Over the last few years, I’ve been talking to clients and members about how to get a core group of your fans to fund your recording sessions by selling pre-order copies and letting folks purchase “executive producer” credits on discs.…
Category
Selling MP3s
Piracy vs. Obscurity
Tim Lee’s got an awesome post about eMusic and its lack of DRM. I’m used to folks’ jaws dropping when I tell them at seminars that they should not worry at all about people ripping off their albums. And, in…
Lefsetz on Downloads: WTF?
Lefsetz has some choice language for record execs that don’t understand why there are still ten illegal downloads of a hit song for each paid download. And he wonders why nobody in the mainstream media’s writing/thinking about why this whole…
CD Baby updates
Thousands of artists use CD Baby’s digitial distribution program to get their music into iTunes, Rhapsody and other digital stores. Today, CD Baby posted a streamlined version of their DD agreement. Among the changes are: improved readability, ringtones and an…
Starbucks Eyeing MP3 Downloads
Looks like Starbucks is moving closer to offering digital music downloads through their Hear Music program, allowing customers to load MP3s directly onto portable players, in addition to CD sales and on-the-spot CD burning: “A lot of our customers are…
The Orchard’s Rebirth Catches the New York Times’ Attention
That Robert Levine spends two pages talking about digital distribution without mentioning the runaway success of CDBaby boggles the mind. However, the article does frame up the interesting position that the Orchard has taken. Instead of focusing on the onesy-twosy…
iTMS Outsells Borders and Tower
NPD figured out that, when you equate 12 singles to one physical CD, iTunes now sells more music than Borders or Tower. See, we told you that record stores were becoming lousy places to try to sell records! iTMS Outsells…
Harvey Danger Explain Their Free Music Download Strategy
They’re eager for folks to enjoy the record, and confident that audiences will support them at shows. [ link via Howard ] Track these topics:
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Leaps Into Digital Music Distribution
Hey, orchestras can be indie artists, too! And the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is launching its own e-label to distribute live recordings of its events. This is an innovative move, because the tight union contracts at most orchestras have made it…
Forget Napster, Forget KaZaA, just Bluetooth those songs like the Europeans Do!
Lefsetz has some insight into today’s Music Managers Forum conference in the UK — sounds like lots of whining with not much in the way of solutions. But he makes two great remarks that independent, working musicians should note: First,…
Snow Patrol’s Manager Issues a Wakeup Call Re: iTunes Royalties
UK music manager Jazz Summers and the Music Managers Forum are sponsoring a mini-conference to spotlight the fact that artists still get a tiny percentage of the profits from digital downloads through iTunes and elsewhere. Commenters over at iPodNN rightly…
Selling MP3s on your site is really easy.
For folks who want to see how easily you can sell MP3s on your site, visit our friends Pale Beneath the Blue. Try out their system for 99 cents, and envision how you can plug something this simple into your…