Members richardmac Posted July 11, 2009 Members Share Posted July 11, 2009 Anyone going to cdbaby.com right now (12:40 PM, Saturday) will see that the site is down for redesign. They're working on improvements to their artist's pages, including the ability to sell individual songs directly from the site. Which is coincidental for me because I just put all my old music on bandcamp because it not only allowed me to sell individual songs, it also allowed me to give away individual songs for free. CDBaby's new offering is a day late and a dollar short in terms of features, compared to bandcamp. But bandcamp does not sell your physical CD's for you, or put your music on iTunes. Seems like today's musician has to be wise to all of the different companies and stay on top of who does the best job of what. It also seems, to me, that the best idea for an artist's web presence is to host their own site and then link off it to the various other companies and let them do what they do best. Still, I am a loyal CDBaby customer and fan, even after the discmakers sale. I am also a discmakers fan. I am interested in seeing what their new improvements are. One more thing. CDBaby is going to offer the ability to use pre-made "download cards" for your CD. You buy 100 of them from CDBaby for $99 and you can sell the download cards for whatever you want. An interesting approach. Bandcamp allows you to generate "access codes" that do the same thing, for free. You could, in theory, I guess, make your own "cards" (printed on hard stock paper) and give them out or sell them... I'm thinking you'd give them out, because no one is going to want to buy a little piece of paper you printed out. So the two solutions are maybe for slightly different things. The people who "win" in all of this is us - the indie musicians. It's very cool to have all of these options available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OldMattB Posted July 11, 2009 Members Share Posted July 11, 2009 I was in a couple of bands in the eighties, where it was almost impossible to produce even a single without knowing someone in the business or having a financial backer. We were excited about recording three songs onto a 4-track reel-to-reel. In our modern world, I spent a couple grand on equipment, recorded a 10-song CD at home, Diskmakers is making a big box of them for me, and my stuff will be available on the internet. For that product and exposure, one would have spend probably a hundred grand in the eighties. I don't think anyone under 40 would understand what an incredible opportunity there is now for entrepreneurial artists. There are lots of artists you may never hear of, making more than they ever would from a label, and they have total artistic control. win, win, win!!! oldMattB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sixstring-LYM Posted July 11, 2009 Members Share Posted July 11, 2009 I think Richard makes some really good points. Especially the one about "Seems like today's musician has to be wise to all of the different companies and stay on top of who does the best job of what." As I talk with band managers and Artists themselves, I am finding a few commen threads: 1. Not everyone out there is 'web-savvy' enough to learn how to use some of these services today..i.e. myspace, facebook, reverbnation..etc.2. It seems there are not too many service options out there, but more of which ones to use. It seems that band managers and artists themselves are spending way to much time trying to maintain all of these different services rather than focusing on what they should be. Resolution: A 'do it all' service. One that will create a website, create/maintain myspace, facebook, reverbnation, cdbaby..etc sites for bands/artists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted July 11, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 11, 2009 I think Richard makes some really good points. Especially the one about "Seems like today's musician has to be wise to all of the different companies and stay on top of who does the best job of what."As I talk with band managers and Artists themselves, I am finding a few commen threads:1. Not everyone out there is 'web-savvy' enough to learn how to use some of these services today..i.e. myspace, facebook, reverbnation..etc.2. It seems there are not too many service options out there, but more of which ones to use.It seems that band managers and artists themselves are spending way to much time trying to maintain all of these different services rather than focusing on what they should be. Resolution: A 'do it all' service. One that will create a website, create/maintain myspace, facebook, reverbnation, cdbaby..etc sites for bands/artists. Yeah, I've thought about putting together something like that too, being the computer tech-savvy sort of guy. You could throw web hosting in there, too, with your own web domain. I think there's a market for it, but I'm just personally not interested in spending my time doing that sort of stuff. For my own tunes, yes, but not for other people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted July 11, 2009 Author Members Share Posted July 11, 2009 I don't think anyone under 40 would understand what an incredible opportunity there is now for entrepreneurial artists. There are lots of artists you may never hear of, making more than they ever would from a label, and they have total artistic control. I think that's true, but I also think we need to include a disclaimer - very few people want to BUY music any more, compared to in the past. Too many folks just download all their music for free. But people do still buy music. And if you're going to ask me, would I rather be making music now or in the 70's or 80's, and the answer is NOW NOW NOW. Definitely now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GlobolStaff911 Posted August 1, 2009 Members Share Posted August 1, 2009 Thanks for your posts. They are really very cool, very wonderful website maintain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Maria2009 Posted August 5, 2009 Members Share Posted August 5, 2009 thanks for your suggestion keyword Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dthraco Posted August 5, 2009 Members Share Posted August 5, 2009 I was in a couple of bands in the eighties, where it was almost impossible to produce even a single without knowing someone in the business or having a financial backer. We were excited about recording three songs onto a 4-track reel-to-reel.In our modern world, I spent a couple grand on equipment, recorded a 10-song CD at home, Diskmakers is making a big box of them for me, and my stuff will be available on the internet. For that product and exposure, one would have spend probably a hundred grand in the eighties.I don't think anyone under 40 would understand what an incredible opportunity there is now for entrepreneurial artists. There are lots of artists you may never hear of, making more than they ever would from a label, and they have total artistic control.win, win, win!!!oldMattB One problem. Now that it's uber cheap to put your music out there, the market is beyond flooded with crap. It takes almost nothing to record a band and psot music and try to sell it. And as an effect, the public is growing less and less interested in wading through it. At least back then, you had to be good as a musician before you even thought about recording. Not so much these days. There are thousand upon thousands of new artists, all screaming for attention. It's really sickening actually. Where does this put us? I think it puts us back to personal interaction and live performances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bcolburn Posted August 5, 2009 Members Share Posted August 5, 2009 I just put all my old music on bandcamp because it not only allowed me to sell individual songs, it also allowed me to give away individual songs for free. s - the indie musicians. It's very cool to have all of these options available. Hey Richard -- I am curious what kind of sales / traffic you've seen on BandCamp -- my experience is people will spend where they're comfortable (iTunes, Amazon, etc). My fear about bandcamp is that people may be concerned with buying something from a company that's not a household name. Since, I have had some people email me concerns about CDbaby's reputation (and they're established as far as I'm concerned), i'd wonder how the average Joe would feel about a new player to the game such as Bandcamp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted August 5, 2009 Author Members Share Posted August 5, 2009 Hey Richard -- I am curious what kind of sales / traffic you've seen on BandCamp -- my experience is people will spend where they're comfortable (iTunes, Amazon, etc). My fear about bandcamp is that people may be concerned with buying something from a company that's not a household name. Since, I have had some people email me concerns about CDbaby's reputation (and they're established as far as I'm concerned), i'd wonder how the average Joe would feel about a new player to the game such as Bandcamp. I have seen decent traffic and no sales. I don't use it as my website, though. I have a link to it on my website. Like "Want to hear my music? Click here." Then they are taken to my bandcamp page. Where it might make a difference is that they might not feel comfortable putting their credit card into it, I guess... so what I need to do is put a link to my music on iTunes also. It's not a bad idea to give people a variety of places to choose from when buying your music. I should list Amazon, too. People get used to buying from a place online, so it's important to be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bcolburn Posted August 6, 2009 Members Share Posted August 6, 2009 Yeah, the more choices the better Richard. Some people subscribe to Rhapsody -- not MANY -- but some -- and they want to get all of their music from there. I had a 3 month free trial at Emusic, and I discovered a LOT of new music from the 30 songs a month I could DL -- so don't limit your music to one specific site -- give everyone the option to shop where they're most comfortable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members website Posted August 12, 2009 Members Share Posted August 12, 2009 Thanks for the websitewebsite maintain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members luckystar09 Posted August 22, 2009 Members Share Posted August 22, 2009 I was confused. Thanks for you information.website maintain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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