Online Business Model for a Band?

Backes asks: "I've seen a lot of submissions about P2P, iTMS, DRM, piracy, and the RIAA, lately. Apparently everyone has an opinion on this and most seem think that the recording industry are a bunch of greedy people that stick it to the consumer as well as their own artists. After hearing some of the stories, I'm not even sure that getting signed to a label would be the best course of action for an aspiring musician or band. So what is a better option? What would you, the Slashdot community, do to make it big on your own using the Internet?" "What kinds of features would a site need? Would you pay for downloads of MP3s from a band's site or not? At what price? Would donations work, or would everyone just freeload? How often would you need updates or new songs to keep you coming back? If downloads were free, would you then buy a full length album from the site just to get the CD? What special features should the CD include? How would you get your name out? What do you think is the best course of action for a band that wants to completely circumvent the whole music industry process and do it themselves?"

Comments

Magnatune

[kernel_dan]

Check out Magnatune. Motto: We're a record label. But we're not evil.

I'm so glad you asked..

[peculiarmethod]

Well, I am not famous, yet.. but I am working on exactly what you speak of, and here is a simplified version of what I am doing:

I have a living room studio where I record all of our practices and jam sessions to firewire harddrives. I use 24 channels to mix down about 6 different sized diaphram condensers and a few 57s here and there. There's all the gear we need (amps, bass, guitar, two keys, and a trap set), effects, a PA, and we have and now own the only copies of all our material. We all learn and teach each other to engineer.. play.. compose.. we all treat it democraticaly when decisions are to be made about lyrics, composition, song selection, mastering, mechandise, etc. With all this in our own hands, we all sell CDs and merch at our gigs and in our spare time (running to local record stores and getting things on consinement), and reinvest certain monies from band oriented sales into necessary things like legal docs or advice.. expensive promotional materials such as ads, cds, etc. Repeat.. profit. we've removed the need for a label at the expense of not having everything all at once. But with a bit of work, the band can work like a sucessful startup company, and we're having one hell of a time while we're at it!

pego the jerk

Re:I would like to know

[redivider]

Register with the US copyright office. It's not expensive. Its $30 to register a whole album worth of music and lyrics.

http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html

There you will find Form SR (Sound Recording) and instructions on how to register.

Re:I would like to know

[ZephyrXero]

Copyrights are fine when used properly. It's when giant corporations own them and the artists ignorantly sign their rights away b/c they feel it's their only option that it becomes a problem. But yes... make sure you decide what kind of copy rights you would like to retain and then have it posted on your site along with your music downloads. It's just as valid as any other printed media. I'd suggest looking through your options at the creative commons first too.

Re:Get your priorities right

[ndtechnologies]

Well, the web hasn't been totally utilized as an asset for bands, in fact many underestimate the power of it. For years i had my bands music up on sites like Angelfire back in the mid 90's. Now in the world of broadband, I decided to start my own online Music Store http://ind-music.com/ because I wanted a way in which I could sell my music online, and still be able to make some money. At this point, we have over 20+ bands that have signed up, and we also work to get them gigs here in Nashville as well as feature them in commercials for our site on local radio stations. The artist doesn't get charged for it. The site takes a commission on the song sold, but the numbers work out so that the artist makes more per song sold, than they do on other competing sites. They set the price for their songs and the bands also earn more money as they sell more downloads. Best of all the accounts are free, and when someone purchases a song, it stays in their account for two years. None of this 90 day expiring DRM stuff. Also, the band doesn't have to give away their creative freedom. They can make the music that they want, without fear of being dropped. The bands choose when they want to close their accounts. We really try to do as much for the artist as possible. I am as frustrated with the Recording Industry as the next person. That is why I created my own.

Re:I would like to know

[bcrowell]

Just to amplify on the parent post, you automatically own copyright on anything you create once it's fixed in a tangible medium (recorded, written down,...) but yes, it is wise to send in the registration form and the $30 anyway. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. If you have to sue somebody for infringement, you have more remedies available if you did the registration.
2. It proves that you really were the author, and that you wrote it first.

BTW, point #1 can be important for OSS. If you don't do the registration, and someone violates the GPL, you can only sue them for actual damages. But your actual damages are likely to be zero, since it's open source.

On a different topic, I have some exeprience with bypassing the traditional book publishing industry with some of my own free-as-in-speech books. Here's some advice:

• Keep your expectations reasonable, and make sure that if you never see a dime of revenue, you'll still have had a good time doing it, and won't have lost any money you couldn't afford to lose.
• Don't underestimate how much work it is to set up all the functions of a publisher (or in your case, record label). Taking credit card orders is a pain to set up, and entails continuing hassles. Are you going to have https on your site? -- another hassle, and another expense. What's going to happen with orders if you go on vacation? If you're cursed with success, how much bandwidth are you going to need, and what kind of webhosting costs will that bring with it? How are you going to advertise? Advertising is expensive, and it can be hard to tell if you've reached the right audience, or what the return was on a particular amount of money you spent on advertising.

Watch your audience, too

[adoll]

I run sites for bands: 1 2. The single most important thing for them is getting signed to do live performances. This means the site is promoter friendly, as well as fan friendly. Tell them when you are playing and where. Fans and festival promoters like to know when you are in their area.

Have your promo pack on the site. Only one of my Clients does, but that gives them an advantage over the competition. Make sure the promoters know who you are, what you play, and what you need on stage for plugs and boards.

And photos! Fans love em. Promoters need em. Find yourself a good PHP type package like yappa-ng and smile for the birdie!

My $0.05 about music online: consider it your radio play. Release a few "singles" to your website (and wherever else you can) and don't skimp on the quality. The promoters are listing to a dozen MP3s a day and if yours doesn't stand out, then you won't be on stage.

-AD
Shameless link to my own template

Re:I would like to know

[belial]

I've taken copyright law classes specifically for the music business. The 'poor man's copyright' was brought up several times, and although it can be used as partial proof, it really doesn't stand up. In fact, it can hurt you.

If you sue someone for infringement, you can use your dated envelope for evidence (although not proof) that your story is what you say it is, but damages can only be collected from the date your work is filed at the library of congress.

If you were to file properly instead of going through the 'poor man' routine, you'll make out a lot better in an infringement case.

Also remember, Copyrights are given for 'original' works. They don't have to be 'unique'.

It is very possible that two people can come up with the exact same song. lyrics, chord progression, etc.

At that point, the owner of the older work (who is claiming infringement) must show that the infringer had access to the original work.