Bandcamp - Online Music Store of the Future

So, one of our musical ventures "Method Label" has just relaunched. Previously it was called something different, and used Paypal to accept people's money. We're a "pay what you like" label - which made any sort of online shop very difficult to set up. Not many support this method of payment. And neither did Bandcamp, until this month...

Yes, as if by magic, I was trawling the internet looking for an outlet for Method Label's tunes when I heard the news that Bandcamp had just started letting their stores charge what they like to download (if they choose), and not just this, they've started supporting shops for Labels as well. Perfectomundo!

"Well good for you" you might be thinking, "but why bother us with your tales of Ecommerce?". Well I wanted to make sure nobody else ended up settling for mere paypal buttons as I used to, or the STUPID shop that your web provider think is a good idea to include in your package which you CANT EVEN DECIDE ON A DESIGN YOURSELF!

Ok, deep breath, I'm back...

Bandcamp provides an accessible, thorough and FREE service, which I'll wager would rival any paid service you could find. You get your own .bandcamp domain, or you can host your store on your own website. The store is customisable, flexible, and detailed, and allows you to both track and promote your sales with some brilliant features, such as embedding your tunes on blogs and sites, and statistics on plays, downloads and purchases. What's more, the guys that run it are helpful, and have a sense of humour about the way they run their site, which is always refreshing to see.

Am I biased? No, I'm not getting anything out of mentioning this, no freebies from Bandcamp, nothing. I had such a frustrating time trying to find somewhere to sell our music - if I can save one person that effort from writing this article, it really will be worth it. Also, a music resource that's run so well deserves a mention here and there. Check them out!

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Giving it Away? Get it right!

The value of music is something that's been debated a huge amount in recent times, and if the music industry is to get out of this rut, that's no bad thing. Sure, the internet has allowed people to steal music in huge quantities, and in this post I have promised myself not to rant about the positives and negatives of that, so I wont. Another thing the industry has given us is the ability to give our music away for free, as a way of building hype, building reputation, and building a fan-base. Great.

And it is great. Before the internet we couldn't have dreamt of finishing a track, and being able to distribute it to fans all over the globe simultaneously, at the click of a few buttons, and letting people have your music for free is an effective way of persuading people your tunes could just be worth the listen. Easy? Well it sure sounds it, but trust me, there's an art to giving your tracks away. I've devised some ground rules.

1. Collect email addresses. I cannot stress this enough, I've said it before, and I will say it again. Every opportunity you have to take the email address of somebody that might be interested in your music now, or in the future, take it. Plus, in the instance of a track giveaway via your site, it makes it feel legitimate. Check my previous articles for info on why a Mailing List is so damn important.

2. Keep it bitesize! If I see somebody giving away a whole album for free via their myspace, or a link on sendspace, I feel like it's something they've made in their room over the course of a week, on a terrible computer, with terrible speakers, and terrible software. I think it's gonna be terrible, if you hadn't already gathered. This could just be prejudice by me, granted. For somebody who runs a record label I should probably be more forgiving of this kinda thing. But I'm really not, and I'm sure that the connotations of a free album from an artist you've never heard of are the same for most people. Give away a track, maybe two, in the run up to an album or an E.P release, and it will make fans feel like they're getting something exclusive, and build some hype for when the release does come. Sorted.

3. Try and include some artwork. An image for peoples iPods wont go amiss, and it'll make sure they remember who you are. Again, it can make it feel more official and professional too. It's the little things, guys...

4. Get it featured! Your giveaway doesn't have to be exclusive to your own websites and social networking. Get Blogs to feature it too. They're often keen to have the content, and find some new music, and indeed draw people to their site. Using a company to spread the word for you, such as Method Promotion can get your music to hundreds of blogs at once, and even if only 20% were to feature it, you can still reach thousands of readers.

That's it folks. If you have any more tips and ideas, stick them in the comments, hell I may even come back and edit the post if they're good enough.

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Music Matters. Right?

Music Matters, as you've probably heard, is a new initiative encouraging people to enjoy music legally. The Music Matters logo is already being displayed on the sites of HMV, Tesco, and many more, in order to show the legitimacy of the downloads they supply, and that the money they pay is filtering through to the artists.

There's also a string of videos, reminding people of the inspiration drawn from music, and of the legal ways to listen to it.



These videos are set to be shown in schools as well as spread around online.

I find it absolutely sickening that there is a fresh wave of download sites which look legitimate, and claim to be legitimate, charging for downloads when they are not in any way official, or providing musicians with an income. These sites need to be tackled, and by the look of it Music Matters is taking that into consideration.

When you start debating what music is really worth, things can get really sticky, especially downloads, people can struggle to put a value on something that isn't even tangible, let alone something that can vary in quality so much. A stream of facts from the BPI have shown that 12-19 year olds are paying for music a lot less than they used to, and that 30-40 year olds are putting the most money back into the music industry through actual sales of music. Well, it makes sense doesn't it? Can we expect a 14 year old with no income to save up the pocket money from Granny in order to download an album, when it's always going to be there online for them to take for free, no matter what preventative measures are attempted? Well, no, I don't think we can. However, getting kids to understand that work goes into music, and that it's important to support it where they can, really should be high on the agenda.

Indeed, I hope that this scheme is taking that approach, but a little part of me cannot help but desperately hope that the authorities behind this aren't clinging to the old music model of having to part with £10 in a shop or online when you want to hear an album. Don't get me wrong, this is fine, hell, I do it myself most of the time! But what I'm trying to say is that music has been changed by the internet, whether we cling to the old methods of buying it or not. And I wonder if perhaps we should be educating on alternatives, and new ways to show your support, than trying to reinforce the old school.

I put it to you that buying a CD, released on a major label, does not actually line the pockets of the artist more than a few pence a time. Now I know a big label provide huge promotion, and the part they play means they need to take a big percentage of the cash. However, the internet is changing the way we can promote music too, and the role of a major label may even be dying a death. Now, consider downloading an album for free. SHOCKING hey? Well consider doing it through a small label, that small label is allowing people to take the album for either a donation of the consumers choice, or for absolutely zip, just an email address. So say 10,000 people take it for free, the label has their email addresses, another 10,000 pay a fee, job done. Of the 10,000 that didn't pay, 5,000 enjoyed the album, and 2,000 enjoyed it enough to buy merchandise, recommend it to friends, or see the artist touring. The email addresses they've left allow the label to tell them how they can do all of this, and with a little bit of effort and clever thinking, the money can be recuperated.

I'm aware that I've gone off on a tangent somewhat, but my point is that yes, music DOES matter, and people should understand a need to support artists, but maybe it's time we give something new a try?

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