Download cards question

[chuskey]

I'm in a cover band and we play out a few times a year. It's just something fun we do, and none of us are trying to figure out how to "make it".

 

However I did have the idea that it might be cool to record our live shows and let the people who want to buy/download the show have access to it. I think the Black Crowes do something like this.

 

How I see this working in my mind is that we record a show, and during the show let everyone know that the show will be for sale. Since I'd like to have the chance to mild editing/mastering before handing the shows off I don't want to just burn cd's at the end of the night.

 

So I'm thinking that download cards would be a nice option. I know that CD Baby does this sort of thing and their cards are $.99 a piece. Plus their process takes a while to get music up, and this is the kind of thing I'd like to have ready for the people who buy within at least a couple of days.

 

I don't need anything submitted to iTunes, just an upload of our show that people can download.

 

So I'm thinking of doing some type of homegrown solution. Maybe using something like Reverbnation or eJunkie to put the songs up and have them for sale. I don't know if I can do download codes with this setup or not.

 

Also I would like to have them up somewhere where they would be for sale in case people wanted to buy them later on, or for people who weren't at the show.

 

I'm not worried about 100% secure codes and being able to eliminate people from sharing. It's just something to make the gigs a little bit more worth our while and get people excited. So if the download codes aren't foolproof it's no big deal. I would just want to make sure that we weren't paying a per transaction fee if people who didn't pay were able to download the tracks (code sharing). I think eJunkie just charges by the month and not by transaction, but I'm not sure.

 

Anyway, just a thought I had and I wanted to get some opinions on how feasible it would be to do something like this.

 

Thanks.

[Joseph Kimbrell]

I'm sure each code is unique and can (probably) be used only once, or with the registered email address, or something.

But as you are a cover band, you will need to pay a license fee/royalties for each song for each proposed "album".  You can do this through Harry Fox Agency.

wow just realized this is a 3 year bump.