Options for selling trax?

Have been considering putting some of the better tunes I've been squirreling away up for sale. Ideally:

1) No DRM, downloads in mp3 or FLAC.

2) I control pricing

3) Minimal cuts from middlemen

4) Not a site someone has to make an account for, before buying a track

5) I can upload as many tracks as I want, whenever I want

6) No "storage fees" or bullshit, no signing over ownership

I do PHP/Web dev professionally, so the most obvious thing would be for me to code up my own shop and charge via paypal... but I don't want to reinvent the wheel if someone has a MUSICS STORE script I could just set up + use.

Errata: I already have webhosting, no need to factor that into the price...

If something like Soundclick is just fantastic already, I can deal with giving up a dime or two on the dollar to get the deluxe treatment. Really, though, I'm not sure if I'm gonna sell anything. I want to make the most $$ possible, but I don't want to spend weeks on setting this up as I'm not sure I'll sell anything at all. :)

Also, try setting up a table at a local craft market. I'm not taking the piss, this actually works (to a degree). Some people go looking for the unusual.

  Betty said:

Also, try setting up a table at a local craft market. I'm not taking the piss, this actually works (to a degree). Some people go looking for the unusual.

too hard. i'm just trying to get a little shop rolling, not start a label.

honestly, at first blush soundclick looks to be my answer. if i wind up selling 100s of tracks a day i'll write my own store so i don't have to give up 30% of the proceeds... but 30% is a fair trade for being lazy.

edit: soundclick limits free accounts to 128kbps mp3s... hmm... :\

  hahathhat said:

if i wind up selling 100s of tracks a day i'll write my own store so i don't have to give up 30% of the proceeds...

pretty sure this isnt a problem that you will have to deal with

  beneboi said:

  hahathhat said:

if i wind up selling 100s of tracks a day i'll write my own store so i don't have to give up 30% of the proceeds...

 

pretty sure this isnt a problem that you will have to deal with

it must be lonely inside that big empty head of yours

lol

seriously though, do you even get hundreds of downloads of your songs per day when they are free?

  hahathhat said:

  beneboi said:

  hahathhat said:

if i wind up selling 100s of tracks a day i'll write my own store so i don't have to give up 30% of the proceeds...

 

pretty sure this isnt a problem that you will have to deal with

 

it must be lonely inside that big empty head of yours

Lol at both hahathhat and Beneboi

selling, or attempting to sell your music is absolutely pointless. don't bother. sorry to sound negative, I'm sure the tracks are good and that, it just that you won't sell any - why would you? people can get music from established and acclaimed artists for free from soulseek etc...why would they pay to download yours? your best bet is selling CDs on a stall as already suggested.

Give it a try i say. But it has to be the best u can do, 100% better than ur best, spend the time doing it.Give a brief think about what people want right now?The reality is no one cares about ur new obscure creative processes if it doesnt deliver them the goods. But do try and meet it in the middle with out comprising every u belive in.

Start a new alias then work the myspace peeps, and as much other self promotion as u can, myspace isnt 100% useless no matter what people say, it has its uses,i dont think watmm is right place for any promotion tho, people are too sceptical. The thing is u need to spend a few months getting people into what ur doing, as long as its good enough. Its worth a try but keep the costs to a minimum and then u wont be disapointed. 100 songs a day isnt really realistic, if u cant sell 1 a day that would be a win but still very hard.

  BCM said:

selling, or attempting to sell your music is absolutely pointless. don't bother. sorry to sound negative, I'm sure the tracks are good and that, it just that you won't sell any - why would you? people can get music from established and acclaimed artists for free from soulseek etc...why would they pay to download yours?

as unpopular an opinion as this might be, it's one i completely agree with. making money by selling recorded music is a rapidly fading enterprise. once the media became uncontrollable, so did the ability to profit from it. the only reason records / tapes / CDs made money to begin with was because the companies that created the technologies behind them saw the potential for profit by controlling the outlet of intellectual property via their patents. EMI, RCA, all of the big label players were able to establish their empires because they built the technology, and the only way people could get access to the music was by using that technology.

today that's all gone. music in and of itself has never been saleable. it's always been control of the media it's printed or engraved on. now that's all out the window, and there is no more physical media, so controlling it in the traditional sense is an exercise in desperation and futility. i work in loose proximity to some relatively well-known recording artists from time to time in my professional pursuits, and every single one of them is asking the same questions you are. "how can i get my stuff online and sell MP3s but get the most money i can from it?".

if traditionally major-label acts are asking this question, that should tell you something.

of course, do what you like, but in my opinion, getting it out there to potential fans for free is far more valuable than making a few hundred or even thousand bucks a year in download revenues.

instead, find a way that is unique, valuable, and different to make money off of your art. i get a little annoyed about this, and it's not a personal attack on you at all... in fact this next bit is just generalised, but artists have this amazing sense of entitlement and a belief that they are "owed" something for their music. in LA you see it even more...

"i write 3-chord songs on my acoustic guitar and sing about relationships... why the FUCK am i not being paid handsomely to do this professionally?"

bedroom producers can be even worse. i believe that most of us who make music on our laptops, be it with reason, buzz, logic, pro tools, or audacity, do it because we have a passion for it. because we love doing it. to hear someone then say that nobody should have access to that music without paying for it seems hypocritical.

one might argue that if you have no day job, and all you do is make your music, then how are you supposed to make a living? well perhaps you have chosen an invalid path for making a living. i could just as easily say "i dissolve toilet paper in bins full of rubbing alcohol - it's ALL I DO, so i HAVE TO BE PAID".

again, this has turned into a more generalised rant, and isn't aimed at you, hat. just stuff i've been thinking about for a while.

in a most supreme irony, i'm helping my old boss set up a website for "the day of sharing", which is his (not) brilliant idea that musicians should all pick one day a year to go in to restaurants and shops and walk out with whatever they want without paying (based on the idea that people downloading music is "sharing"). it's a completely different concept, and i'm 100% against the idea, but it's interesting to see lifelong, professional musicians resorting to such childish arguments.

back on the topic, setting up the craft table thing is a more workable solution, with more potential. yes it's more work, and yes it's more financial outlay, but you also have the potential to enhance your art and make it worth someone's time, attention, and money. i'm not making any assumptions about your music - it may be the best thing ever, or complete trash. content aside, if you make something compelling, both aesthetically and musically, and really put your heart and soul into it, people can sense that, and will appreciate it. any slob in a tshirt can put an MP3 up for sale on a website.

all that said, good luck with it, and i hope you find a way to make it all work for you. =)

c

You're better off playing shows and selling cd's there. Plus, licensing your music makes a shit ton more than your albums ever will.

ha, i think i hit a nerve here. there's a lot of bitterness on watmm from people who've had their big biz beat bubble burst. i've been there. i still have a vacation house on the beach of bitterness. what a beach, i tell ya...

anyways, a couple months ago i remember posting here about why i stopped promoting my music, trying to businessify it. really grinds a man down, it does. i'm still never going to go back to that. it's not where my talents lie.

i was very specific when i started this thread, about what i wanted: recommendations about services/software that would let me sell MP3s. many friends have told me they'd buy my music if i ever put it up for sale. people have donated money. more would if i asked, but i'm not going to go around asking my friends for donations. i realized a barebones mp3 store would be a perfect solution. friends could buy those mp3s, no more donations.

i don't expect to make much of anything off this. that's why i want something low-hassle!! to put it into context, i make maybe $50-100 a year running google ads. it doesn't pay rent by any means, but it pays for some beer. and it's recurring -- don't have to do jack shit after i spent an hour or two setting it up. it's getting a couple extra bucks from something i do anyways.

  csl said:

Bandcamp would appear to tick all your boxes. I'm using it for my releases.

thank-you!! this site looks like a winner so far, i will have to read further...

  David R James said:

Give it a try i say. But it has to be the best u can do, 100% better than ur best, spend the time doing it.Give a brief think about what people want right now?The reality is no one cares about ur new obscure creative processes if it doesnt deliver them the goods. But do try and meet it in the middle with out comprising every u belive in.

 

Start a new alias then work the myspace peeps, and as much other self promotion as u can, myspace isnt 100% useless no matter what people say, it has its uses,i dont think watmm is right place for any promotion tho, people are too sceptical. The thing is u need to spend a few months getting people into what ur doing, as long as its good enough. Its worth a try but keep the costs to a minimum and then u wont be disapointed. 100 songs a day isnt really realistic, if u cant sell 1 a day that would be a win but still very hard.

still not quite what i was asking, but good post all the same. thanks!

only aphex, autechre and squarepusher make money from cd sales

dj/play live and get good at it or sell cds at a stall

unless you can crack the incidental music market, in which case make moneys at the cost of your soul

do music for porn films.

Stop selling out damn it!

Nevenen musics store now open for biz!

$free -- 128kmp3 -- free download/stream

$1 -- 320mp3/FLAC/OGG/etc

  BCM said:

do music for porn films.

i so would. but it's like all commercial music, you need connections to the right places to make any real money.

  acid1 said:

Stop selling out damn it!

i'm not. but only because i can't find a buyer...

do what diplo did and make it a free DL for the 128kb with optional donate, or for donations over $10 the lossless flacs.

http://maddecent.com/paperroute/cheap.php

  slightlydrybeans said:

do what diplo did and make it a free DL for the 128kb with optional donate, or for donations over $10 the lossless flacs.

 

http://maddecent.com/paperroute/cheap.php

that is pretty much exactly what i'm doing, sans the FLAC price being lower. do you need your spectacles?

i got to know an old raver that's a festival arranger with tons of connections , i'm selling out to make something the kids like called full on because i can make money that way

stupid music equals cash, people don't want to pay for something to stroke their beards to

hook me up brutha,

i prefer writing beardstrokers but writing stupid music is still buckets of fun.

yeah it's fun as hell

it's just like you don't give a fuck as the imaginary audience follows every step you take

  chimera slot mom said:

yeah it's fun as hell

 

it's just like you don't give a fuck as the imaginary audience follows every step you take

it's just like i... what?

that L.A.R.S. track is the best track i've ever heard from you hat