The following video illustrates how you can sell your merch on Facebook in less than two minutes through the Reverb Store powered by Audiolife:
Selling Merchandise on Facebook in Two Minutes or Less from ReverbNationBlog on Vimeo.
New York, NY (February 24, 2010) – ReverbNation, the leading marketing platform for more than 550,000 artists, labels, managers and venues, has partnered with Audiolife, the leader in direct-to-fan e-commerce, to announce the official launch of the Reverb Store following a private trial period involving more than 15,000 bands.
“Artists are constantly asking me how they can monetize all of their online promotional activities,” said Ariel Hyatt, CEO of CyberPR and music marketing maven. “The Reverb Store is the answer!”
The Reverb Store is the first and only e-commerce solution that empowers musicians to sell t-shirts, hoodies, hats, CDs, downloads and ringtones directly to their fans on Facebook and other social networks, as well as their blog and homepage, without any out-of-pocket expense for setup, store usage, or inventory.
“Any artist can connect with fans to sell music and products in less than two minutes using the Reverb Store,” said Michael Doernberg, CEO of ReverbNation. “Reverb Store integrates seamlessly inside Facebook with two applications for artists: the leading all-in-one promotional application for bands called ‘MyBand,’ and the stand-alone store application for musician pages called ‘Store.’”
Every product purchased through the Reverb Store is produced on-demand and delivered directly to the fan, via the Audiolife direct-to-fan e-commerce engine. Artists simply set the final price above the cost and keep 100% of the profits from every sale. In addition, artists can use the Reverb Store to order larger quantities of their CDs and merchandise at highly discounted wholesale prices for sale at shows.
“The Reverb Store was designed with one thing in mind: to create a streamlined tool for the artist that would require no financial investment but would afford the musician, band, or label a way to monetize their products through leveraging current technologies,” said Brandon Hance, founder and CEO of Audiolife.
Many bands have taken advantage of the Reverb Store to create multiple versions of t-shirts, analyze fans’ merchandise preferences and order in bulk for tours. Some bands have also used the direct-to-fan eCommerce model to integrate fundraising into their music.
“We recently used the Reverb Store to quickly sell our charity song, ‘We Are Samoa,’ and related merchandise to benefit the Samoa Tsunami relief effort,” said artist, Samoa ONSTSU. “The Reverb Store is an invaluable tool for the independent artist.”
For key personnel interviews, or to interview artists who have utilized the Reverb Store, please contact:
Jed Carlson (ReverbNation): jcarlson[at]reverbnation.com
The following is a guide to maximizing your Audiolife account so you can begin selling your music and merch directly to your fans in no time!
Fill Your Store with Exclusive Products
Before you can even begin promoting your store or selling, you need products to sell. Given the fact that there are no upfront costs, you can fill your store with as many products as you’d like. It goes without saying though that quality is better than quantity. In addition to selling physical/digital albums, downloads and ringtones, you’re going to want to develop some cool designs for merch products.
Since you don’t need to have money in order to create products with Audiolife, why not just create as many as you can? Fully maximize the on-demand production capabilities that Audiolife offers and create custom products for your fans, such as:
• Recording live sets and immediately uploading the same day to sell through your store.
• If you have a catalog of unreleased music, just upload into your store and sell as exclusive downloads.
• Create merch related to a tour, roll out a themed series of merch items over time, or hold a merch design contest with your fans!
And the list goes on! Providing exclusive content for your fans is key and you can do that with Audiolife without any upfront costs and in little to no time!
Customize Your Web Store & Viral Store
With your Audiolife account, you get a Viral Store that you can embed onto any site, social network or blog along with a Web Store with your own dedicated URL to display on marketing materials or link to in emails.
Each of these stores are customizable so you can change the colors and add your own banner or logo so the stores fit your brand and image and fans know that they are buying directly from you.
Cofféy Anderson was born to perform. While he began his singing “career” in church at age 6, the Texas native fell in love with basketball as he got older, and grew to a 6’5 Texas High School Basketball standout. Music was on hold…at least momentarily.
Cofféy attended college and in 2002 while on a basketball trip with the university decided he wanted to learn to play an instrument. Buying a beginner’s guitar book and borrowing a guitar from a friend, he started to play. After learning only a few chords, writing songs became an obsession and walked away from his first love to focus on music. He then got the courage to test his talent with the best in the business and moved to Los Angeles.
He performed all around the country, doing over 100 dates in 7 months, finishing 4 albums. His talent has ranged from street performing in Santa Monica and rodeos in Texas to exclusive parties in the Hamptons. For all of his various experiences, Coffey still remains dedicated to his fans first and foremost. His love of music translates directly to how he interacts with people, and this can be seen through his approach to staying connected with his fan base.
The Situation
As DIY technologies became readily available, and artists worldwide began to produce and distribute their own content, the new music business was rife with opportunities for musicians to creatively pursue new revenue streams.
“For me, the best part of being an artist is figuring out how to creatively communicate your thoughts to people who can relate to what you are saying. Once you are taken out of the creative process, packaged and sold to the masses with which you have no relationship, then the ‘true artist’ cannot be seen. By using all of these amazing new technology platforms, assuming you have something fans can relate to, you can cost-effectively and easily create, produce, distribute…..over and over while it’s fresh.”
Audiolife Solution
Working with Audiolife and Ustream, Cofféy launched a “Direct-to-Fan Live Sessions” series. From October 22, 2009 to mid-November, the Internet broadcast gave fans the opportunity to purchase real-time exclusive content available only during the live sessions.
Cofféy performed original songs and created specially designed merchandise that was released in “real-time” and available for a 24 hour period immediately following each session. The content produced during the Live Sessions was available in a bundle at a one-time only promotional price.
Coffey’s Store:
http://www.audiolife.com/store/coffey/Merchandise.aspx
With her unique voice, disarmingly frank lyrics, melodic gifts, and exotic good looks, singer and songwriter Anjulie announces herself as a commanding new presence on the music scene. On her self-titled debut album, the Los Angeles-based songwriter comes across as a confident young woman who examines her life, loves, obsessions, and heartbreaks with fearless introspection.
The youngest of four children, Anjulie grew up in the Toronto suburb of Oaksville, Ontario, raised by immigrant parents from Guyana — a South American nation culturally influenced by its Caribbean neighbors to the north. As a result, her household was filled with everything from Afro-Caribbean calypso, reggae, and South American Latin music, to the pop and rock emanating from her older siblings’ radios. The mélange has definitely influenced Anjulie’s debut —a sophisticated blend of indelible pop smarts, hip-hop edginess, and world-music spice, topped by Anjulie’s sultry vocal stylings that she created with her producers and songwriting collaborators Colin Wolfe, who has worked with Dr. Dre and Monica, and her longtime collaborator Jon Levine, keyboardist for Toronto’s funk-pop combo The Philosopher Kings.
The Situation
Anjulie and her label, Concord Music Group, wanted to capitalize off her recent tour by offering her fans from across the globe access to exclusive content including ringtones and merchandise.
“Audiolife offers a fully-integrated Direct-to-Fan platform that caters to the new music business and its unique set of demands. Their platform will give Anjulie the opportunity to turn every song, album, and live event into a unique offering and experience for her fans,” remarked Dave Henson, New Media Manager of Concord Music Group.
The Audiolife Solution
Providing Anjulie with custom merch to support her tour was only the first step in solidifying a deeper relationship with Concord Music Group to provide an eCommerce solution for their entire artist base.
Through Audiolife, Anjulie will not only be able to sell her existing merch, but will continually be able to create exclusive content for her fans for no up-front costs.
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Audiolife, the leader in direct-to-fan e-commerce, made its own Super Bowl history yesterday by powering the digital distribution of “My Generation Remix” available at Dipdive and advertised by FLO TV during Super Bowl XLIV.
FLO TV brought together the iconic rock band The Who and the acclaimed superstars will.i.am and Slash for a memorable piece titled “My Generation Remix,” and introduced it as part of its Super Bowl advertising campaign. Fans can download the song for $1.29 at http://mygeneration.dipdive.com/ecommerce, and all proceeds benefit Haiti Earthquake Response Efforts through Oxfam America. Audiolife powers the digital distribution of “My Generation Remix” and serves as the exclusive digital e-commerce engine for Dipdive.
CLICK HERE to read more.
Topspin co-founder, Shamal Ranasinghe, recently shared some data on music marketing at MidemNat based on a studies they’ve conducted over time.
One of the most interesting points according to the study is that majority of the revenue for artists comes from items that are priced over $20 despite the fact that majority of sales are from items priced under $10. Furthermore, the impact of physical goods versus digital only is huge–76% of sales for artists include some sort of physical product.
With an Audiolife account, you can easily create and sell physical products for no upfront costs. With our warehousing and fulfillment service you can even create bundles that include both physical and digital products. For example, creating a limited edition merch item, marking it up and including a “free digital download” of a never before released song. This exclusivity is a major selling point and very attractive for fans.
Below you will find a slide show presentation of the music marketing study Topsin presented. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
photo by derekb
In today’s music economy, you need to have a product line in order to create a sustainable business. This includes everything from your music to video, merch to swag to items seen as valuable.
One of the things I love about Audiolife is the ability to create an unlimited product stream, especially with merchandise like t-shirts and hoodies. One of the core principles we teach within the Label 2.0 training is to offer upsells to your fans at different points along the buying cycle. What we mean is that after someone buys your album, EP, whatever, you send them some follow up emails, engaging them into your brand and your culture. You can ask questions, have them follow or friend you on social networks and then offer complimentary products to the one they already purchased.
If you can get your fans to engage in your brand they will start to feel a part of your culture. When this happens you can now start sending them offers to add to your revenue stream. One of the best and most logical upsells is the t-shirt.
One of the biggest road blocks I hear from artists (and one that I see in merch booths) is the lack of t-shirt options, and terrible design, usually no more than a centered logo on a black tee.
When you have created culture with your fans, you need to embrace that and create a world that matches that culture and brand. Musicians do this through their music and their design. If you are design challenged (like me), here are some ideas to get creatives for your merch to start to add unlimited items into your Audiolife store.
Threadless – Here is a quick video I shot that shows you a way to find some great artists with some of the best designs in the world made specifically for t-shirts.
Using Threadless To Source Band Merch Ideas
oDesk, eLance, Scriptlance, Guru, etc – With these sites you can post projects and have freelancers bid on your work. You can look at their portfolio and choose someone that matches your style and ideas. Many of the artists come from overseas, so be sure to interview them diligently and be sure they have experience with band merch designs. Typically you can expect to spend less than $50 for about 10 unique designs.
Craigslist – For those that want to keep the work close to home, look no further than the online swap shop. Post jobs and give business to locals.
Colleges, art programs and trade schools – If you are fortunate enough to live close to some art students, take full advantage. Many need internship or portfolio credit to graduate and they are perfect for this type of work. Think of the perks you can offer from free CD’s to concert tickets and more. Many times they are happy with a shout-out on your blog and a link to their portfolio.
The goal with all of this is to start creating a product catalog. If you are only selling a $10 CD, that is all the revenue you can generate per fan. The more items you add to your catalog, the higher your per fan amount rises.
The next step is to integrate this into your email autoresponders and sales process.
What do you think? Have you looked at getting multiple designs done? What is really holding you back? How can Audiolife help you out? Let’s talk in the comments!
This post was written by Greg Rollett from Orlando, FL. Greg writes about music marketing daily and also has a music business and promotion training site, Label 2.0. Follow him on Twitter if you dare!
I will start off by saying that this is 100% my opinion on the 2010 GRAMMYs last night. If you disagree with anything I say, please feel free to share in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Rather than do a “play by play analysis” of what went on at the GRAMMYs last night, since I’m sure you can find that elsewhere on the Internets, I thought I’d go through and list the good, the bad and, of course, the ugly:
The Good:
The Bad:
The Ugly:
I wasn’t sure where to fit this in exactly, but I still felt that I had to say: when did Pink join Cirque du Soleil?!
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