Evaluating a System for Selling and Delivering MP3s?

Dredd2Kad asks: "I'd really like Slashdot's opinion on this. I recently secured an MP3 distribution deal with an indie record label, and negotiations with other indie labels and artists are in the works. The music will be distributed through my internet radio station's website. As you know, if you can sell music in a format such as MP3 you eliminate the costs of packaging, shipping, handling. You do have to contend with bandwidth charges though. Most indie labels and artists seem happy to pass along the savings to customers and stimulate sales. What I have built is simple and functional. We are trying to add value to the MP3 albums we sell by including quality artwork that can be printed onto CD labels and jewel case inserts (so you aren't just getting a 'bunch of files'). What would make you want to buy music in this way? What types things would turn you away? What are the positives and negatives of selling music in this manner? Do you think this is a viable alternative to someone who doesn't want to pay $10 or $15 for a physical CD? Does the format the music is in or on have an impact on how serious you take it?"

Comments

Re:People also want quality features.

[Alan Partridge]

at the risk of being labeled pedantic, the iTMS does not sell mp3 files...

sorry

Re:People also want quality features.

[black mariah]

I always suspected it, now I'm sure you're a dumbass. Talent means dick in the music business. How the fuck do you think it got the way it is now in the first place? Go check out the sales figures for artists like John Vanderslice, Anamude... fuck, ANYTHING on any smaller indie label. 5,000 isn't a small amount. 5,000 is a fucking success and a half. 20,000 is more than enough to fund and entire fucking label for a year. Pull your head out, and go talk to some real musicians in your area.

way to go editors!

[dAzED1]

5,000 customers a month, I'm reading. Well, seems the slashdot editors still don't realize how many people come here - they've gotten that many already this morning likely. Good job on letting someone advertize for free their business! Can I get some free advertizing too?

"Dear Slashdot...I'm starting my own business in a lousy job market, due to the fact that I had to move 2700 miles and it'll be a while before I find anything here in no-where-land. I sell {a href=blah.xyzthing.com} xyz thing {/a} and I'd really love it if you'd give me free advertizing to lots and lots of people...err...I mean, if people could tell me what they'd do in this situation."

You all had started getting better at not doing this...oh well

Re:Okay Sir

[HanzoSan]

Thats not what I said. I never said musicians shouldnt be able to profit. I said they should profit. However I dont think they should profit in the CURRENT way of selling CDs.
You can profit off your fans without selling "product", you can sell culture, the scene, the community, etc.

I never said i thought the idea of a subscription was terrible. In fact, I think with certain bands with a large hardcore audience it would be good. If you go back and look at my post i took issue your statements that that a) no one will buy mp3s b) that bands that sell less than 20,000 or 100,000 albums suck c) that enough of the fans of an indie act would subscribe to make it viable

I think you are locked into the current dying industry and ignoring the fact that things are evolving. The world where you can get away with sellinng CDs for $15 are gone. Musicians have to sell their community, and the scene and this is why subscriptions are an option.

Theres other ideas, we could just let the P2P users become the distributors, and give them a cut of the profits or credits for selling mp3s. So if you buy a CD you become a legal distributor and split the profit 50/50 with the creator, totally removing the record companies from the system.

This would make the file sharers into file sellers. Basically you buy your way into the system buy purchasing mp3s, then you earn credits which you can use to buy more mp3s when you sell them, or cash.

If you sell an mp3 for 50 cent you get 25 credits, the other 25 cent goes to the creator. When you get 50 cent you can then legally BUY a new song, which you will sell and so on.

This is an option of how Micropayments can work, I just dont see it working with the RIAA involved or with a middleman involved. We dont need them anymore and its as simple as that.

You can also allow musicians to profit in a napster style P2P with ad revenue, you can use taxes and give them stipends, you can do alot of stuff. The problem isnt musicians getting paid and when you seem to think I dont want musicians to be paid because I support file sharing, you miss the point. I support file sharing because I hate the RIAA, not because I hate the musicians. I know and you know that musicians and consumers would be better off without the RIAA in control, we as fans and musicians can get together and find a way for musicians to profit while consumers get better value.

Consumers want distribution rights, and they should have it, I mean why should the RIAA do it? Let the consumers take the RIAAs cut and suddenly music is trivially cheap if not free. Ad revenue for this system can also be added to give musicians extra money for being popular.Stipends can be given to musicians who are talented, like the eminems of the world, these stipends are given on a yearly basis and they produce music to fuel our culture.

Centralized is the way to go

It can never work because the RIAA isnt allowing it to. You see the RIAA has declared war against the musician and the consumers. I'm a musician and a consumer, so you see the point of view I have. Napster was centralized, and before Napster was even given a chance to figure out how to profit, and then turn that revenue into something which could allow musicians to be paid, the RIAA sued it out of existance.

The industry is evolving and the RIAA wants to hold us back, its over and they know it. Because of their stupidity, now there is no centralization, even if you are right and this would be better its going to be hard to make everyone use one system again, the only way I see it happening is if the government itself sets up an official P2P system and makes it official in the same way the NASDAQ and other markets are "official".

The only thing holding them back from having a vast majority of the us/world catalog online is continued support from the labels which will be forthcoming if people are willing to pay and not pirate.

We no longer need labels, Musicians wont need labels