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.

Here's the post from the Kasabian site;

Kasabian will be releasing their new track Vlad the Impaler as a free download from Kasabian.co.uk for a limited period of 4 days only.

The download will be available from 7:30 on March 31st until Midnight April 3rd only from Kasabian.co.uk.

The single is taken from their forthcoming album The West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, out Jun 8th and the first physical single release will be Fire, out June 1st.

Saturday, July 18
The National
Pharoahe Monch
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Sunday, July 19
Grizzly Bear
The Walkmen
Vivian Girls

A cool thing they are adding this year is a "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request." This let's YOU the audience to vote on what songs Built to Spill, the Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo, and Tortoise will play during their sets. Here's what the post at Pichfork says;

Starting on Friday night, we're kicking off a new series called "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request." You, the audience, vote on which songs all four bands-- Built to Spill, the Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo, and Tortoise-- will play. It'll work like this: When you buy your ticket, you'll get a confirmation email. That confirmation email will include a link to a page where you can vote on which songs from each band you want to hear. The bands will tailor their set lists accordingly.

NIN|JA

NIN, Janes Addiction and Street Sweeper have released a free EP on their NIN|JA 2009 website. The EP was released to promote the upcoming 2009 tour. Just supply an email address and you get two songs each from NIN, Janes Addiction and Street Sweeper. The tracks are available in multiple formats for your listening pleasure including WAV and MP3.

Here is the official track listing, enjoy.

01 Jane's Addiction: "Chip Away"
02 Nine Inch Nails: "Not So Pretty Now"
03 Street Sweeper: "Clap for the Killers"
04 Jane's Addiction: "Whores"
05 Nine Inch Nails: "Non-Entity"
06 Street Sweeper: "The Oath"

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE NIN|JA Website.

Tell us what you all think, is this good news or will everyone miss Finck? Will there be a tour or will Axl meltdown before they ever get going?

DJ Ashba

Here's the post from GNR website

Guns N' Roses is proud to announce that guitarist n' songwriter Dj Ashba has joined the band. Ashba, who officially replaces current NIN guitarist Robin Finck, is best known as co-founder of hard rock bands Sixx AM and Beautiful Creatures.

"Dj's a gifted, energetic guitarist that Guns N' Roses is proud to have on board!!" exclaims Axl Rose. "We're very excited to have the opportunity to work together. Guns' radar has silently been aware of Dj's presence for quite some time. He brings a fresh approach to our particular brand of mayhem expanding the tapestry of Guns N' Roses live. Once Dj's name was in the hat, the hat disappeared!!"

"It's an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of a band that I have always loved and respected," said Dj Ashba. "I'm looking forward to working with Axl, who is not only one of the few great front men of our generation, but a true artist."

Dj Ashba co-wrote and co-produced Motley Crue's latest album Saints of Los Angeles, which garnered a 2008 GRAMMY nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance, as well as co-wrote and co-produced the Sixx AM album Heroin Diaries.

Robin continues to be part of GN'R, by virtue of Guns' history and his involvement in Chinese Democracy.

Now, one step closer to the abyss, Ashba joins a band who's all time roster is nearly as long as it's founder Axl Rose's rap sheet!