Selling the music you make....

frobisher

I'm in the middle of making a new website and launching the sale of my music in earnest. Both online and bricks and mortar. So I've been reading and researching online methods of sales. Anyone else looking into this got any gold nuggets of info?!

Starfox

frobisher wrote: »

I'm in the middle of making a new website and launching the sale of my music in earnest. Both online and bricks and mortar. So I've been reading and researching online methods of sales. Anyone else looking into this got any gold nuggets of info?!

Whats the genre of music?

Neurojazz

Well, credit card handling can be a nightmare. You can goto your bank and ask them who they'd recommend and then spend years waiting for a reply. They will expect you to already have a certain amount of income coming in before even looking at you sometimes (depends on the banks payment portal)

You'll get charged either for each purchase or 200e+ a month for them to run the portal.

The biggest one out side your own bank would be 'Worldpay' - but again be ready to give them explicit business information - if you don't have running accounts or a business already running they will be hard to convince.

Some portals can offer to collect for you (and avoid those small business charges) - depends on what you are selling (like mp3 from site? - or physical and digital?)

frobisher

Starfox: The genre is a mixed bag but we'd be more or less seen as a rock band with acousticy/funky/world and synthie bits thrown in.

Neurojazz: I've been looking at various sites that provide these services and think that at this stage I'll go with that. I don't mind exposing what money I'm putting in but if I can avoid it, and use that money elsewhere, then I will. So for now I won't host and will go with third parties. But it's a mine field out there!

Neurojazz

physical / digital or both?

Neurojazz

The reason why they need to see that a business is established is because the portals use a HTTPS (secure ip address) and they can't really warrant letting a spoof company sell stuff and vanish.

I'd recommend worldpay if you go 3rd party (as they are everywhere)

Or just let a distro take over and make life easy - the one i'm with offer a non-exclusive deal so they take very little % and you self promote... they distribute to masses of portals.

frobisher

Initially downloads but then both. I'll have to see what way the cookie crumbles over time, but my presumption is that the digital downloads will be the main one.

frobisher

Neurojazz wrote: »

Or just let a distro take over and make life easy - the one i'm with offer a non-exclusive deal so they take very little % and you self promote... they distribute to masses of portals.

Which one is it?

Neurojazz

http://www.believedigital.com/

Fine service - now have spanking automated system for uploading material that takes a few hours to upload all your material and you are selling to *many* portals.

The accounting is automated, detailed and prompt.

If you need a name, speak to either Christian or Mario.

frobisher

Neurojazz wrote: »

http://www.believedigital.com/

Fine service - now have spanking automated system for uploading material that takes a few hours to upload all your material and you are selling to *many* portals.

The accounting is automated, detailed and prompt.

If you need a name, speak to either Christian or Mario.

Have you seen Rawrip http://www.rawrip.com ? It's a widget you place where you want and you keep 100% of revenue. Or are you doing all your stuff through existing store fronts?

Neurojazz

frobisher wrote: »

Have you seen Rawrip http://www.rawrip.com ? It's a widget you place where you want and you keep 100% of revenue. Or are you doing all your stuff through existing store fronts?

The distro pumps out what you supply to all the major people including iTunes (the main one you'd be interested in)

I'd say leave them to pump content out to the stores and you can promote/give away material in the name of promotions. They supply a player also, but you'd make/get your own.

This comes to another pitfall - hosting the music securely and having a player that works on all the browsers - am working on this as we speak.

In regards to rawrip, straight away i'm taken to a signup page rather than a checkout - not really needed... There's a million portals already out there!

frobisher

Neurojazz wrote: »

In regards to rawrip, straight away i'm taken to a signup page rather than a checkout - not really needed... There's a million portals already out there!

I'm not promoting rawrip, I'm still on the fence tbh. But, if it all works, 100% of sales is a good thing.

Neurojazz

I think you'd probably only need iTunes and one or two other options for people. Then get facebook/twitter linked up to your site also and you'd be off