R.E.M. - I Believe
Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger
Dr. John - Right Place, Wrong Time
Queen - Another One Bites The Dust
For a very long time I have felt that musicians could ditch the traditional labels and distribution system and do most of the work themselves. I always wanted to make a site where musicians could sell their music worldwide and have the full control over the distribution. There have been great ways for artists to do this but all of them took too much of the profit for it to be worthwhile for the average artist. Places like CD Baby would charge a fee plus take money from units sold so it was very difficult for artists to make money. Then with the onset of digital downloads distribtion centers would help artists get on places like ITunes but would charge a ton of money upfront and take about 30% of the units sold. Again, it was a tough way for artists to make money.
Well now comes Audiolife a new site that seems to allow musicians a great way to sell their music. I haven't had a good look at the details but here are some of my quick observations.
Types of product sold: Merch: looks like shirts and tote bags. No buttons or stickers. I worry about quality when I see this, I wonder how they "screen" these. Physical CDs: Audiolife actually presses your discs on demand which is great. I don't know about art quality but it definitely saves the artist the expense of getting discs manufactured. Audiolife also offers deals on bulk disc pressing in case you need to need some for gigs. MP3 Albums and Singles: Audiolife lets you sell your songs or whole albums which is key in this digital age. Ringtones: You have to check for the prices on the ringtones because it varies with providers.
Cost up front: Free. This is great, most sites were charging a "huge" upfront fee on top of the fee taken for units sold. Most of the time it took a band a year to just make back the upfront fee.
Cost per unit sold: Most of their charges seem pretty good for the artist especially with all the services they provide. Audiolife makes it's money based on what you sell so you never have to pay anything unless you sell something. Awesome for the artist, hopefully Audiolife can sustain itself until artists start using and selling through them. Here are Audiolife's charges MERCH - Audiolife charges anywhere from $4.82 to $42 per clothing piece. You would have to adjust your sell price over this amount to make money. Basically works like Printfection or Cafe Press. Physical CDs - Audiolife charges $5.49 per disc which covers manufacturing, a 4 paneled booklet, 2 sided tray card and a clear jewel case. Not a bad deal really, at least you don't have huge inventory overhead you have to deal with. MP3 Albums - Full album downloads are $3.00 which is pretty decent. You could charge $7.99 or less and still make a decent profit.
Visibility: Looks like audiolife has some sort of widget that allows you to post your store on any site you want including, MySpace, a blog or wherever.
Payments: Audiolife at this point only accepts Visa and Mastercard, I wonder if they will add Paypal or other types of payment in the future.
Payouts: They pay each month, I can't tell if there is a minimum.
Looks like a real good service, if anyone has tried it I'd love to hear about it. Since it's free you may as well sign up and start selling, what do you really have to lose?
HERE IS THE PROMO VIDEO AND PRESS RELEASE FROM AUDIOLIFE
Audiolife Offers The Most Cost-Effective, Flexible, and Profitable Way to Sell CDs Online Tue, 03 Mar 2009, 18:02:34 EST Edited by Debra Tone Audiolife, an Artist Services Company headquartered in Los Angeles, has built a new technology platform that will change the way indie artists sell CDs online LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 3 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Audiolife (www.Audiolife.com), the Los Angeles-based Artist Services Company responsible for the development of a new media web-platform specifically designed for indie artists to sell music online and on-demand to fans, has released an in-depth report of findings on the future of selling CDs online. The report, "The New Way to Sell CDs Online: More Cost-Effective, Flexible and Profitable," compares the Audiolife model to competitors like CD Baby and Nimbit, and provides clear quantitative data to support the advantages of using Audiolife. The data proves that artists who sell up to 2,500 CDs online will make more money through Audiolife than they would through traditional CD distribution outlets. There are currently hundreds of thousands of artists selling their CDs online that don't sell more than 2,500 units. In fact, the average artist on CD Baby sells less than 5 CDs per year. This new model offers a cost-effective alternative that will allow artists to spend money on marketing themselves rather than upfront merchandise costs. "Our goal with this report is to educate artists, record labels and the industry at large about the practical and economic advantages of using the Audiolife platform," stated Brandon Hance, Audiolife Founder and CEO. "We believe that artists should be focusing on creating and marketing great music rather than worrying about logistics, vendor management and up-front merchandise costs." In addition to the financial advantages, the report explains the practical advantages of Audiolife such as speed to market, creative flexibility, and the removal of inventory management. This empowers artists to sell new products such as EPs, custom CDs for fans, and live concert albums that wouldn't have been available otherwise. To download the Report visit: tinyurl.com/AudiolifeReport. About Audiolife Audiolife (www.Audiolife.com), a division of Inhance Media, is an Artist Services Company founded in 2005 by USC graduates Brandon Hance, Aaron Wiener, and Nishit Rathod. Based in Los Angeles, California, the company is currently in public beta and continues their dedication to empowering artists through new technology solutions. Contact: Rebekah Iliff Audiolife Phone 310-770-8338 Rebekah@Audiolife.com All trademarks and service marks are the property of the respective parties.
Audiolife Offers The Most Cost-Effective, Flexible, and Profitable Way to Sell CDs Online
Tue, 03 Mar 2009, 18:02:34 EST Edited by Debra Tone
Audiolife, an Artist Services Company headquartered in Los Angeles, has built a new technology platform that will change the way indie artists sell CDs online
LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 3 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- Audiolife (www.Audiolife.com), the Los Angeles-based Artist Services Company responsible for the development of a new media web-platform specifically designed for indie artists to sell music online and on-demand to fans, has released an in-depth report of findings on the future of selling CDs online. The report, "The New Way to Sell CDs Online: More Cost-Effective, Flexible and Profitable," compares the Audiolife model to competitors like CD Baby and Nimbit, and provides clear quantitative data to support the advantages of using Audiolife.
The data proves that artists who sell up to 2,500 CDs online will make more money through Audiolife than they would through traditional CD distribution outlets. There are currently hundreds of thousands of artists selling their CDs online that don't sell more than 2,500 units. In fact, the average artist on CD Baby sells less than 5 CDs per year. This new model offers a cost-effective alternative that will allow artists to spend money on marketing themselves rather than upfront merchandise costs.
"Our goal with this report is to educate artists, record labels and the industry at large about the practical and economic advantages of using the Audiolife platform," stated Brandon Hance, Audiolife Founder and CEO. "We believe that artists should be focusing on creating and marketing great music rather than worrying about logistics, vendor management and up-front merchandise costs."
In addition to the financial advantages, the report explains the practical advantages of Audiolife such as speed to market, creative flexibility, and the removal of inventory management. This empowers artists to sell new products such as EPs, custom CDs for fans, and live concert albums that wouldn't have been available otherwise.
To download the Report visit: tinyurl.com/AudiolifeReport.
About Audiolife
Audiolife (www.Audiolife.com), a division of Inhance Media, is an Artist Services Company founded in 2005 by USC graduates Brandon Hance, Aaron Wiener, and Nishit Rathod. Based in Los Angeles, California, the company is currently in public beta and continues their dedication to empowering artists through new technology solutions.
Contact: Rebekah Iliff Audiolife Phone 310-770-8338 Rebekah@Audiolife.com
All trademarks and service marks are the property of the respective parties.
Thanks for the review! We’re always looking for ways to improve.
In terms of our merch, we do offer a variety of shirts, hoodies, and tote bags, and will be expanding our merch selection very soon.
We actually use a new digital technology that chemically bonds ink to cotton molecules, resulting in brilliant colors and sharp photographic quality with no overprint around the edges. The image is soft, breathable, vibrant and durable – nothing like the stiff “decal” feel that results from heat-transfer or screen print methods. Images are fade resistant and machine washable, with a fastness equal to or better than other print methods on 100% cotton.
In terms of visibility, you can indeed embed your widget pretty much anywhere online – social networks, website, blogs, etc.
Here’s also a video review that G4’s Attack of the Show did on Audiolife:
http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/webtools/66472/Audiolife-Review.html
Thanks!
- Ricky ricky@audiolife.com
