[Dixielandjazz] DigStation

[BillSargentDrums at aol.com]

Online Sales

I have thoroughly  searched through many online sales venues and interfaces 
that provide MP3  downloads. 

There are several different ways to approach the  challenge.

One is through links to a website that hosts your files.  

The other is a music “Widget”. A music “WIDGET” is a small mp3  plays your 
mp3s and some allow sales directly through the  Widget.

To get an idea of what a play only Widget is, go to MySpace  page at:

http://myspace.com/billsargentbands

and click  on the link for the TunePak Music Widget. This will give you a 
quick  education.

As I mentioned before, one of the best, if not THE best,  ways to distribute 
your MP3s to various online retailers is through CD Baby. CD  Baby also offers 
the availability of online MP3 sales right on your CD Baby  site. To see what 
I’m talking about, go  to:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/billsargentbands

They provide  a two minute song sample and the ability to purchase and 
download right there.  They take 9% of the income and give you, the artist, 91% for 
all digital sales.  Outside of DigStation, this rate is the highest payout. 
This includes receipts  from online stores, such as iTunes.com.

In my investigation I found  generally two scenarios:

1. The provider would take a percentage of  the sales, sometimes quite high . 
. . say maybe 50%, and some even  more.

2. Those that gave you all the profits, charged a fee for  carrying your 
recordings. Some only $10 a year, some $10 a month, and  on.

The problems with MANY of the music Widgets, is they don’t  provide a 
separate song SAMPLE from the actual MP3 DOWNLOAD, as does, say CD  Baby. The result 
is you have to post an entire song that people can listen to  and/or purchase.

Personally, with only one CD for sale at this time  online, I just can’t get 
myself to let people listen to an entire track before  purchase. There are 
pros & cons here, but that’s where I’m at currently.  That may change with 
knowledge & wisdom, but for now, I am already giving  out 2 minute, and in on case 
3:20 song samples and that should be sufficient.  We’ll see . . . still 
studying the market, but that’s good enough for CD Baby,  so it should be good 
enough.

OK, SO HERE IS THE BEST I’VE  FOUND:   DigStation.

I’ll continue this in the next post  as to why and other options.

Hope this  helps!

Bill
414-777-0100
BillSargentBands.com

Just released:  "The Best Of Bill Sargent Bands - Volume 1"

Available at:  http://billsargentbands.com/recordings.htm  




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