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VGuitar Central => User Reviews => Topic started by: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 10:41:26 AM

Title: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 10:41:26 AM
Everyone in this forum spends a large amount of time researching new equipment, practicing, and writing music. I am looking for the best solution for online sales of music, on my own website, utilizing Dreamweaver. I would love to know what shopping cart experiences anyone may have, when selling digital downloads for music. It is a bit depressing seeing the number of sales, for 99 cents, and receiving 1 penny for my product(Spotify, etc.). Same old game as record companies, we do the product, and all it entails, and they eat caviar while we have some peanut butter. Getting rich is not the point here, just maximizing profit from selling original music. Too bad this forum doesn't have a music store! I would use it in a heartbeat. So, what shopping cart solutions would my fellow forum members recommend?
Thanks in advance!
PS - I am hoping for a reply such as, "I use ______, and it is great for selling downloads of music."
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: cell7 on April 10, 2013, 12:51:53 PM
Caveat: I do not rely upon my music (I'm creative director for a digital agency) and I certainly don't make a lot of cash from my tunes...but this is what I use and it does ok :)

1. Tunecore.com as a service to deliver (and account for) my music to all digital stores - iTunes, amazon, spotify etc.

2. Bandcamp.com to set up my own digital store where I can specify costs and also use the radiohead model (where people can pay what they want above a certain price)

3. Finding a specialized genre-specific webstore (in my case fixtstore.com) has done very well for me. By targeting the audience that is into my kind of music, I've opened it up to an audience that otherwise wouldn't have found us. I give away a larger percentage (40%) than with iTunes, bandcamp etc but otherwise I don't believe we would have had these sales - and they have been really surprising in comparison to the other channels

Hope this helps!

Edit: just reread your post and I haven't really answered your question! Sorry.
Actually - bandcamp makes a great checkout shopping cart service that you can plug into your site. They take 15% I think...


Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 02:10:23 PM
@cell7
Thanks a lot! I found what appeared to be a great deal, Tunecube, but I emailed them to see what they say about having 4 featured artists that sell their music via Tunecube, and NONE of them are currently using their player....red flag, but I'll wait for their reply. It is great because it is $5 a month, per year, and has unlimited tracks, etc., or a lifetime payment of $149!!!! I will post when I find a great deal, and will look closer at Bandcamp, which I did look at previously.
Thanks again!!!
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: aliensporebomb on April 10, 2013, 02:12:43 PM
I'm using reverbnation for my itunes release but I would not recommend it now since they have switched to what I like to call a "profit off the musicians" based situation.   I pay a yearly fee to keep my music on the itunes store but I probably won't continue this as it seems the amount they want from me yearly has increased and I don't really accrue enough in sales to justify it.  Still, itunes is the big fish of the online music world so I'm reluctant to scuttle it.

Still, if I want to put a new album up I have to pay.  If I want to get more exposure I have to pay.  If I want to get more exposure from their ads I have to pay.
It's one big money gravy train.  One of my associates scuttled his account there altogether.  I have a different possibility.

I'm on iTunes and about two dozen other music stores including Spotify and have had a decent number of sales but I find bandcamp has a better situation:
You keep most of your profit, you find out more about your customers and you have more say in doing things like black friday sales or a sale on your birthday or a day when you feel like giving your customers a break and selling your material for less in the hopes more new listeners approach with wallets in hand.

Presently, I'm happier with bandcamp.  My bandcamp site is at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/ (http://www.aliensporebomb.com/) and I have 1 full length rock production, 2 full length ambient productions, a full length soundtrack for a documentary I did and a couple of short EPs.   To put that up to itunes via reverbnation it would cost me far more than I would ever accrue.  Thinking.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on April 10, 2013, 02:16:57 PM
Some tips here:
http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2013/04/hostbabys-best-web-tips-for-musicians-the-roundup-for-march-2013/ (http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2013/04/hostbabys-best-web-tips-for-musicians-the-roundup-for-march-2013/)


http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2013/03/get-your-music-on-shazam/ (http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2013/03/get-your-music-on-shazam/)

http://members.cdbaby.com/campaigns/request-radio-airplay.aspx?Source=DIY-BLOG-POST&Dest=http://www.pages04.net/discmakers-cdbaby/CDBabyProspects_MASTER/Radio_Airplay_Guide (http://members.cdbaby.com/campaigns/request-radio-airplay.aspx?Source=DIY-BLOG-POST&Dest=http://www.pages04.net/discmakers-cdbaby/CDBabyProspects_MASTER/Radio_Airplay_Guide)

and a good podcast
http://cdbabypodcast.com/2012/01/117-paul-anthony-how-to-license-music-for-tv-film-youtube-and-beyond/ (http://cdbabypodcast.com/2012/01/117-paul-anthony-how-to-license-music-for-tv-film-youtube-and-beyond/)


and

http://www.grassrootsy.com/2011/02/16/cd-baby-or-tunecore/ (http://www.grassrootsy.com/2011/02/16/cd-baby-or-tunecore/)


http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/why-its-still-hard-to-discover-new-music-online-and-how-we-can-fix-it/ (http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/why-its-still-hard-to-discover-new-music-online-and-how-we-can-fix-it/)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 02:17:19 PM
@aliensporebomb
Thanks very much! Thatbmakes 2 Bandcamp recommendations. I'll check out your store.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 02:24:19 PM
Thanks Elantric! Cd Baby is who I am using now, and though it is not their fault, I had recent sales of 54 songs, and made a little over $10 !!! They send out your songs to all of the big electronic players, and actually iTunes paid the most. Pirates ( i.e. music companies) complaining about piracy. Some things just never change. Thanks again, I'll read the link info.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on April 10, 2013, 02:47:50 PM
http://www.grassrootsy.com/2011/02/16/cd-baby-or-tunecore/ (http://www.grassrootsy.com/2011/02/16/cd-baby-or-tunecore/)


http://www.mondotunes.com/mondotunes-vs-tunecore-cdbaby (http://www.mondotunes.com/mondotunes-vs-tunecore-cdbaby)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Kevin M on April 10, 2013, 03:50:15 PM
Good info guys!  I'm working on my first full-length album (nearly done with the writing process) and will definitely make use of this. Could this be 'stickied' somewhere?
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 04:17:54 PM
Hey Folks,
    When I first looked at Tunecube, and could not see a player on any of their featured artists' pages, I was using an iPad. However, when I went to a desktop, the player showed up on each webpage. An interesting observation, as I went to each artist's website - they had the full length of each song in their Tunecube player, and because I use multiple sound cards, I could steal every song, if I wished. So, I told the staff at Tunecube.com about this, and queried about using excerpts for the player, and they replied within 5 minutes, that a preview can be set at 30 seconds or 1 minute. I did read that this particular player has a history of crashes, but this could easily be disinformation from a competitor. So, I think I am going to bite on this one, and anyone else who writes music should check it out. It is VERY inexpensive to subscribe to, and you receive 100% of sales, no matter how many sites you put the player/store on., and this can be placed on all social media sites as well. When you check a song and hit "Buy", it goes directly to Paypal, and you can also return back to your website.
I will still be open to any other suggestions from anyone, but this looks very promising. I hope this is a practical thread for everyone here.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: cell7 on April 11, 2013, 02:10:37 AM
Just to be clear - my recommendation isnt to use just one of the distribution channels, but ALL of them. Choose between cdbaby or tunecore to get the tracks in all the stores, get yourself a bandcamp [completely free] and do your own website.
If you want to use another service to sell via your own website then fine, but I like the option of bandcamp handling all my own sales outside of the big stores. Also, i can use it as the player and engine to sell through facebook, plus i get a number of sales through people simply browsing around the bandcamp site. Plus... it doesnt use flash so it works on mobiles/tablets unlike tunecube :) Ok i sound like a cracked record, but i like bandcamp so much that i redirected our main URL [www.cell7.com (http://www.cell7.com)] straight to the bandcamp page because it is so simple and effective.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: cell7 on April 11, 2013, 03:26:35 AM
Quote from: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 04:17:54 PM
An interesting observation, as I went to each artist's website - they had the full length of each song in their Tunecube player, and because I use multiple sound cards, I could steal every song, if I wished. So, I told the staff at Tunecube.com about this, and queried about using excerpts for the player, and they replied within 5 minutes, that a preview can be set at 30 seconds or 1 minute.

I would also advise to not worry about whether a song can be stolen or not. There are a million ways to steal any audio from any site or player, or download it via torrent or whatever. If someone wants to steal it, they can.
I think the days of previews and excepts of tracks are finished - they tend to just annoy people now. Let people listen to your songs, and if they like it enough they can pay to download them.
*my 2 cents*
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: montyrivers on April 11, 2013, 06:56:04 AM
Quote from: cell7 on April 11, 2013, 03:26:35 AM
I would also advise to not worry about whether a song can be stolen or not. There are a million ways to steal any audio from any site or player, or download it via torrent or whatever. If someone wants to steal it, they can.
I think the days of previews and excepts of tracks are finished - they tend to just annoy people now. Let people listen to your songs, and if they like it enough they can pay to download them.
*my 2 cents*

If you want money play shows and (if you develop a following) sell t shirts, ladies' underwear is also a hit.

In all seriousness original music doesn't create any tangible income.  It's all about getting paid to play, merchandising and (if you're lucky) endorsements.

Even then if you look at the gross profit across the entire music industry it hasn't seen any growth whatsoever since theb1960's.  It's the same amount of money except it's strewn about.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: aliensporebomb on April 11, 2013, 07:33:40 AM
I've found some of my favorite artists ever by just hearing some piece of music during a podcast and sometimes they don't announce who or what it is.

The application "Shazam" for smartphones as well as the application "Soundhound" can sometimes let you know what a piece is like that but sometimes I just stumble into an amazing independent group.  That's where I usually try to buy whatever it is they are selling.  A good example was http://www.mohodisco.com/ (http://www.mohodisco.com/) which was
just a great little project Bruce White put together. 

I realize that my stuff will be stolen.  Heck, the day after my first original solo CD was out it was up on the original napster the same day and people were downloading it.  I'm just hoping that exposure lead to someone liking my stuff enough to buy it.  If not, well, at least it was heard.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on April 11, 2013, 08:26:48 AM
QuoteThe application "Shazam" for smartphones as well as the application "Soundhound" can sometimes let you know what a piece is like that but sometimes I just stumble into an amazing independent group.  That's where I usually try to buy whatever it is they are selling.

Using iPhone and SoundHound, I buy a lot of stuff with its links to iTunes.

In the Android world, Shazam and Amazon Music functions the same


QuoteI'm just hoping that exposure lead to someone liking my stuff enough to buy it.  If not, well, at least it was heard.

Maybe a Film Director will hear one of your tracks, feel its perfect to set the mood for his film.

One of my old drummers in LA is  Cliff Matrtinez - who was first on his block with a Prophet 2000 sampler in 1986
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_Circuits_Prophet_2000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_Circuits_Prophet_2000)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampler_%28musical_instrument%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampler_%28musical_instrument%29)


Thru friends, director Steven Soderbergh met Cliff, and handed him a pile of Tangerine Dream LP's he wanted to use as examples of the type of sound he was looking for - and 2 weeks later, Cliff was Hired.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001752/ (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001752/)

The rest is history.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0553498/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0553498/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1)


There are several middle aged guitarists making a decent living from Film Music.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: aliensporebomb on April 11, 2013, 09:24:23 AM
I'm thinking of a guy like David Torn as he's doing a lot of film soundtracks these days in addition to his solo works.

David hangs out at The Gear Page and talks about some of the soundtracks he's done and some you wouldn't expect "Lars and the Real Girl".

Heck, it happened to me doing that documentary.  Now I just need to have more people hear that so they can hire me to do more of it!
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on April 11, 2013, 10:31:43 AM
Just need to find a way to be included in the "discover new music" in the Songza Andoid App.


http://drippler.com/samsung/galaxy_note_ii/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly-2013-04-11T09:00:01+00:00#758625 (http://drippler.com/samsung/galaxy_note_ii/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly-2013-04-11T09:00:01+00:00#758625)


==

Songza: Your Personal Music Concierge
By Hagop Kavafian


With the rise of the Internet, most people have turned to online music solutions, causing many radio stations to lose a significant amount of their audience. In addition to downloading songs on iTunes, on-demand streaming services, such as Spotify, Deezer and Grooveshark, have grown very popular by letting you listen to virtually any track on your mobile phone, provided you pay a monthly subscription.

While these services are very convenient, radios are essentially different in the sense that they play a specific genre without allowing you to make your own playlist. Pandora has tried to recapture this analogue radio concept of letting you pick the genre but not the songs, as it automatically generates playlists based on an artist, genre or composer you select. Songza takes the concept even further: instead of asking you to pick a genre or an artist first, it analyzes context and suggests playlists accordingly.

Like the article? You should subscribe and follow us on twitter.
Concierge: Context-Aware Playlists

The first time you launch Songza, you'll be asked if you're a socialite and want to connect the app to your Facebook account or create a standalone one instead. Once this formality is completed, you can immediately start using the app. Based on the day and time, Songza suggests activities you could be doing. For instance, a smart guess for Saturday afternoons is doing housework or spending time with your family – or in the case below, saving the world.
Songza suggests activities depending on the context – Yes, saving the world is one of my daily activities!

Songza suggests activities depending on the context – Yes, saving the world is one of my daily activities!

After you select an activity, Songza will present you with a list of various genres that are likely to correspond to what you're doing. Once you pick the one you're in the mood for, your selection is narrowed down to three playlists, which usually correspond to six genres: tap one and put your headphones on!
Picking a genre based on an activity

Picking a genre based on an activity

While listening to a playlist, you can pause or skip a track and give the song a thumbs up or thumbs down, which will help Songza learn your music preferences and provide you with customized playlists and tracks in the future. It's worth mentioning the application integrates perfectly with Android, as it lets you perform these actions right from the notification bar. It also has the option to share the playlist with your friends or buy the song on Google's Play Store, if you'd like to listen to it on demand.
Songza displays the album cover both in the app and the notification bar

Songza displays the album cover both in the app and the notification bar
Manual Selection of Playlists

If you would rather select a playlist manually, Songza has you covered: you can either browse Popular playlists – Trending, Featured and All Time – or look for personalized recommendations using the Explore option. The latter breaks down playlists by Genre, Activities, Moods, Decades, Culture and Record-Store Clerk, and if for some reason these options weren't enough, you can tap the Search icon and find playlists featuring your favorite artists.
Exploring playlists

Exploring playlists
Make It Yours

In addition to remembering your ratings, Songza lets you favorite playlists you like. It also keeps track of your recent playlists and activities, which allows the app to present you with personalized suggestions next time you use it. Because it syncs with the cloud, your preferences are stored across platforms – I'm always delighted to find my favorite and recent playlists on my iPad after listening to them on my Android phone!
Popular and Personal Playlists

Popular and Personal Playlists

If you connect Songza with Facebook, you'll also have the option to view the playlists your friends listen to and share yours with them. Lastly, a nice feature worth mentioning is the Sleep Timer, which lets you program when the app should stop playing and let you sleep peacefully.

You'll also be happy to note that Songza features a beautiful tablet-optimized interface, that makes full use of the landscape orientation in tablets.
Conclusion

Songza clearly has an interesting vision on how and when to deliver the right music at the right time. It learns to suggest the appropriate playlists based on what you are likely to do at a specific time. Using the application when working out, for instance, is a real pleasure: it knows what genre to play without you having to touch your phone or change tracks – unless you really don't like a song, that is. I personally believe Songza and Pandora are both great solutions and are not meant to replace each other.

Even though the application is only available on the American and Canadian Play Stores, it does work outside of these countries. This is delightful, as you can still use the app when working out at your hotel gym during a business trip, for example, something you can't do with Pandora...
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Les on April 18, 2013, 06:12:40 AM
Quote from: thebrushwithin on April 10, 2013, 02:24:19 PM
Thanks Elantric! Cd Baby is who I am using now, and though it is not their fault, I had recent sales of 54 songs, and made a little over $10 !!! They send out your songs to all of the big electronic players, and actually iTunes paid the most. Pirates ( i.e. music companies) complaining about piracy. Some things just never change. Thanks again, I'll read the link info.
One thing worth noting is the difference between music collectors, music buyers and music consumers.

Music consumers are everywhere but although they are probably the largest segment of the market, I doubt that they are a good source of income from music sales.  They likely own some mp3s and a few CDs but they probably get most of their music from radio or online streaming or copying from friends. 

I use the term music buyers to refer to people who actually purchase most of their music but do so based on "the whim of the day" -- that is, they hear a song they like so they buy it -- but they don't necessarily follow any one artist or buy albums or have significant favorites, etc.  And they probably treat music as "disposable" -- i.e., when their IPod gets full or they haven't listened to a song in quite awhile, they probably just delete stuff and move on.  They represent a lot of music sales but how many songs you will actually sell to any one of them isn't a bright prospect.  There are a lot of musicians hawking songs compared to the number of buyers. 

Music collectors, on the other hand, buy music regularly but tend to have "band loyalty" (as opposed to "brand loyalty" :) ).  I am a music collector.  Like most that I know, I tend to be a "complete-ist" (i.e. I find an artist I like and I want to own their complete catalog).  I watch my favorite artists for new material.  I do my best to support them in both sales and attending live performances where I can and for my favorites, I do my best to promote them to others.  And while I do not know how I compare in this regard to other collectors, I almost never buy mp3s.  I like CDs.  I like having the whole album rather than just one song.   I like the artwork.  I like having something tangible, not just a recording.  And when I want to promote them to my friends, I can buy a stack of CDs and hand them out -- not something I can conveniently do with MP3s.  Most collectors I know are mainly CD collectors as well, but I don't know if that is typical.  There aren't a lot of collectors, relatively speaking, but if they like your music, they will likely be among your best customers.  Record labels have never catered to collectors because the size of their markets are so large and their catalog of artists so vast that they can do just fine marketing to music buyers.  Individual artists on the other hand would probably do a lot better to try to court collectors rather than buyers.  I don't necessarily know how one does that, but in my case an excellent first step is to sell CDs.

- Les
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 18, 2013, 07:04:46 AM
After much soul searching on the subject of musicians being paid a pittance for their creative work, I realized that this is just the world we live in. I complain about receiving 1 penny for a song that costs 99 cents, and then I realize that most of my recording tools were assembled by Chinese slave labor, where the people get almost nothing for working on an assembly line, making these gadgets for us to compute our music on. Perhaps it is karmically fitting that the end user makes very little money...
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: LPHovercraft on April 18, 2013, 12:08:29 PM
ReBeat Digital. Keep 85% of online sales. They just added CD on Demand through Amazon. Highly recommended.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 18, 2013, 01:32:19 PM
Thanks! I'll check it out!
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: montyrivers on April 19, 2013, 06:45:19 AM
Quote from: thebrushwithin on April 18, 2013, 07:04:46 AM
After  much soul searching on the subject of musicians being paid a pittance for their creative work, I realized that this is just the world we live in. I complain about receiving 1 penny for a song that costs 99 cents, and then I realize that most of my recording tools were assembled by Chinese slave labor, where the people get almost nothing for working on an assembly line, making these gadgets for us to compute our music on. Perhaps it is karmically fitting that the end user makes very little money...

Eff that!!  My Carvin is made in the USA!  My Roland gear is made in Japan!  I want return of investment!  I support a well payed, skilled labor force!  This s**t is expensive.   ;)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 19, 2013, 06:55:58 AM
Where is your computer made?
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: montyrivers on April 19, 2013, 08:14:46 AM
I think you're missing the tongue in cheek nature of my reply, sir-  But since you asked.  I built it from parts.  The motherboard, heatsink and ram are from Thai based companies.  The case is a Rosewill, and I don't know where Intel made their Core2 processors.  Power supply is an Earthwatts, not sure where that's made.  MSI Graphics card with nvidia chipset. 
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on April 19, 2013, 09:57:31 AM
Yes, I thought you might be serious.. :o.. my real point is that we should all be conscious of cheap labor, being used to make our recordings possible, ie computers. As a result, it seems musicians are also considered "cheap labor". Globalization has turned artists' works into commodities, where only the consumer benefits, mostly without regard of the work that goes into it. And of course, corporations are the kings that care nothing about any of the work force they profit from. Don't get me wrong, I am certainly not a "buy American only" guy. Workers of the world should all make a decent living wage!
.....He said as he typed the message on a Chinese iPad..... ;)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: montyrivers on April 21, 2013, 02:10:20 PM
Actually, you don't have to feel so bad about that ipad.  In recent years, apple has been bringing more and more of their labor stateside.  Apple employees are also paid fairly well (even their retail positions).

Also, we must consider the fact that music is intellectual property, and we all know that in this day and age you can't really buy sell and trade in information without having it pirated.  Even worse is that emerging artists are disenfranchised by the hobbling corporate legacy left behind by the previous generation.  It's hard to gain recognition amidst the rehashed classic rock and "mainstream" throw together groups, and even that doesn't mean you'll make money as a result.

Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Toby Krebs on May 29, 2013, 08:12:31 PM
Read the Dave Mathews band story. He kept doing exactly what he wanted to do with the band and instrumentation he wanted to do it with.Every "record" company turned him down until he started selling out 20,000 seat theaters. Then they each took him out to dinner one after the other and offered him a "record" deal. He responded by asking"What do I need you guys for?" after which a bidding war for his music broke out. True story.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Kevin M on May 29, 2013, 09:42:37 PM
Quote from: Toby Krebs on May 29, 2013, 08:12:31 PM
Read the Dave Mathews band story. He kept doing exactly what he wanted to do with the band and instrumentation he wanted to do it with.Every "record" company turned him down until he started selling out 20,000 seat theaters. Then they each took him out to dinner one after the other and offered him a "record" deal. He responded by asking"What do I need you guys for?" after which a bidding war for his music broke out. True story.

Probably helped that he had an amazing cast of musicians surrounding him!  Great band, interesting bit of info!
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on May 30, 2013, 06:01:18 AM
I did follow some great advice, on this thread, and went with Bandcamp. Love it! It tied right in to my website, made it look like another page on my website. Within the first day, I was approached by a media licensing company, that checked it out. Good start! Love the Bandcamp protocols as well, as I can upload flac files, and they will put it for sale in all formats, with virtually unlimited upload capacity. Thanks for the suggestions, friends!!!
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: cell7 on May 31, 2013, 03:20:03 AM
Nice one! Good luck with it.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on July 19, 2013, 04:03:15 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/18/thom-yorke-atoms-for-peace-spotify-soundhalo (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/18/thom-yorke-atoms-for-peace-spotify-soundhalo)



RadioHead's Thom Yorke's  Atoms for Peace slam Spotify – but back Soundhalo app

Radiohead frontman's band pulled their albums from streaming music services, but will be selling gig videos direct to fans

Fans of Atoms for Peace can't listen to their albums on Spotify and other streaming music services, after Thom Yorke's other band withdrew their back catalogue earlier in the week in protest at payouts to musicians.

Other digital music services are more to the band's liking though. Next week, Atoms for Peace will be selling audio and video of two gigs at London's Roundhouse venue during the performances, making each song available shortly after its performance.

The band have teamed up with British startup Soundhalo, which launched earlier this year with a similar partnership with Mercury Music Prize-winning band Alt-J.
http://soundhalo.com/ (http://soundhalo.com/)
Fans will be able to download and play the Atoms for Peace live tracks and videos through Soundhalo's website, or its apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

It costs £9.99 to pre-order an entire set from one of the two sold-out gigs through Soundhalo, compared with the £49.50 (plus booking fees) it would have cost to buy a ticket to one of the concerts.

Band-member and producer Nigel Godrich – whose tweets ignited the row over Spotify payouts earlier in the week – claimed that selling official audio and video of gigs provides an alternative to user-generated footage elsewhere on the web.

"Part of the reason soundhalo was interesting to me was that I found myself wondering why, whenever you go to a gig, the next day there are a million shaky, horrible sounding YouTube videos already online," he said.

"But you go and look because you want to see something of your experience. Soundhalo provides something really functional – an experience that you want to remember in front of you as soon as the concert has happened. To be able to relive that is a really great thing."

Godrich and Yorke have continued to respond to criticism and questions of their stance on Spotify and its streaming-music rivals over the course of this week.

"Not enjoyed being target for facile mudslinging we've the right to discuss and optout of #Spotify. debate is important," tweeted Yorke on Wednesday, with a link to fellow artist Sam Duckworth's article for the Guardian criticising Spotify.

Godrich has focused more on retweeting supportive comments and links to articles backing the band's stance, even as Spotify execs have been retweeting messages of support and articles backing them.

Spotify has also published a report by its director of economics Will Page using the Netherlands as a case study to prove that streaming music services have eaten into piracy much more than they have cannibalised legal sales there.

The company remains embroiled in the debate sparked by Atoms for Peace around its value for new artists, but the band's Soundhalo partnership may provide inspiration for those peers in two other ways.

First, it's a reminder that there are more opportunities than ever for bands to work directly with technology startups, rather than purely leaving these kinds of deals to their labels.

Second, that while sales (and streams) of recorded music remain the biggest source of income for most musicians, there are a growing number of other ways to make money from their music.

Selling digital access to concerts isn't a new trend, from pay-per-view webcasts and subscription-based services like Concert Vault, through to websites like Nugs.net where bands including Metallica, Pearl Jam and the Black Crowes sell MP3s of their concerts.
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: thebrushwithin on July 20, 2013, 09:52:13 AM
Nice article, and I am not surprised that Radiohead, always innovative, are setting an example for others in the business. Thanks for posting!
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: GtrGeorge on September 21, 2013, 07:33:36 PM
Re The Dave Mathews Band story...
that is always the case  ..don't ask anyone to do anything for you...just build build build and if anyone comes along, scrutinize their offers..to quote Frank Zappa back in like 1981 "Record Companies can't do anything for me that a Bank can't".  Think about it.
               GtrGeorge
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on May 29, 2014, 04:51:28 PM
http://bgr.com/2014/05/29/apple-beats-music-royalties/ (http://bgr.com/2014/05/29/apple-beats-music-royalties/)





Apple on Wednesday confirmed it plans to purchase Beats for $3 billion, just as rumored in previous weeks. But the deal isn't necessarily good news for all music creators, Bloomberg reports, especially for smaller artists who fear that Apple's music streaming service will negatively impact their earnings.

Cellist Zoe Keating told the publication that Apple iTunes sales netted her $38,196 last year, while sales from three other download services accounted for about $34,000. Meanwhile, streaming from five different services, including Spotify and Pandora, only brought in $6,381.

"iTunes downloads help me pay my monthly mortgage," the artist said. "Unless you're a mega-star, you can't count on the same for streaming services. Me and a lot of my music artist friends are worried about the switch from music buyers to music listeners."

''Something we've been waiting for and something we've been dreading is the day when Apple gets into streaming," she added. "If they can get the fact across they care about the artist, want to get their story told and still make purchasing of tracks possible, that's all anybody'd want."


Meanwhile, Apple's Eddy Cue said that Beats will make Apple's lineup even better, "from free streaming with iTunes Radio to a world-class subscription service in Beats, and of course buying music from the iTunes Store as customers have loved to do for years."

This isn't the first time musicians have complained about the royalty rates paid by music streaming businesses, which are higher than conventional radio on a per-listen basis.

Indie rock band Cracker's David Lowery last June revealed that he received $16.89 for a song that was played 1.16 million times on Pandora. Spotify, which played the song 116,260 times, paid him $12.05. During the same time, Sirius XM paid him $181, while terrestrial radio paid him $1,522, according to documents posted on his website.
http://thetrichordist.com/2013/06/24/my-song-got-played-on-pandora-1-million-times-and-all-i-got-was-16-89-less-than-what-i-make-from-a-single-t-shirt-sale/ (http://thetrichordist.com/2013/06/24/my-song-got-played-on-pandora-1-million-times-and-all-i-got-was-16-89-less-than-what-i-make-from-a-single-t-shirt-sale/)

Meanwhile, Pandora disputed Lowery's claims saying that it paid a total of $1,370 for the song, of which $585 went to the band after fees, of which $234 reached Lowery, including songwriting and performing fees. Pandora also said that terrestrial radio only paid him songwriting fees, but not royalty rates for also performing the song.

Pandora told Bloomberg it paid more than $340 million in royalties to rights holders last year, while Spotify paid $500 million during the same period.

However, music streaming won't generate enough revenue to compensate for the declining music purchases in the near future.

"The question everyone in the industry is asking is whether spending on streaming will grow to compensate for declines in physical spending, which will never rebound, and downloads, which are flatlining," Strategy Analytics analyst Leika Kawasaki said.

The firm expects worldwide music revenue to decline in the next few years from an estimated $19.6 billion. Mobile and online streaming services will become the second-largest revenue source behind physical album purchases according to Strategy Analaytics.



More thoughts here:
http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/respect-act-soundexchange-takes-steps-to-protect-artists-from-sirius-xm-and-pandora/ (http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/respect-act-soundexchange-takes-steps-to-protect-artists-from-sirius-xm-and-pandora/)
http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/ (http://musictechpolicy.wordpress.com/)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on June 11, 2014, 11:54:02 AM
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/06/age-beats-spotify-winners-opportunities/#more-33686 (http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/06/age-beats-spotify-winners-opportunities/#more-33686)

In the Age of Beats and Spotify, Winners – and Opportunities
BY PETER KIRN
iphone-now-playing-spotify
There is an accelerating transformation of music listening; that much is clear. And if you change the way people listen, you will change the way people produce. So who and what wins in this brave new world? Let's consider.
The month of May brought still more signs of tectonic shifts, with Apple buying Beats and Spotify showing no signs of slowing. The Apple acquisition of Beats can't really be measured in dollars, because Apple has so much cash on-hand. (US$150 billion – and expect that dry powder to start getting loaded into cannons.) At least unlike Facebook or Google, Apple doesn't just randomly burn that cash on speculative purchases – you know, like Oculus Rift or robots. So this is really about strategic value, given they've waited this long to touch their war chest.
Apple with Beats, of course, combines two leaders in a whole mess of categories; it's obvious, but it's worth saying again. Apple makes the most popular computers for producing music, the most popular mobile device for playing music, the most popular computer software for listening to music, and the most popular store for buying music downloads. Beats makes the most popular hardware accessory for listening to music, and while they don't have the most popular streaming service, they've got perhaps the closest relationship to the music industry of any streaming service. (Remember, Apple's last acquisition got them ... NeXT, and Jobs. This time, they get Jimmy Iovine, a veteran of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, and loads of connections from both Dre and Iovine to the music scene in LA.) Beats are a huge player, whether you like them or not.
Then there's Spotify. No one else doing streaming is currently playing in the same league – not even Apple – and streaming continues to grow as download sales continue to sink. (35% growth in streaming versus a 13% drop in sales, as in the USA? Yeah, like that.) Add to that the appearance of Spotify in very-usable form in DJ apps (in the form of Algoriddim's djay), and – relevant to us music makers, anyway – there's something big going on.
Here are, I think, the winners in that landscape:
The whole consumer widget. Consumer listening – hardware, software, and service all together.
Streams for everyone. Streams for listeners and casual DJs.
Pros for the stuff you don't stream. Downloads, physical media, and production-friendly tools for more serious DJs, enthusiasts, and producers.
Humans. The ongoing power of the human being.
In other words, music just got a lot more holistic and a lot more human than ever – even against the backdrop of music as a service as available as electricity or running water. You need everyone from good, quirky DJs to branding specialists and industrial designers, and everyone matters. So strap in.
Yeah, those. But there's something to the ubiquity of this logo. Only Apple and Sony have done it before quite like this. Photo (CC-BY) pooliestudios.
Yeah, those. But there's something to the ubiquity of this logo. Only Apple and Sony have done it before quite like this. Photo (CC-BY) pooliestudios.
Winner: the consumerization of music listening. Complain all you like about the quality of Beats headphones. They've captured the imagination of the public in a way no other brand can – not Shure, not Sennheiser, not any of your favorite brands. (Not that that's stopped respected makers like Audio-Technica from doing brightly-colored cans for retail in the hope of getting in on the action. Look at DJ headphones, and your local music store now looks more like Best Buy than ever.)
There just isn't a brand that says headphones to people – not other than Beats. Beats have done that, and convinced consumers to pay premium price for mobile listening, something that only Apple and Sony have done before. That's no small accomplishment. Remember, most kids today have no idea who Dr. Dre is. This is the power of the brand Beats now – and Dre deserves some serious credit for fighting to make that happen.
The upshot in all of this is that brands matter; consumer impact matters. And you'll notice one brand in each category: Apple. Beats. Spotify. This isn't Coke versus Pepsi. It's Coke, and then some small niche players (a nice bottle of organic Cabernet for the specialists, sold in small batches).
Winner: those Beats headphones. Sorry, but that also means you're going to keep seeing those headphones. (Apple Store placement has probably helped that over the years, too.) And, hey, they're actually not that bad. A CDM reader who works for Beats quietly handed me a white pair of Beats Studio headphones at Musikmesse last year. To my surprise, they're actually rather good in terms of sound, they're insanely rugged (more so than my studio headphones), and reasonably comfy, if rather heavy; I've even traveled with them to give my ATH-M50s a rest. These aren't the same Beats made by Monster, the company's earlier partner, some of which were absolutely horrible. They're fine.
Would I recommend them to someone? No. You can get a significantly better-sounding pair of headphones for literally half the price. But that comes back to the marketing issue. I'm betting a lot of people who buy Beats haven't ever tried the other headphones. Be glad they're listening to your music on these and not white earbuds.
Spotify
Winner: Spotify – and streaming. Apple's investment is a second vote of confidence in streaming – on top of iTunes Radio. Otherwise, they could have simply bought some headphone manufacturer and stuck their logo on it, and that's not what they're doing. And the numbers don't lie: people are streaming more, downloading less. That trend should only accelerate as Internet access, both wired and wireless, gets faster.
Spotify wins even with Apple buying Beats, because it validates their market-leading position – which means they can get more capital if they need it, and their value has gone up in any future acquisition deal. Paradoxically, I think that means Apple buying Beats guarantees the future of Spotify – they've already got the mindshare, the listeners, the subscribers, the music collection, and now they're valuable enough that it's hard to imagine anything driving them out of business, at least for now. The only wildcard is if Apple finds some ingenious way to build a better streaming tool. But if Tim Cook is to believed, Beats has done that already – and it hasn't made much of a dent in Spotify's listeners.
With Spotify's future secure, and with Apple investing in streaming, no amount of wishing on the part of artists or labels can make the streaming model go away. And that means –
Drip
Winner: Music as service. The success of streaming doesn't have to mean the end of downloads, but it most likely will mean a change in how people buy those downloads. Downloads will still be the medium of choice for serious DJs, for audiophiles, for collectors. But all those markets are streaming these days, too, which means they're likely to expect to be able to get those downloads via a service. That's why Drip.fm, the startup from the folks behind Ghostly International, makes sense – and why they're signing cool labels at such a speed. By providing a "wine of the month"-club model for your favorite artists and labels, they allow those aficionados hooked on music to pay a monthly fee for a steady stream of their favorite work. (Another clever idea: Hyperdub offers a member card that gets you guest list to events along with downloads.)
beatportpro
Winner: Downloads for "pro" DJs (for now). Serious DJing is likely to remain the one haven for downloaded files – for now. Licensing rules mean that no DJ app appears to be able to access music from a streaming service offline — yet. Slow access, especially in clubs (called "underground" for a reason), means you'd have to be nuts to rely on a streaming connection to DJ any serious gigs – yet. All these variables could change in the future, but you've got to gig this weekend, so that doesn't matter.
That also means download sites (like Beatport) that cater directly to the DJ market and dance music fans are likely to thrive. See also: labels' own stores. (Now's the time to invest in making those things you'd want to actually use.) And Bandcamp looks great for the same reason, especially as artists discover labels are too oversaturated to take on more artists.
The importance of iTunes, however, might continue to shrink, unless Apple figures out smarter ways of driving download sales from streams. (iTunes Radio actually works beautifully in this regard, but the problem is no one uses iTunes Radio, and the radio itself is poor — too many repeated tracks. Maybe a Beats/iTunes mash-up will solve that; we'll see.)

Winner: Internet-connected DJing. All of this said, streaming DJs are going to be a thing, too. If you're playing a wedding, or a friend's party, or a small bar, or any number of casual gigs that make up a huge part of the DJ market, streams start to make sense. The pressure is lower in those situations, it's more likely you can check for a reliable Internet connection in advance, and the importance of requests is greater.
All that was missing was an app that made DJing with streams nearly as easy as playing from Spotify. Algoriddim's djay is that app. I expect other DJ app developers like Native Instruments and their immensely popular Traktor on iPad to follow soon. It's also clear that streams pair nicely with mobile DJing.
Minus Records jewelry. Okay... maybe. Something physical, though.
Minus Records jewelry. Okay... maybe. Something physical, though.
Winner: Tangible music. The more downloads shrink, the more vinyl and other physical releases will start to look appealing. And actually, with computers streaming music, it seems at least some DJs will win back dance floor respect by looking to vinyl. Maybe Pioneer really is going to make a turntable. Not everyone can go the vinyl route, so expect more other creative physical products – books and color photos, for instance, still retain value even with digital counterparts, because you flip through them and set them on coffee tables. Music has a different problem: arguing about analog versus digital aside, the reality is that everything eventually reaches a speaker.
Can you expect these to be a significant revenue source? Frankly, in a lot of cases, no. But you can expect a lot to try, and some artists and labels will find some winning formulas, especially if they have the right fans and the right designs behind those tangible goods.
Yes, this is happening. Products like "sounds" at Beatport, for producers, may eclipse track downloads - while the listeners go streaming.
Yes, this is happening. Products like "sounds" at Beatport, for producers, may eclipse track downloads – while the listeners go streaming.
Winner: Stems, samples, apps, content. With pros gravitating toward downloads as consumers go streaming, it also makes more sense than ever to sell a release to other producers. Beatport's Sounds section is already growing fast – and could be what that business needs to protect itself against the growing incursion of streaming, even into DJ apps. The DJ market itself continues to grow. And these formats provide content that streams can't; I don't imagine Spotify or Beats successfully streaming individual stems any time soon, nor would any sane artist or label release them to them. Add in other delivery methods, from custom apps to Ableton sets or Traktor Remix Decks, and you have a spectrum of digital releases that aren't threatened by streams.
Winner: Industry insiders. Bad news: the Internet didn't quite work out the way we expected. It's wound up with kingmakers, just as radio and record labels once had. So, sure, the cost of making music has gone down. But making music was always potentially free: go to a street corner and start singing. Distribution and marketing is what ultimately costs, and the reduction in studio time hasn't changed that. Now, Spotify and Apple are in powerful positions. And they've turned back to that industry to get the biggest, most successful acts. Apple has so much as said in no uncertain terms that they bought Beats partly to get closer to the industry in LA.
beatsmusic_collage
Winner: Human selectors, human personality. Commonly called "curation," I think "selection" and "personality" are better words. A funny thing has happened as computer algorithms for automatically selecting music have gotten better: people realize that the human beings were there for more than just picking the music. What humans can do is both select music and tell a story about it, in a way an algorithm really can't. They also can provide a personality around those selections. Beats has invested heavily in this model, even as Spotify has put more into the algorithms. It hasn't paid off yet, but it could – look how valuable radio still is. (See Evolver on the Beats curators, apart from the celebrity ones.)
Don't get me wrong: I actually enjoy the algorithms. It's like a more interesting take on "shuffle." But the reason radio and hand-picked mixes and podcasts survive is because people don't just want a playlist, they want a person to go with it. They listen to the radio because it keeps them company. And the more machine algorithms dominate music, the more they may long for that company as a point of differentiation and a way of enriching the experience.
So, the flipside of the staying power of insider industry culture is something more positive: the human DJ matters more than ever.
A must-read that sums up a lot of these trends. BBC's Radio 1 today exemplifies the new breed. It's radio, and it's popular for the reasons radio has always been popular. It has human selectors. They are still kingmakers, still mass-media. They still work with power brokers, even if that landscape is transposed. We're talking mass media – but mass media on the Internet, driven by statistics in followers on YouTube and the like.
Radio 1?s playlist secrets uncovered: the battle of the 'brands'
Windows of opportunity. And that to me is the bottom line.
The early days of the Internet came with a lot of illusions. We imagined indie labels and artists would blossom. They did – but the long tail turned out to get so crowded, those same artists often got lost, and revenue streams shrank and were watered down rather than growing. We imagined big power players would go away. Wrong: the big kingmakers might shuffle about, but a few winners would become more powerful than ever. We thought technology would trend toward greater fidelity. It didn't – not exactly. We imagined quality, in our own eyes, would always win out. That's always naive.
But there are cracks through which the independent artist and label can survive. The explosion in production and DJing is one. For all that people complain that DJing and making tracks has gotten too easy, that might create the very enthusiast audience that saves a lot of music. It just means that musicians are the ones consuming. Another is the fact that the more our musical world tends to machines producing intangible music that switches on like radio, the more people may seek out human beings and physical goods.
The one thing you can't expect is for things to stay stable. It seems that if we want to play in this new musical world, we'd better be up for a challenge.
CDM welcomes your thoughts – and any guest posts on these topics.



http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/06/age-beats-spotify-winners-opportunities/#more-33686 (http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/06/age-beats-spotify-winners-opportunities/#more-33686)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on August 13, 2014, 10:46:11 AM
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/ (http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/)
(https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snapagogo.com%2Fuploads%2Fsource%2F2242014%2F1407951926_576905764_gettingpaid1.jpg&hash=23fd2dfaf6f3c3c51dceb352a7361852618a3037)

(https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.snapagogo.com%2Fuploads%2Fsource%2F2242014%2F1407951925_1861969006_gettingpaid2.jpg&hash=dded6054720f7a1968582bac6977493bb44c5ccc)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on October 01, 2014, 05:49:32 PM
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/09/26/streaming-isnt-saving-music-industry-2014 (http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/09/26/streaming-isnt-saving-music-industry-2014)

Sorry, Streaming Isn't Saving the Music Industry In 2014...
Friday, September 26, 2014
by Paul Resnikoff
According the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), overall recording sales dropped 5% during the first half of this year, despite double-digit gains in streaming revenues.

The situation looks like this:

I. Streaming is booming...
(first-half 2014)

(https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalmusicnews.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F09%2Fstreamingincreases21.jpg%3F638cab&hash=d5eba525f7932305d164c1c5ec988f908c68e379)



II. Everything else is basically collapsing...
(first-half 2014)

(https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalmusicnews.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F09%2Fstreamingincreases2.jpg%3F638cab&hash=f41e4f6983f6b0bdca5c3f24f7619ddf04fda91c)

Title: Re: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Kevin M on October 01, 2014, 09:32:17 PM
Wow...vinyl is on the rise!  The music industry is definitely floundering.  Maybe that explains the increasing presence of talentless clones posing as artists in pop music!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Hurricane on March 20, 2017, 07:08:28 PM
 8)

Quote from: Kevin M on October 01, 2014, 09:32:17 PM
Wow...vinyl is on the rise!  The music industry is definitely floundering.  Maybe that explains the increasing presence of talentless clones posing as artists in pop music!

:-[

Was watching SNL last week and the act they had

- - well - - -

Sucked Big Time

All the major TV night shows have a whole lot of nothing burger acts .

EZ :


HR

8)
Title: Re: Best solution for online sales of music?
Post by: Elantric on March 20, 2017, 07:55:54 PM
Where I live it's not aired - thankfully