Selling Your Recordings Digitally - CD Baby, Tunecore.......

[BigRedX]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1387211792' post='2309440']
There's another advantage which I don't think has been covered here: Bandcamp has a certain "audiophile" appeal. Obviously it gives the impression that you're dealing more directly with the artist when you buy their music (your Paypal payment does indeed go to the artist's account rather than, say straight to iTunes) but also they give you the option to download in a lossless audio format, or a high-quality lossy format of your choice. And the aforementioned "name your price" option does seem to work well for a lot of artists (well, certainly for Steve Lawson!)
[/quote]

But if like us you sell directly from your web site then an even larger percentage of the price you pay goes directly to the artists. I can see the benefit of Bandcamp for those that don't have (or have access) to the skills required to set up their own selling page on their site, but if even someone with minimal HTML skills like me can do it, then pretty much anyone can. [url=http://www.dickvenom.com/merchandise.html]Our merchandise page[/url] took me about a day to set up and most of that was spent generating the relevant PayPal code!

Edited December 16, 2013 by BigRedX

[EliasMooseblaster]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1387212843' post='2309466']
But if like us you sell directly from your web site then an even larger percentage of the price you pay goes directly to the artists. I can see the benefit of Bandcamp for those that don't have (or have access) to the skills required to set up their own selling page on their site, but if even someone with minimal HTML skills like me can do it, then pretty much anyone can. [url=http://www.dickvenom.com/merchandise.html]Our merchandise page[url] took me about a day to set up and most of that was spent generating the relevant PayPal code!
[/quote]

A very good point - and the reason we've tried to disguise our Bandcamp page to make it look as much like part of our website as we could!

I guess the difference is that your merch page is essentially an online order form for physical goods - if people want digital downloads, they are redirected to iTunes or Amazon. I'm sure most people would be fine with that, of course! On the physical front, you're quite right, you keep everything except the Paypal fee; I think the main reason for using Bandcamp was that it was another way to offer downloads to people, and we could do it a bit more "on our own terms" than most other outlets allow us to. When we get round to flogging physical merch online, I'd be tempted to follow your lead and create our own page for that.

[Spoombung]

Just a word to say that [b]AWAL [/b](recommended by some here) in my experience [b]do not operate like a straightforward distributor[/b]. I filled in an online form which asked for links to my music (I thought that was a bit weird). After several weeks they didn't respond at all so I sent an email asking whether they were still operational or whether there was some other problem. I received this reply:

[i]"Hi Kev,[/i]
[i]Sorry for the big delay we’re experiencing a lot higher number of applications than normal currently.[/i]


[i]I’m afraid this isn’t the kind of content we’re looking to sign up currently, sorry about that. [/i]
[i]Might be best to approach an open platform like Tunecore or Ditto?[/i]

[i]We wish you all the best.[/i]

[i]Cheers[/i]
[i]Sophie[/i]


[i][b]Sophie Townsend[/b][/i]
[i][b]Client Services Manager'[/b][/i]

It seems they vet the music which seems rather ridiculous to me if they're just in the business of distribution. It's almost like the attitude you used to get from old-fashioned records companies...[b]so I obviously wouldn't recommend[/b] [b]them[/b] - especially if you make 'funny -sounding music' which I tend to do,

[BigRedX]

Thanks for that info Kev.

We recently did a review of the various aggregators to see if we could get a better deal for our forthcoming album. AWAL came second out of all the ones we looked at, so it's disappointing to hear that they now have some sort of vetting policy.

Right now AFAICS provided you expect to sell at least 50 copies of an album as digital downloads through iTunes and Amazon (by far the biggest source of our download sales) then [url=http://www.catapultdistribution.com]Catapult[/url] appear to offer the best VFM.

Having said that were you make your sales very much depends on what kind of a band you are who your audience is. We gig a lot and sales of recordings at gigs are 3 to 4 times greater than all the other sources combined. Next best is directly from our website, then Bandcamp and finally download and streaming via our aggregator.

Finally - if you are a PRS member you don't need any of the performance royalty collecting services that a lot of the aggregators seem to be pushing now. None of them offer a better percentage than the PRS, and while in the short term if you aren't already a PRS member it might look like a good deal, in the long term you are better off with the PRS.

[Floyd Pepper]

I was in a very similar situation as the OP with no experience and not too much time to spend on going through the options. I just needed something quick and straightforward to get our music onto the main download and streaming sites at a reasonable cost.
In the end, I went for CDBaby as it seemed to be well presented, with clear instructions, clear pricing, good support and gave us the results we wanted.
Just received our first payment and so far so good.

[Spoombung]

[quote name='Floyd Pepper' timestamp='1445602842' post='2892740']
I was in a very similar situation as the OP with no experience and not too much time to spend on going through the options. I just needed something quick and straightforward to get our music onto the main download and streaming sites at a reasonable cost.
In the end, I went for CDBaby as it seemed to be well presented, with clear instructions, clear pricing, good support and gave us the results we wanted.
Just received our first payment and so far so good.
[/quote]

Is there a UK website, ie, a separate operation here that deals with £'s or did you do it all from the American website?

[Spoombung]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1445598674' post='2892679']
Thanks for that info Kev.

We recently did a review of the various aggregators to see if we could get a better deal for our forthcoming album. AWAL came second out of all the ones we looked at, so it's disappointing to hear that they now have some sort of vetting policy.

Right now AFAICS provided you expect to sell at least 50 copies of an album as digital downloads through iTunes and Amazon (by far the biggest source of our download sales) then [url="http://www.catapultdistribution.com"]Catapult[/url] appear to offer the best VFM.

Having said that were you make your sales very much depends on what kind of a band you are who your audience is. We gig a lot and sales of recordings at gigs are 3 to 4 times greater than all the other sources combined. Next best is directly from our website, then Bandcamp and finally download and streaming via our aggregator.

Finally - if you are a PRS member you don't need any of the performance royalty collecting services that a lot of the aggregators seem to be pushing now. None of them offer a better percentage than the PRS, and while in the short term if you aren't already a PRS member it might look like a good deal, in the long term you are better off with the PRS.
[/quote]

I rely on your advice regarding this subject