If you’re a band, and have a profile at Bebo, one of the biggest social communities around, you can now sell songs to Bebo users through a widget developed by 7digital. Like MySpace, which already has a music sale service - MySpace Music - Bebo is also very much a music-oriented community, which means that almost half a million of registered bands over at Bebo Bands will be able to sell their songs to some very interested customers.
Nothing too revolutionary here, except it’s another way for the artists can now sell their songs directly to their audience, and another sign that they’re not dependent on record companies and the RIAA anymore. One day, hopefully soon, kids won’t even know what a record company is.
*Update: as Aaron Bassett from Foobr points out, with a little Greasemonkey magic it’s currently possible to download tracks from Bebo free of charge. So, Bebo needs to improve their security if they want to charge for tracks, as it’s unlikely that people are going to pay to download something they can download for free from the exact same location.
The ugly hidden truth about most of the current music services offering (Check the Snocap pricing matrix here ) for artist is that through complicated fee matrix that hide the fact that they create an uneven playing field for independent artist and labels that are not attached to one of the majors. Some of the services that participate in the lowering of the field for independents artist and labels are backed by the majors either financially (Directly or through proxy investors) or helped along in their business by begin given some access to content. This means that the through these services the majors have cooped the independent artist into their distribution channel and into their drm schemes. All of this while charging the independent artist and label to use the service.
I think that the only way to truly lower the playing field for independent artist and labels is to have a service that gives them the ability to sell and distribute their content at a price point that mathces what the majors would pay to use such a service. Zero.
Currently Darmik.com charges no fee to list or to sell music. Currently Artist and independents that sell on Darmik.com receive 100% of the revenue. All we ask in return is that you use your Darmik payment rule to donate to at least one Darmik listed charity. Once an Aritst or Label has their tracks on Darmik they can be easily sold on the adelph.us social network as well as any other webpage or social network. As companies Adelph.us and Darmik give a portion of their revenue to charity.
@William: thanks for the insightful comment. I suspect that every time big cos are involved, the artists will somehow get screwed.
I don’t see this working too well until bebo get their security sorted. At the minute you can download any mp3 you want (from anyones playlist) using nothing more than Firefox and Firebug.
I wrote a quick post about this a while ago you can view at:
http://foobr.co.uk/2007/02/download_tracks_from_bebo_using_firebug/
So unless they offer something different with your purchase (higher quality audio, artwork, etc) I don’t think that many people will use it simply for the fact that they can already get it free.
@Aaron: thanks for the tip. I love this kind of response; practical advice is the most useful info I could wish from a comment. Keep it up (;.
The ugly truth as one of the previous comments called it is not a making of the major record companies, but rather the flawed (and often overlooked) business models of the the SNOCAP’s of the world. These entitites charge 30 to 40 percent of the the retail price as thier fee - and still cannot seem to make money. Yes there are a few artists who will be in a positon to get exposure to the on-line market using SNOCAP, etc…. but the hidden truth - these companies are in it as a business (with flawed business models), and they cannot save the independent artist. It is time to move past the rhetoric of the press releases and start looking at the business case not just for these platforms - but more so for the very artists they profess to support.
I agree that the business models that charge 30 to 40 percent of the retail price for digital products are flawed. The models that they are using are more reflective of the price gouging that occurs in non digital environments where there is a monopoly for distribution or produc accesst. Very similar to why the price of cds are so high and why it is so hard to gain distribution in a real world music store. Snocap, Myspace, and Bebo, are all trying to create environments where they control the flow of distribtion and digital products.
I believe that in the digital world that margins must be thin enough that they cause little to no friction for purchasers, and artist are rewarded and motivated to create and distribute.
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http://www.darmik.com
http://www.adelph.us
Hi there I came across this posting after googling for myspace music. Thanks for the interesting read. I have often thought about er way to avoid RIAA - Bebo music download service at franticindustries - web 2.0, social networking, IT technology trends. too. Thanks for sharing. On Monday I will have time to look into it more.
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