Slashdot Mirror


Where Indie Artists Get Everything

anonicon writes "From the same people who brought you the Web's first corrupt CDs tracking list comes the first site where independent musicians receive 100% of the money that fans pay for their music or merchandise (of course, after the credit card company takes their cut from the payment). More information can be had here or here."

142 comments

  1. HAHA... NOOOOO... someone beat me to it :) by DaedalusHKX · · Score: 1

    Guess my efforts shall now be in vain... or perhaps a bit of help/constructive competition won't hurt.

    -Daedalus

    --
    " What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
    1. Re:HAHA... NOOOOO... someone beat me to it :) by theedge318 · · Score: 1

      I don't know ... somehow i don't think they are much competition yet. I mean I had to click on 16 links to have them tell me that they don't have any artists ... it will be quite sometime before I consider doing that again

      --
      Sig Nazi- "No Sig for you, come back 1 year."
    2. Re:HAHA... NOOOOO... someone beat me to it :) by DaedalusHKX · · Score: 1

      I went there after posting and noticed that it seems to be a much work in progress... not quite the same scope for what I am planning out, but should be fun... and of course "ANYTHING to obliterate the RIAA and make them WORK for their money".

      -Daedalus

      PS - Salary and "compensation" should be relevant to the amount of work, personal danger, and risks of the job. Therefore a CEO should make LESS than a good janitor. All CEO's should also take a pay cut for every job they slash. Thus it will be in their best interest to observe the rights of those beneath their now GODLY wings...

      --
      " What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
  2. Love that Math by spoonist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Obligatory link to an article by Courtney Love:

    Courtney Love does the math

    The final score?

    Band: $0.00

    Record Label: $6,600,000.00

    1. Re:Love that Math by LinuxHam · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Obligatory link to the Steve Albini article she ripped it from.

      The Problem with Music

      She once tried to slap David Gedge of The Wedding Present backstage because she heard he was friends with Albini.

      --
      Intelligent Life on Earth
    2. Re:Love that Math by Tony-A · · Score: 1
      The record company spends $300,000 on independent radio promotion. You have to pay independent promotion to get your song on the radio; independent promotion is a system where the record companies use middlemen so they can pretend not to know that radio stations -- the unified broadcast system -- are getting paid to play their records.


      Hmmm, smells like someone has a racket going and they don't want Napster etc. undercutting them.
    3. Re:Love that Math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only there were more ppl like courtney love and less ppl like politician {insertnamehere}, this world would be a much better place.

    4. Re:Love that Math by Draigon · · Score: 1

      "If only there were more ppl like courtney love [...] this world would be a much better place."

      A much better, white trash, raunchy, bitchy place.
      Not that I'm disagreeing. :) People who are uncompromising with what they believe are awesome even if I want to hate them.

      --
      -Rabbit
    5. Re:Love that Math by Tomble · · Score: 1
      Obligatory link to the Steve Albini article she ripped it from:

      Interesting...

      Now, is anybody going to tell me who Steve Albini actually is?

      --
      Be careful! New moon tonight.
    6. Re:Love that Math by andy@petdance.com · · Score: 1

      See the site that the link is from. He's a recording engineer in Chicago who also has been in some incredibly influential bands.

  3. Good on 'em by Michael's+a+Jerk! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice to see someone try to make it without the RIAA et al. I hope this kind of thing becomes more common.

    People: Please support these guys even if you hate their music. If they turn a profit, other bands will follow suite.

    --

    I'm not Seth.

    1. Re:Good on 'em by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Support them, but don't buy their music if you don't like it. The last thing we need is a fake success story. If it is the better way, it has to work without fixing the statistics.

    2. Re:Good on 'em by 26199 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One slight problem: follow the link and you'll find there aren't actually any artists signed up to buy from.

    3. Re:Good on 'em by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would love to check out the music that they have available, but the bins are empty.

    4. Re:Good on 'em by uncoveror · · Score: 2, Informative

      Musicians should be the ones making a living from music, not those parasites at the RIAA and the big labels. Fat Chucks Music is a good idea. Unless they come direct from the artist, or another such honest non-RIAA source, don't buy CDs.

      --
      The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
  4. After the "revolution" is over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Don't you think that this wonderful concept should have a few artists to start with --- exactly whom is participating in this revolution? They should have prominence on this site -- the "founding fathers" as it were.

    I want my old mtv! (where they played MUSIC videos)

    1. Re:After the "revolution" is over by torpor · · Score: 1

      Sorta like AMPFEA, for example.

      I can imagine a few among that crowd might find this useful...

      --
      ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  5. Let's here it for FatChuck by The+Tyro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good idea... no artists yet though (at least in the half-dozen genres that I checked).

    That site has been great... particularly for finding crippled/broken CDs BEFORE you buy the stinkin things. I'm a fan, primarily because I don't own a regular CD player... but I own four computers with CDROM drives.

    Well done, charles... well done.

    --
    Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
  6. A just little exaggeration here?! by tgrotvedt · · Score: 3, Insightful
    revolutions take time

    Could the Slashdot editors possibly have taken this seriously??! This is a small website with zero artists. A good thing I guess, but definetly not an industry revolution

    These things do "take time".

    --
    What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
    1. Re:A just little exaggeration here?! by ZzzzSleep · · Score: 1
      Could the Slashdot editors possibly have taken this seriously??! This is a small website with zero artists. A good thing I guess, but definetly not an industry revolution
      Perhaps they thought it sounded like a good idea that should be encouraged. I think it's entirely possible that the first people to sell their music through FatChucks will have come from Slashdot.

      ZzzzSleep
    2. Re:A just little exaggeration here?! by anonicon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For the record, the site launched about 48 hours ago and the revolution (if anyone chooses to join) is that for the first time in history, there aren't any middlemen pawing at the money that the artist makes from their fans. No distributors, no labels, no managers. It's the fan, the payment processor, and the artist - no one else.

      So, outside of car trunks and live shows, your music is available to anyone anywhere in the world if you decide to join.

      Show some patience. Have a drink. We're working on it.

      Peace.

    3. Re:A just little exaggeration here?! by irfco · · Score: 1

      Good stuff and I hope people take advantage of the channel you've created.

      Now that this is setup, however, perhaps you could clear the cruft out of the shituation that middlemen serve as a function of (they're there for a reason). The social lubrication that causes CDs to be purchased. I think a few people have sort of approached the issue in the comments (I read them all the way through (so far)), but haven't been blunt enough about it.

      I'm sure you've already thought about that, and perhaps your model is not even intended to eventually tackle that, but I just felt like reiterating the issue.

      Featuring on Slashdot is, perhaps, an initial step to that, but perhaps the geek crowd is not the best medium through which to eventually encourage artists to subscribe to the model and music consumers to purchase through it :) I guess what I am eventually saying is, keep an eye out on how to simplify marketing, since distribution has already been taken care off.

      But, hey, any publicity is good publicity :) Best of luck, Peace.

    4. Re:A just little exaggeration here?! by anonicon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hi Irfco.

      The idea behind FCM (Fat Chuck's Music) is to get rid of all the middlemen and allow artists to ship directly to fans and to be paid directly from fans. As you can see, we're not in the payment loop or the ordering loop besides letting artists list their goods with us (shopping has to begin somewhere that's convenient for fans).

      I've been surprised by all the negative reactions here since I've seen so many comments about how great it would be to allow artists to sell directly to the world without middlemen (which is what we're doing). Hopefully this will keep growing and the way things are done today will seem like an anachronism in a few years, or else my idea will. ;-)

      Thanks for the encouragement, it is appreciated.

      Peace,
      Chuck

  7. Make that "hear" by The+Tyro · · Score: 1

    yeah, don't mind my english... hear=here... I is a edumakated kollege graduite!

    --
    Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
  8. Artists get 100%? Not for long. by NineNine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this thing ever takes off (they're at zero artists right now... not a good sign), I'm just curious as to how Fat Chuck is going to pay for bandwidth. Anyone can put up a website. I'll believe that they take 0% when I see it. That's like opening a retail store and selling everything for what it costs you. Sure, the customers are happy, but you have expenses, and with zero profit, you won't be able to stay open for long.

  9. Busted Stuff?? by MadChicken · · Score: 1

    I don't understand the "broken" list -- it includes DMB Busted Stuff. I bought this when it came out, ripped it and it worked fine. The second disc is a DVD, maybe that's what caused the problem...

    --
    SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
    1. Re:Busted Stuff?? by angle_slam · · Score: 1

      There are 22 CDs on that list that I have been able to rip. Not listed are some CDs I had a bear of a time trying to rip (I couldn't rip an image using Exact Audio Copy and could only rip individual tracks. These included discs by Front Line Assembly and Queens of the Stone Age.)

    2. Re:Busted Stuff?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You probably have an older pressing of the disc which wasn't copy-protected. Or possibly a newer one which isn't copy-protected, if some record companies are listening to our vocal minority :)

      Check the logo. Does it say "Compact Disc Digital Audio" or something involving the word "Enhanced"?

    3. Re:Busted Stuff?? by MadChicken · · Score: 1

      Yup, it's enhanced CD. I used CDEX to extract it and it worked fine!

      I don't think DMB is *entirely* against ripping/distribution. If you go to etree.org you'll see some of their their live shows are available for download. Apparently "Busted Stuff" owes its existence to "bootlegged" trading -- they did studio versions of the most popular trades.

      Now that's a clever use of the popular medium.

      --
      SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
  10. Here's a site with one artist... by nnet · · Score: 1

    ...myself.

    1. Re:Here's a site with one artist... by MrPoopyPants · · Score: 1

      Hell, if Fat Chuck gets promotion on slashdot so should we!

      Jam Recordings

      Enjoy!

    2. Re:Here's a site with one artist... by adamruck · · Score: 3, Insightful

      perhaps you two should consider contacting fat chuck, see if you can get your music on his site

      1) "start the revolution"
      2) get your music listed while its still being hit really hard by slashdot

      just an idea

      --
      Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
  11. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by Oscar_Wilde · · Score: 3, Informative

    They do take some money. It costs $60 for the first year and $40 for every year after that (as seen here)

    Even if they didn't ask for payment they might still take donations or some well meaning people might choose to fund it out of their own pockets (as with the Wikpedia)

  12. A nice idea, but... by geekwench · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...somebody seems to have forgotten to get the word out to the artists. To paraphrase Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: "You will eventually have CDs on your CD sales website, right?"

    In all seriousness, I think that it's a really good idea, if they can pull it off. The problems with signing to a major label are covered nicely in an article that can be found here {http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/problemwithmusic .html), and trying to market your music by yourself can be an exercise in utter futility. There's both safety and promotion capital in numbers.
    Here's hoping... *crosses fingers*

    --
    Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
  13. fatchunks blows fat chunks by zach_smith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This service doesn't add much to what's already out there. You have to pay them $60 for the first year, just to get a subdomain listing that shows your CDs, links to your website, and lets people order your stuff. Then, if somebody does order something, you get an email and have to process the order and send it out. The only thing they do is handle the monetary transaction.

    How is this any better than musicians setting up their own site and using paypal (which takes out a lower percentage for credit card charges)?

    This doesn't seem like a revolution, just a way to make money off wannabe musicians that think they might sell something.

    1. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by Oscar_Wilde · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Good point but a site like this gives a nice central location where consumers can find music they want. If everyone has their own sites then you'll never be able to locate them (think about it, Google ranks sites based on how many other sites link to them and if your obscure that wont be many). Also a central site can maintain an independent chart system record other users recommendations, etc, in an independent fashion. A personal site or a site belonging to a major label cant really claim the same. Places like amazon.com might be somewhat impartial but they only want to carry items from major labels (things that are obscure wont make them lots of money quickly).

    2. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by the_consumer · · Score: 4, Insightful
      How is this any better than musicians setting up their own site and using paypal (which takes out a lower percentage for credit card charges)?

      Many people don't use paypal, and setting up your own account to process credit cards is expensive, time-consuming, and nearly impossible if you're just some unknown musician who isn't incorporated and can demonstrate a long and flawless credit history.

      I think this is a pretty good idea in theory, but in practice... we'll see. I think they could stand to have a bit more professional look to the site, and "fat chuck's" isn't a name that exactly fills me with confidence.

      --
      "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're right." -
    3. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by CynicTheHedgehog · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What they need to do is:

      1. Offer (optional) CD creation services at various levels: CD with generic label, CD with custom label, and CD with custom label and insert (album art and lyrics)

      2. Publish web services for publishing and consuming orders. That way you could set up partner services for promotions, and bands could automate CD printing and delivery if they opt not to pay for the CD creation services.

      With those two things this would be a very powerful service.

    4. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by anonicon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hi Zach, let's take this from the top.

      That $60 is to pay for your Internet merchant account (I actually make $20/account for year 1) so that you can accept credit card orders from anyone in the world - not just the limited number of countries that paypal supports (I believe it's 37 compared to the 200+ countries you get with your merchant account).

      As far as getting the email and processing it, well, you can pay to ship all of your CDs to someone who will distribute it for you and they will A) keep $3-4 per CD, and B) the shipping. I worked on this so that finally artists could keep *everything* and not have to deal with more middlemen.

      Also, artists *can* use the links we've created to their CDs/other stuff and put it on their own site. The benefit here is that A) their sites aren't generally getting listed on Slashdot or other popular news sources, B) *many* bands don't have web sites or they have poorly designed full-Flash ones that aren't friendly to anyone running *cough*Linux*BSD*cough*. Their sub-domain site is so that they can easily promote themselves and not have to worry about whether they've got the people, time or skills for setting up a competent web site.

      To be blunt, why are you so cynical? The last thing I want to do is make money off of "wannabe musicians" - I'm trying really hard to help the indies who are busting their ass to make a living with their music. Sorry if this idea pissed you off.

      Peace.

    5. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by anonicon · · Score: 1

      Sonic, interesting idea and one I will not be in the position to chase for at least a few years since it's not in the core of what I'm trying to achieve.

      Sometimes diversification of one's business plan can be considered di-worse-ification.

      As far as partnerships wth businesses who can help Indies, I'm working on it, but the site laucnhed about 48 hours ago, so give me some time. :-)

      Peace.

    6. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Blows", "chunks", "wannabe" and "think they might sell something"? Having a bad day are we Hillary?

    7. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by Sri+Ramkrishna · · Score: 1

      There is no need for you to apologize. It's a cynical world unfortunately, but you're an entreprenuar and it's people like you who take risks that are the real life blood of next gen economy. More power to you. (aside, that you're doing exactly what people on this forum were saying should be done)

      sri

    8. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by anonicon · · Score: 1

      Hi.

      You're correct about paypal, especially since its service doesn't extend to many countries worldwide. The flip side is that when people sign up with us they get their own permanent Internet merchant account to accept orders from anyone in the world with a credit card or checking account, both off of our site and their own.

      As far as the site appearance professionalism, sorry to hear that. The site was designed to be very simple, very quick-loading even at 56K, and easy for non-techies to use. It also displays perfectly on Opera 5-7, IE 4-6, Mozilla 0.9-1.3 and Lynx since we tested for each of those browsers.

      Fat Chuck's may not be a great name, but it's totally memorable, just like CDNow or CD Baby (btw, artists can sell CDs, tapes, vinyl or other merchandise through us, not just CDs). Maybe I should have called it CD Chuck's? Don't know, but at least Fat Chuck's is semi humorous. :-)

      I hope you'll stop by again and check out the artists who've decided to join. Sorry if we've made a bad first impression with you!

      Peace,
      Chuck

    9. Re:fatchunks blows fat chunks by the_consumer · · Score: 1

      Well, the site does load quickly for me (on a 56k dial-up), so that is a definite bonus. It just doesn't seem to have a unique aesthetic to it. Then again, look at google, simple as it gets. And I will definitely remember the name. I'll be checking it out periodically, hope it works out for you!

      --
      "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, you're right." -
  14. Isn't this just web hosting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It looks like plain old web hosting, with a few links to your site, plus a merchant account. Indy artists would not get any decent marketing or promotion, or get their CD's produced and pressed.

    It's like starting a web hosting business and saying "I will not take any of the money you make via the website!".

  15. obligatory correction: by mekkab · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Totally ghost written. That doesn't make it BAD, and I'm not casting dispersions on Courtney Love- I think its admirable that she would use her fame as soap box to tell the Truth, so props to her. But something about her doesn't strike me as a researcher.

    Obligatory Steve Albini article

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  16. Re:Europeans by anarxia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Could it be that the site is European (judging from the flags on the page) and so they have better access to information about European CDs?

  17. Better way to promote your music? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    One way to promote your music is to post it to newsgroup: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3

    Be aware that most of the music there, it's simply just crap or short samples of commercial albums.

    1. Re:Better way to promote your music? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is possible to download mp3's from alt.binaries.sounds.mp3 using leafnode then extract individual mp3's with uudeview. There are hundreds of MBytes of mp3's daily. To save your time put fetchnews and uudeview in cron tab ;-)

  18. Just wait by SlamMan · · Score: 1

    Thats all well and good, but just wait until the indie artists start having someone press thier cds for them.

    --
    Mod point free since 2001
  19. Yes - For all intensive purposes he's the best! by andy666 · · Score: 1

    he's the beste!

  20. now it's time to cut out the credit card companies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yodel, the freenet bank only charge a 1% transaction fee, and I believe it's all anonymous, ie.. their is no building of a profile for the fbi.

  21. 100%? by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Surely the bands have costs of their own. They have to spend money on marketing, recording, persuading radio stations to play the music. Stuff like that. A record contract bundles this al up into one packages (and then overcharges horrendously - that's monopolies for you), but if you don;t use a record comapny, how will people know to buy your music?

    1. Re:100%? by Art+Tatum · · Score: 1

      Promotion is the biggest problem, no question. Unfortunately, the record labels have exclusive deals with retail outlets and radio stations. Some radio stations have a weekly show where they play local bands, so you can do that. But getting your music in a chain like Barnes & Noble is difficult.

  22. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by darkpurpleblob · · Score: 1
    I'm just curious as to how Fat Chuck is going to pay for bandwidth.

    What's stopping them from doing what many other websites do? They could just place advertising on their site.

  23. Wow, could it be true? by inode_buddha · · Score: 1

    It makes my day to discover that artists are getting their pay for doing some fairly skiklled and specialized kinds of work. I recall that when I was a practicing artist (oil and charcoal on canvas) my paintings, etc. were typically appraised in the $400 - $1000 range. Not that I ever got that much, despite the sheer cost of the raw materials and 4 years of art school.

    Nowdays, I go to Broadway shows and the local philharmonic to support them, in addition to donations.

    --
    C|N>K
  24. On the list of banned items... by terraformer · · Score: 1

    ...there is, among a longer list, "Live Animals", yet fails to mention dead ones. Apparently Fat Chuck has not heard of Ozzy Osbourne.

    --
    Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
  25. Not exactly a new idea by jmike · · Score: 3, Informative
    Just pointing out that this isn't the only guy in the world to think of the idea; in fact he's rather late to the table.

    My brother-on-law sells on CD Baby and seems pleased. Not sure how they structure the deal, but the basic idea is to allow independent artists to get most of the money.

    None of these sites solve the much larger problem of artist marketing, IMO. That's the one service that the record companies offer to the artists that no one else can get close to (in part because they lock competitors out of radio access, for example). There's room in the market for someone to do that, but they're going to have to find other means of getting to the customer other than radio (sites like Epitonic.com are a good step in that direction).

    1. Re:Not exactly a new idea by An+El+Haqq · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Last I heard, CDBaby takes $4 per CD. Of course, they handle warehousing and shipping for you, but then you have to pay to send the CDs to them. For most sales, they also add the standard handling fees that the musician won't see.

      So, you could sell your CD for $14 + $2.25 shipping and make $10, or you could sell your CD for $14 + $2.25 and make $15+ before shipping costs. Or, you could sell your CD for $10 + $2 shipping, get about $10 and maybe sell more because of the cheaper price.

      As for marketing, you're absolutely right. Labels also take care of weeding the wheat from the chaff (in their opinion), something that indie sales and promotion sites generally don't do (Think of MP3.com). I gather that most musicians want the first problem solved w/o consideration for the second--something that just isn't economically feasible. So for now, you settle for word-of-mouth and hope that sites like CDBaby and FatChuck's Music help you extend the loudness of the mouth.

    2. Re:Not exactly a new idea by Eneff · · Score: 1

      For Deep Audio, or Atoosa, or Molly Zenobia, CDBaby was absolutely worth it.

      These are three artists whose CDs I picked up while looking for Alpha Conspiracy music.

      Since you don't have to pay shipping if you buy 4 or more CDs, there's that subconscious urge to keep looking to find something you like.

      I've bought 15 CDs from CDBaby and I've had rather good luck.

      That's not to mention that I know that CDBaby runs a professional outfit and I'll get the CDs within a week. Who knows if it's directly from the artist?

  26. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by robslimo · · Score: 1

    ...on April 24th, 2003 we launched Fat Chuck's Music

    It's been up for maybe 2 days, give'm a break. OTOH, maybe they should have done a bit of promoting and signed up some artists before their 'launch' so the site wouldn't look so barren.

  27. My god! How revolutionary! by jpellino · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Let's see... no artists in hip-hop, none in easy listening, none in popo, none in... hey, HEY!!!

    Ain't nobody home!

    Is this a bad joke by a sniggering Hilary Rosen? Is this her plan to give artists 100% of.... NOTHING?
    I thought eMusic was the height of marginality, but these guys have them beat.

    As for Chuck, I'd LOVE to see the pitch for this business model:

    1. pay for lotsa hosting & bandwidth
    2. 100% to artist = no margin
    3. ???
    4. profit!!!

    Now I can't wait til monday...

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  28. More convenient services available by Gutar · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have been using World Party Music (http://www.wpmusic.com) for several years and it is much more convenient. They charge a flat fee of $1.00 for handling, they do all the inventory handling, shipping, and just send me a check for the amount of my sales minus $1.00 for each sale. They charge the customer the shipping charges and they are responsible for any taxes on the sale.

  29. CDBaby by jsebrech · · Score: 3, Informative

    This has already been done before. Go take a look (and listen) at cdbaby. They have over 34,000 artists, and a lot of them are pretty darn good. I buy most of my music there.

    1. Re:CDBaby by Sonicboom · · Score: 1

      CDBaby Rocks!

      I run a small indie record label and I have been using CDBaby.com. They're HONEST - send checks out on time for the correct ammount - and keep track of sales for you via an administrative login. They also email you when they only have a few copies left.

      We have regular distribution thru indie distributors that I won't mention - but they take a big cut and you have to make sure you keep your invoices up to date and chase them down for payments.

      Here's how it works:

      CDBABY - sells cd's for $10 - we get $7.
      Other distributors - sell same cd for $14-17 and give us somewhere between $5.00-6.00.

      Go figure.

      --
      [Connection closed by foreign host]
  30. EMusic rules by Chazmati · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Your sig mentions EMusic. I listen to a lot of jazz. For the price of a CD every month, I get unlimited *legal* MP3 downloads of classic stuff. Bought a Penguin guide to jazz on CD to help sort through EMusic's collection, and have pulled maybe 11G of tunes in three months (and I haven't been hitting it that hard). It's practically more than one can listen to.

    I guess it's a product life-cycle thing. Relatively few people are buying classic jazz these days (compared to top 40/pop/alternative), so the record labels are figuring they'll take what they can get for it.

    1. Re:EMusic rules by 26199 · · Score: 1

      Good, isn't it?... I've downloaded a whole range from emusic, and it's really helped the depth and breadth of my collection...

      Definitely good value if they offer something you like.

    2. Re:EMusic rules by timeOday · · Score: 1

      I was an emusic subscriber. Even though I have now terminated my membership, I have to say it was worth what I spent on it (approx $70) I found several artists I never would have, and burned some CDs I still enjoy regularly. I eventually quit because it was taking more and more searching between each "find," but I might sign up again in a year or two, and see what new stuff they have.

  31. check the site. by vena · · Score: 2, Informative

    he's charging artists to list their merch there. i assume this is how he plans to run the site.

  32. "Nothing matters" by eagl · · Score: 1

    Has anyone else noticed that under the "kitchen sink" page down by the assorted links section, slashdot is linked with the tag "News for Nerds Nothing matters"

    Interesting slam...

    1. Re:"Nothing matters" by anonicon · · Score: 1

      Hi Eagl.

      I guess I should add a ;-) next to that link since it's clear that it matters to me (or else I wouldn't put the link there in the first place).

      In all seriousness, it's a joke and a takeoff on what some people think Slashdot is. My bad for perpetuating that image when I'm actually joking.

      Peace,
      Chuck

    2. Re:"Nothing matters" by eagl · · Score: 1

      Oh, ok :)

      My mistake for being snippy in my comment, sorry. I should probably leave editorial comments about other people's web sites to the professionals. When I saw that link I had a micro-flashback to a site that got slashdotted a few weeks ago that put up some rather sarcastic commentary/flamage about slashdot, and I made an incorrect assumption.

      Mea culpa. Thanks for keeping your site up. It's a great resource to protect everyone from companies who are trying to hide the fact that they're deliberately selling damaged goods.

  33. Where can I go to get some Indie Music? by miskatonic+alumnus · · Score: 1

    I support my indie artists.

    Jim Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus, Manorexia, Baby Zizanie) has a couple of cd's for sale at foetus.org. Radiolarian Ooze is awesome. Check out his aud/vid link for some samples.

    Another oldie but goodie is Alternative Tentacles where you can find Jello Biafra and lots more.

    Any other good indie stuff for sale out there?

  34. Comparison with CD Baby by Grapes4Buddha · · Score: 1
    I think a couple of other people have mentioned CD Baby already. They are by far the most popular way for indie artists to get their stuff out.

    While Fat Chuck's is subscription based (you pay a $60 annual fee), CD Baby charges $4 per CD sold. So Fat Chuck's is a better deal if you know you are going to sell more than 15 discs (probably a fair bet).

    The other difference I see is that Fat Chuck's only processes the transactions, they don't ship the CDs. CD Baby is a real on-line store and maintains inventory. When they start to run low on stock they send you an email. If they run out they won't sell your disc anymore (but they will issue "rain checks" if they are relatively certain they will be receiving more soon). Derek (CD Baby's president) is a great guy with a lot of music industry experience as well, and he puts out a lot of advice for aspiring artists.

    Somehow I think I'd rather just pursue my own online transaction capability rather than go through Fat Chuck's.

    1. Re:Comparison with CD Baby by anonicon · · Score: 1

      Hi Grapes!

      First, check out the overview. It's $60 for year 1 and $40 year after year 1. You get your *own* Internet merchant account and you keep all the money that the CC processor doesn't take.

      Per shipping, the only way to do shipping is A) yourself and keep everything, or B) pay to send your CDs to a company somewhere and watch them keep $4/CD and the shipping charge for each CD.

      If you want to pursue your own online transaction capability, I encourage you to. CCNow charges $9.95/month, PayPal does a ~good job for the 30-some countries it accepts payments from, and you're free to buy your own merchant account, but it's a bit expensive.

      Speaking briefly, we've tried hard to make this really simple and really easy for artists who shouldn't have to be web design or financial instrument experts. And, at the end of the day, we're the only site around that allows artists to keep 100% of the money that fans pay for their music or merchandise.

      Peace.

  35. Music by blackmonday · · Score: 1

    I've been looking for something like this for a while. My band (see sig) uses Papal, but we only get one or two orders a week, we sell most of our stuff at shows. I think Paypal is a little cheesy and unprofessional, but setting up your own credit card payment system is way out of a small band's league.

    Chuck is just spreading the costs of the credit card system amongst all the bands.

    What I didn't see is ho well it integrates into an existing site, so theoretically people buy a CD without even knowing they're in a frame on a different site. Maybe I just answered my own question.

    1. Re:Music by An+El+Haqq · · Score: 1

      What I didn't see is ho well it integrates into an existing site, so theoretically people buy a CD without even knowing they're in a frame on a different site. Maybe I just answered my own question.

      Check out the demo page. It probably answers your question.

  36. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by anonicon · · Score: 5, Informative

    As for 0 artists, you're right. We launched about 36-48 hours ago, the idea's been in development for about 6 months.

    Per bandwidth, 300gb/mo is $95.00. If I need more, I can get 2tb/mo for about $600/mo.

    As far as keeping 0%, that's absolutely no joke. When you pay for an artist's CD, the money moves from your bank through the processor (2CheckOut) directly to the artist. We keep nothing because we're not even in the payment stream.

    My expenses for now are $10/month for cheap hosting. I think I can handle it. :-) Remember, if there was no opportunity to stay in business, the idea wouldn't have been started. We're not interested in being a dot-bomb.

    Peace.

  37. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by anonicon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bandwidth is cheap. Ads are not cheap since they generally alienate your audience and cost you visitors (pop-ups! pop-unders! egads, the horrors!).

    For more info:
    http://www.fatchucks.com/about.html

    Scroll to the end. No ads.

  38. I am crushed by flyneye · · Score: 1

    I am crushed to see Einsturzende Neubauten on the list.I remember when they were an anarchistic band all about the beauty of destruction and decay.
    Now they are just corporate dupes playing dance music.
    *sniffle*

    --
    *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
    1. Re:I am crushed by miskatonic+alumnus · · Score: 1

      Under Berlin Babylon, you'll find this.

      At the bottom, a guy from the US says he went to E.N.'s website where "Blixa also claims the band wasn't even told about the protection by the label and they didn't know until they saw the finished product. Furthermore, it appears the band will not be applying copy protection to CDs produced in the immediate future."

      I dig E.N. too.

    2. Re:I am crushed by flyneye · · Score: 1

      whew....
      thanks man.

      --
      *Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
  39. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  40. does 'get everything' include by bayankaran · · Score: 1

    groupies?

    --
    Tat Tvam Asi
  41. Re:CDBaby (Redundant) by anonicon · · Score: 1

    Consider checking out this post from above you:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=62025&cid=5814 602

    When artists sign up with us, 100% of the money that fans pay for their music goes to the artist (after the CC company takes their cut). CD Baby keeps $4/album and they keep the shipping. When you're selling your album for $15, which scenario do you believe you'll make more money in for each sale?

    Sorry, the devil is in the details. This has never been done before outside of live shows and car trunk sales.

    Peace. :-)

  42. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All they have to do is hold out long enough for some of the businesses they're competing with to start feeling the pain. Then they can sell their website to their competitors (who will buy it just to stop losing customers).

  43. Am I missing something? by grooveFX · · Score: 1

    I went to their website, and their is a $60 account payment fee to start, $40 a year afterward. I'm sorry, a band could set up a website and sell online with Paypal for a cheaper price than that. It bothers me that they tell the bands "keep 100% of your profits".

  44. Daddy, where does the merchandise come from? by DaveOf9thKey · · Score: 1

    Fatchuck's 100% offer is a nice marketing gimmick, but it conveniently neglects to tell artists that they have to have the stuff first beforethey can sell it. If a musician pays out for 100 pro-grade CDs and 100 decent T-shirts, signs up on Fatchuck's for $60, and only sells a handful of each in 12 months, the artist is still out for the cost of making the CDs and T-shirts. It's one thing if it's a touring band that can sell their stuff at gigs, too, but if they can do that, why pay the extra $40/year?

    I dare say that CafePress.comand its high base prices are still a better option for a lot of artists that can't afford to pay up front for the goods, although Mixonic tends to offer better rates for CDs. Why there aren't more inexpensive CD creation services like those two really baffles me. (And yes, I know about MP3.com and Ampcast, but CafePress and Mixonic don't ask for $100/year to sign up and don't fill your CD with ads like MP3.com does.)

    --

    Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
    1. Re:Daddy, where does the merchandise come from? by anonicon · · Score: 1

      Hi Dave!

      One point. Whether you sell through Fat Chuck's or any other site (CD Street, CD Baby, Amazon), you still have to assume the risk of having it created no matter who your store front is. Sorry, but I think most artists already understand that and it would be pretty insulting for me to tell them. :-)

      As far as touring bands, this is a great idea. If the band's out touring, they can choose to suspend their account (since they can't ship their goods while on the road) or if they have a reliable friend back at the ranch, they can receive Internet orders for their music from both the cities they've just gigged at and other places where their self-promotions have created interest. To be blunt, if $40/year is too much, that's cool! But I think someone might be missing the boat a little. :-)

      Peace.

  45. ignore music in the vault! by rjnagle · · Score: 3, Interesting
    more about creative commons music . Opsound is a site that puts music into the public domain and properly tags them as such. The backlash from the Verizon decision is probably going to kill the music industry, as "free-to-distribute" music gains more cachet.

    Actually, because of the Verizon case, I have decided to boycott all commercially recorded music which forbid the rights to free distribution. By boycott, I don't merely mean "refusing to buy" CD's. I mean refusing even to listen or download such music (even illegally). Yes, that probably means that I will no longer listen to Philip Glass, Suzanne Vega, etc. Once they wise up and liberalize their licenses, I might consider listening to them again. And I might also consider checking their CD's out of the library (whenever I feel a pang of nostalgia, in the same way that a Russian might for a moment miss a gulag's watery soup).

    The restrictive licenses of music companies essentially lock commercial music in the vault. I'm not interested in picking locks anymore just for a momentary glimpse at these so-called "precious" flowers. I'm interested in enjoying what is free out in the free air. Let all those "precious" flowers in the vault lose their color, rot away and turn into crap. Good riddance.

    We as creative artists need to wean ourselves from this enslavement that we call "copyright enforcement." The people and companies who benefit by starving artists, drafting exploitative contracts and preventing works of art from being distributed freely deserve nothing less than our contempt.

    You may say: how could I survive without vault music? Simple. If the music rots away in the vault, it was already dead to begin with. Who wants to keep dead flowers around? Instead of locking flowers in the vault, it is better to appreciate them in the open where it's easy to pick and admire. We are like bees admiring the flowers all around us, flitting about, taking what we need and moving on (and propagating the beauty of what we see at the same time). Flowers look pretty among other flowers, not inside some ugly dirty vault guarded by lawyers with vulture-like beaks. As the public areas become more covered with flowers, the desire to possess the rotting heaps in the vault will seem more bizzare, less relevant. The best way to increase the number of flowers in this world is to open the gardens up to bees. Anyway, it is folly to think that a group of lawyers (and that is essentially what a music company is ) owns a song or a human voice or an image. The copyright to Beauty is owned by one person, and that is God. His lawyers are ruthless and know the law of nature backwards and forwards. The license they enforce allows infinite creation and multiplication, but banishes those who say beauty belongs to one.

    Freeing myself from the music of the vault provides an opportunity to learn about artists with more enlightened views toward distribution. I plan to patronize them in many ways, including donations. Also, I plan to attend more concerts and still pay for my commercial-free Internet radio ($5 a month) until decent creative commons radio stations emerge. It doesn't mean that I am opposed to paying money for music per se. But when I pay for music, I want either to have free distribution rights and/or the certainty that the artist is receiving at least 50% of the money I am paying. What do artists for major labels now receive? 1%?

    Actually lawyers are not completely the culprit here. It would be a trivial matter for lawyers on either the artist's or industry's side to draft a limited duration copyright. All ownership rights could expire after about 5 or 10 years. Artists are partially to blame for not insis

    --
    Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
    1. Re:ignore music in the vault! by Eneff · · Score: 1

      Wait...

      There's no way for the artist to even break even on such a proposition!

      I'm not talking the big 6, I'm talking the independant label... The Ani DiFrancos, or Atoosas, et al...

      I'm not talking about millions of dollars, just enough to pay the costs of producing such music and some compensation for the time involved, even at McDonalds wages.

    2. Re:ignore music in the vault! by Deagol · · Score: 1
      I think it could work, but it'll take a looooong time to make any inroads. Look at the open source models for inspiration.

      For example, let's say I have a bunch of tunes I've produced and I add them to the Creative Commons site above. Though I didn't see a license that quite matched the GPL, imagine I had my stuff under a license that said, "You can use this work as-is for any purpose, public or private. You can even make derivatives of this work. However, if you release the derivative (play in public or broadcast on any medium), you must apply the same license to that derivative work."

      Say FOX News wants to air one of my pieces as the background music for a news clip. If left unmodified, they can do that without paying me dime. If they do edit the work themselves, they must allow anyone to redistribute that tune (say either from a recording off of TV or via a copy on their website). If FOX wants exclusive use rights for the recording, they can pay me to record the song to their specs.

      In all three examples, I get exposure, which may lead to for-pay contracts. And in one of the scenarios, I can get money for a re-recording.

      I don't program or record music, so my analogy may be a bit off, but there is potential. This exact example may not quite work for written or visual works without some tweaking.

      I see things getting muddled, though. For music, does the license apply to the recording, the lyrics, or the composition? Artists will need to be verbose about just what they are releasing under these licenses.

    3. Re:ignore music in the vault! by rjnagle · · Score: 1

      sure there is. First, I don't think artists require an enormous amount of money to produce and/or distribute a song. There have been Slashdot stories about how production costs have diminished dramatically.

      Fairtunes is a place where you can pay the artist directly. (Of course, that merely means you are shifting production costs to the artist, which I think is fair). Fairtunes doesn't seem very well established though. Perhaps a better organization exists to handle the transaction.

      The other thing is: cd's need to be cheaper. gosh, burning a CD from a computer takes less than 5 minutes. If an artist had two burners going simultaneously, they could have enough to sell at concerts for under $10. I just returned from a music festival where artists were setting their own CD's for about $15. Hey, I realize that they get a bigger share of that than they would normally, but how much did they have to pay for these copies.

      The other deal is for music labels to set a time limit on their exclusive rights to it. 5-10 years seems reasonable. Do you realize that almost no music exists in the public domain yet? That is really a shame.

      --
      Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
  46. The downhill slide continues... by pongo000 · · Score: 1

    In the interest of fair disclosure, it should be pointed out that the submitter of this article (anonicon) is a principal of the company.

    Which makes this article nothing more than a blatant advertising piece.

    Taco, why don't you put the advertising articles where they belong: In the banner ads. Stop wasting our time with "submissions" that are nothing more than thinly-disguised marketing pitches.

  47. 100% EXCEPT for setup fees, wire service fees... by Nova+Express · · Score: 1

    I guess it's too much for Slashdot submitters and moderators to actually read the site they're linking to, but if they did take this extrodinary and nigh-unheard of step, they would see that the the phrase "independent musicians receive 100% of the money that fans pay for their music or merchandise (of course, after the credit card company takes their cut from the payment)" is demonstrable false. Lets look at the other fees mentioned on the site itself , shall we?

    "Fat Chuck's Music costs $60 for the first year and $40 per year afterwards. The only other fees associated with Fat Chuck's Music are below:

    1. Paid by Check. Getting paid by check in the U.S. or Canada is $4 per check. However, direct deposit is free! Check payment is free outside of the U.S. or Canada since direct deposit is not possible there.

    2. Wire Fees. Wire fees change depending on how much is sent to you. Check out the complete chart for more information.

    Wire Payment Fees

    To wire your payments to you.

    $100-$200 Gross Sales -> $33 Wire Fee

    $200-$300 Gross Sales -> $30 Wire Fee

    $300-$400 Gross Sales -> $27 Wire Fee

    $400-$500 Gross Sales -> $24 Wire Fee

    $500-$600 Gross Sales -> $21 Wire Fee

    $600-$700 Gross Sales -> $18 Wire Fee

    $700-$800 Gross Sales -> $15 Wire Fee

    $800-$900 Gross Sales -> $12 Wire Fee

    $900-$1000 Gross Sales -> $9 Wire Fee

    $1000-$1100 Gross Sales -> $6 Wire Fee

    $1100-$1200 Gross Sales -> $3 Wire Fee

    $1200+ Gross Sales -> No Wire Fee"

    Some of these may indeed seem very reasonable (though the wire service fees seem a bit stiff), but it is far, far away from the "100% except for credit card fees" implied by the over-eager submitter. It took me all of 45 seconds to find this imformation. Is it too much to ask submitters and moderators to do likewise?

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  48. Enough already! by Tinfoil · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some claim this has been done before with CD Baby. CD Baby (as mentioned in another post) takes $4 per CD sold, plus shipping and handling. Others mention PayPal, obviously forgetting the problems exposed recently with PayPay.

    Chuck's site is a popular site already with the corrupt CD list, and it's only a matter of time before they come. So, rather then pan the idea because it may not look professional or because it doesn't have any artists signed up yet, applaud it and Chuck for wanting to do the right thing for the artist, giving them the money they deserve.

  49. Re:CDBaby (Redundant) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Consider checking out this post from above you:

    oops! The comment you linked to was submitted after the comment you replied to. Therefore, by generally accepted Slashdot procedure, the comment you replied to was not Redundant.

  50. Re:100% EXCEPT for setup fees, wire service fees.. by Zerth · · Score: 1

    So basically you are nitpicking the difference between "100% except for credit card fees" and "100% except for transaction fees"? Heck, I assumed that credit=transaction right off the bat, although my GF is a business-type so I might have developed a slightly off-kilter filter than you.

  51. What the hell? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    We're outsourcing our music to them too? Have you ever SEEN a Bollywood film??? Have you ANY IDEA about the all singing all dancing fromage factor?

    Oh... wait... never mind...

  52. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who is your webhost. I like those prices. Is it colo?

  53. Re:Europeans by anonicon · · Score: 1

    Hi Anarxia.

    Actually, the owner and the site are both U.S.-based. The translation flags are there for the benefit of an non-native English speakers who visit the site and want to read it in their language, not mine. :-)

    Hope this helps!
    Chuck

  54. Good Steve Albini quote: by NecrosisLabs · · Score: 1

    Someone from Urge Overkill had been trashing Albini in a magazine. His response was "Well, in five years I'll still be making records, while they'll be giving blow jobs in bus station bathrooms for pocket change."

  55. sevcom.com by moscow · · Score: 4, Informative
    Another alternative is to find artists who make their own CDs. There's no chance of anyone other than Severed Heads getting the money when you buy from sevcom because they burn the CD when you pay the money.

    Severed Heads also offer improved versions of their older stuff - and the latest album (Op) comes with a key to access 'upgrades' - i.e. extra songs and new versions. On top of all this, you can hear just about everything they sell as a (low bandwidth) MP3 before you buy.

    Cut up the middleman!

    --
    Who would believe in penguins,unless he had seen them? Conor O Brien - Across Three Oceans
  56. RE: I'd buy this stuff... by fshalor · · Score: 1

    If could listen to the music first...
    (had to do it)

    --
    -=fshalor ::this post not spellchecked. move along::
  57. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by anonicon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hi Anon!

    I pay $9.95/month for 30gb of traffic at hostforweb.com, a pretty good hosting company. If I need to go to 300gb/month, they charge 95.00. The next step up in case things get crazy is sanethosting.com:
    http://www.sanethosting.com/

    They charge $200/month for colocated hosting (including 330gb of transfer) and $99/month for every 330gb block after #1.

    Hope this helps!
    Chuck

  58. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by darkpurpleblob · · Score: 1

    Heh, didn't read the about page. It pre-empted my next point (to run text ads ala Google).

    Fair enough if you don't want to advertise on your site. Cool idea, and I'm looking forward to purchasing in the future :)

  59. Your webdesign needs help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have to *hunt* for the list of stuff to buy. It should take me to that with big pictures of the things on sale. For 6 months in development.... your deployment plan sucks.

  60. with your site design skills... good luck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First, I think your business plan sucks. Most cash-strapped bands would rather pay you a percentage of sales with a cap. This way, those bands just getting started don't have to fork over huge cash...$60 is a big risk.

    Second, why do they need a merchant account for each band? Fuck that. I want to shop like Amazon and buy a bunch of albums from many vendors.

    Third, they should ship you the CD-ROM image, and the cover art, and you could charge them a resonable fee to assemble the CD and ship it... if the customer doesn't want a CD-ROM download, etc.

    Fourth, your web site design, and organization is pitiful. It's confusing and someone looking to buy alternative music doesn't have a hope of finding what they want.

    Basically... you arn't offering valueable services. You don't understand your market. Good luck. Too bad you got publicity on Slash.Dot, I'm sure there are many other sites doing it better that deserve metion... your site, unfortunately, isn't one of them.

  61. making money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The last thing I want to do is make money off of "wannabe musicians"

    Stop trying to be altruistic and just offer a good service for the money. By trying to be 'free' you are offering a stupid service that just makes it worse for newbie music people. Why don't you spend some time and offer a *valueable* service?

  62. Perhaps if your idea had merit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but it's just plain dumb. The other businesses will work beacuse they are smater than you

  63. Awesome? by StarKruzr · · Score: 1

    "People who are uncompromising with what they believe"

    I should point out that this description also fits Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Stalin.

    Your wordage essentially means "people who are unreceptive to dialogue." I don't think that's very awesome.

    --

    +++ATH0
  64. 2CheckOut by Nasarius · · Score: 1

    Uh, wait. I can set up my own account at 2CheckOut for $50. The only other service he provides is hosting. This is nothing "revolutionary", people.

    --
    LOAD "SIG",8,1
    1. Re:2CheckOut by anonicon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hi Nasarius.

      You're right and you're wrong. You're absolutely right that you can sign up for your own merchant account at 2CheckOut for $49 and take it from there.

      The rest of the pie is where you're somewhat wrong. Besides hosting their page at artist.fatchucks.com, we also take care of all these items:

      Creating the shopping links and variable shipping for each item the artist wants to sell, both on our end and on the 2CO end.

      Taking care of scanning and editing the album art so that people can see what they're buying, adding the track lists, making fan and media reviews about the artist centrally available, and otherwise providing a central location for fans to find info on the artist.

      Providing order and customer support help for artists who need help handling the shipping and ordering aspects to their account when there's an issue.

      Creating one location and one contact point for both artists and customers to talk to when they need the tools we provide, instead of having to deal with X parties, each of whom have their own agendas. We're here for both artists and the public.

      And of course, if the idea is so-so, why hasn't anyone thought to harness the off-the-shelf tools that are publicly available to create a service that helps Indies this way? I looked for months and no one's doing it.

      Peace,
      Chuck

  65. Give him a break by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    You guys are always so harsh. He just opened, and I for one think it's a great idea. I can think of at least a couple reasons why this is a good idea above having your own site:
    • It's cheaper than hosting your own. Even the $60 for the first year is like $5/mo, which you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere unless you have a static IP that you're using for other stuff anyway.
    • It's lots easier, especially if you're not a slashdot geek who's willing to go through setting up some sort of thing with paypal or ibill or someone similar.
    • It's centralized; it'll create some awareness. People who don't know about your wicked cool band are browsing this site looking for new stuff, and they'll find you, when they well may not have if you were just hosting your own site elsewhere.
      • Anyway, cool idea. Best of luck!
  66. All those corrupted CDs... by payndz · · Score: 1
    ...and not one - literally, not a single *one* - that I would want to rip tracks from even if I could. Staggering.

    Actually, I tell a lie - but the AOTC soundtrack ripped perfectly on my Bondi Blue G3 at work, even though my iMac and iBook at home didn't much care for it. But seeing as I was given the CD for free anyway as a promotional item, the net loss to the music biz is £0.00...

    --
    You must think in Russian.
  67. been doing this for the last year... by alizard · · Score: 2, Informative
    We're doing our CDs via SwiftCD, our T-shirts and other merchandise via Cafepress. We may add a vendor or two later.

    MP3 sound samples (full songs) you can download off our site.

    All we did was upload (we snailmailed the CD for replication) our info, all we have to do with fulfillment is wait for them to send the checks. They handle the credit card stuff and create the goods on demand. The prices are a bit high, but creating stuff on a one-off basis is expensive even with everything basically automated.

    Check out our site... it's in the sig below.

  68. fatchucks.com doesn't have any music by iamacat · · Score: 1

    Seems artists are not anxious to get 100%. What gives?

    1. Re:fatchucks.com doesn't have any music by anonicon · · Score: 1

      Hi Cat,

      The site launched about 36-48 hours ago, so it's just now getting to be known. In the spirit of open source design, I decided to shove it out there and worry about getting artists signed up later (or adding features later).

      So, to answer your question, no one knows about it yet, but that should change a little. :-)

      Peace,
      Chuck

  69. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by Julian+Morrison · · Score: 1

    Cheap hosting, hmm.

    Slashdot effect, hmm.

    Your bills may increase next month, I fear.

  70. Obligatory response to "obligatory correction:" by sean23007 · · Score: 1

    Obligatory use of the word obligatory in an obligatory obligatory. Of all the words to select to become ubiquitous, why obligatory? Obligatory obligatory obligatory. I guess it's because it can replace any word in a sentence and it makes sense (enough so that you can make fun of anyone who doesn't know what you're talking about).

    --

    Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
  71. Remember by Exiler · · Score: 1

    The RIAA is making money of each and every CDR sold.

    --
    Banaaaana!
  72. Re:Europeans by anarxia · · Score: 1

    My bad :) Cheers to the webmasters for considering non-English speakers. Anyway my point was that you can't draw conclusions from a (possibly) not representative sample about the whole population.

  73. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by shepd · · Score: 1

    If bandwidth gets to be too much, why not consider BitTorrent? I'm sure if you wrote a custom tracker, you'd be able to keep piracy to a minimum and lower your bandwidth costs.

    Just a thought.

    --
    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  74. Music Web sites And Computerized music. YUK! by ratfynk · · Score: 1

    All this kaffuffle over DRM and music on the web sure makes real musicians crindge. The very thought of using a junky sound card and cheap crap audio to play compressed junk downloaded off the web tells me more about the state of the recording industry than any slashdot article to date. Todays recordings are so heavely saturated with production added tracks. The music sounds equally bad with obligatory boosted db under 200 Hertz, to kill the crap added in the mids. Over 200 Hertz is where most real music happens and a lack of real musicianship becomes obvious. The fact is that todays average web music listener has no sense of what they are hearing anyway. What is a music video anyway? It is usually an excuse for a lack of musicianship. Bill Gates is right. The average computer user needs to see everything. Why should a real music listener want to use todays computers for music in the first place. How hot would Brittany be if she was a chunky 200 lb diva, NOT. Musical talent and merit means nothing to todays pop music scene. Thats why pop music web sites selling mp3s are doomed. The great music productions of the 50s 60s still are far better than any crap being turned out today. There are still a few record companies, who re-release great classical, jazz, rock, r&b, folk etc. Apart from that there is no future for the modern record companies, as the visual image of a performer has become more important than the musical content on a disk. Is the record turntable a real musical instrument? Are generated rythym loops good groove? Call me old fashioned. I consider it a compliment. Give me real fingers on strings and someone who can do justice to a good tune, on a well mixed release. For that I will always gladly pay. Who cares about the DRM of the crap coming out of todays one hit wonders, in two years it's mostly worthless and forgotten anyway.

    --
    OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
  75. Re:Artists get 100%? Not for long. by Alphtoo · · Score: 1

    Re: anonicon, sounds like you folks are on the right track to me. I presume you are affiliated with Fat Chuck's, and I have gotten some valuable information from that site. As an old guitar picker/songwriter, I want to wish Fat Chuck's every success. It's time for the RIAA to die. There is just so much great indie music out that most folks will never have a chance to hear, thanks to those money-grubbing RIAA bastards. Long live Fat Chuck's, and may a pox befall the chickens of the RIAA & MPAA. They have outlived their usefulness.

  76. ubiquitous response to ubiquitous obligatory by mekkab · · Score: 1

    Didja ever notice how ubiquitous ubiquitous is? As if it is popping up all over! And given this all pervasive quality of ubiquitous, I'm surprised that we don't see more of it around. I guess I'm much obliged.

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  77. Another Shameless Plug for a Good Unsigned Artist by RedCard · · Score: 1

    Yes, yes, I know. This is a shameless plug. Please Humor me.

    Angie Nussey is an artist that I really like a lot. Piano, vocals and guitar. Good little jam session every monday night.

    Her web site has a bunch of realaudio clips up so you can give her a listen, or order one of her CDs if you feel so inclined.

    PS: I am not her, nor do I know her at all really. I just like her music.

    Thanks!

  78. misplaced faith by alizard · · Score: 1
    http://www.eliangedeon.com ... of course, Murphy's Law dictates that the sig WILL work correctly this time.

    And so it did, but the above link is clickable.

  79. Re: I'd buy this stuff... by Sloshed_dot · · Score: 1

    Me too! If *I* was a musician that is exactly how I would market myself!

    --
    fart/faart/(coarse) (v.intr.): emit intestinal gas from the anus. (n.): emission of intestinal gas from the anus.