tune — and get plenty of cash.

The band, Tea Party, has Internet business minds chattering, because their band’s site www.teaparty.com has turned into a hot fundraising commodity. Due to the obvious similarities with the political Tea Party movement, the band’s domain name, which they have had since 1993 even though the group split up in 2005 (they got back together for a reunion tour this summer), could go for as much $1 million, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report.

As people search for an online home for the Tea Party, Google helps point them to the band’s site, which boasts the tagline “No Politics … Just Rock and Roll.” Plus, typing the Tea Party URL directly also leads to the band. Stuart Chatwood, the former band’s bassist, tells Businessweek that the (musical) group isn’t a big fan of the (political) group, but is considering auctioning off the domain name, or at least renting it out.

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Pulling in much more than $1 million by selling the name could be a tad optimistic for the band, but it isn’t far-fetched either, experts say. And it would put the group up in the upper echelons of domain selling. Only about 50 domain names have drawn over $1 million, and it’s mostly companies buying up generic names, such as toys.com, diamond.com and beer.com.

If the group does decide to sell, they must hope for either a massive offer from an individual wanting to end the discussion of selling the name or an increasing bidding war from and individual or group hoping to cash in on the domain name’s fundraising potential. All that isn’t a bad deal for a name originally chosen because it was synonymous with getting high and writing poetry, Chatwood says.

The group has already started receiving offers, but hasn’t yet agreed to a deal. Of course, if the group gets too greedy and holds out too long, the value of their domain name could shrink away. And if they let that happen, their planned tour of Australia in February had better go really well.

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Tim Newcomb is a contributor for TIME. Find him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.