Kimberly Kaye Wyatt is an American singer, dancer, choreographer and a former member of the modern burlesque pop/R&B group the Pussycat Dolls.  Wyatt resides in Los Angeles, California where she is very active in charity work and a major supporter and contributor to RAINN.  She is currently a judge for the UK hit show “Just Dance” and is recording her debut solo album expected to be released in early 2010.

The Situation

After starting a blog called Beautiful Movements on Dipdive.com, founded by Will.i.Am, Kimberly decided to launch her own line of Beautiful Movements apparel and “Love the Planet” organic beauty products.  To achieve this she needed a platform that would allow her to do sell her products on-demand.

“BeautifulMovemens.com is an online community for growth through self-expression. The apparel and designs represent my journey for positive change,” remarked Wyatt. “Ultimately this line is about my fans…to inspire personal growth through the Beautiful Movements lifestyle.”

Audiolife Solution

Audiolife’s partnership with Kimberly was twofold. Kimberly firstly needed a customized storefront that would seamlessly embed into her existing Beautiful Movements blog on Dipdive.com.  This was achieved through the customization of both her Viral Store and her Web Store.  Once the design was set in place, her online store was filled with her clothing line and beauty products.

Kimberly also needed a fulfillment solution that would handle warehousing of all her items and processing and shipping of all the orders.  Now, whenever one of her fans orders an item through her store, Audiolife ships directly to her fan on her behalf.

Added Wyatt: “This is one of the most exciting moments in my life. I finally have a way to communicate and offer something tangible directly to the supporters who have kept me going throughout the years! I am truly looking forward to this launch and to offering something unique and personal to the Beautiful Movements community.”
The Beautiful Movements Store: http://beautifulmovements.dipdive.com/ecommerce/

Category: Audiolife, Direct to Fan | No Comments »

Tags: Audiolife case study, Beautiful Movements, DipDive, eCommerce solution, selling merch online

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.

Category: Direct to Fan | No Comments »

Tags: Reverb Store, selling merch on Facebook

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

Category: Audiolife, Direct to Fan | 3 Comments »

Tags: Audiolife, Direct to Fan, eCommerce solution, MyBand, on demand production, Reverb Store, ReverbNation, selling on Facebook

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.

» Continue Reading

Category: Audiolife | No Comments »

Tags: guide to Audiolife, musicians best practices, promoting music online

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

Category: Audiolife, Direct to Fan | 1 Comment »

Tags: Audiolife case study, Coffey Anderson, Direct to Fan, eCommerce solution, merch sales, selling music online

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.

http://anjuliemusic.com/store

Category: Audiolife, Direct to Fan | No Comments »

Tags: Anjulie, Audiolife case study, Concord Music Group, Direct to Fan, eCommerce solution, exclusive merchandise

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.

Category: Direct to Fan, Marketing | No Comments »

Tags: music industry data, music marketing results, music marketing study, selling music online, Topspin

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:

• Stephen Colbert.
• Lady Gaga and Elton John performing together with dirt (or something) smeared all over their faces.
• Slash coming out on stage to play his solo from “November Rain.”
• Beyonce performing a cover of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughtta Know.” I thought she did the song justice and it was definitely better than her own song about being a boy.
• Kings of Leon finally getting some cred., even though many will say they “sold out.” Pish posh.

The Bad:

• Stephen Colbert. No, seriously. What was up with his lame jokes?
• Miley Cyrus … even if it was for 3 minutes.
• Taylor Swift winning album of the year. Putting aside the fact that I’m not particularly keen on teeny bopper music, I just truly TRULY cannot wrap my mind around the fact that she won. Did a bunch of 35-50 year old men and women sit in a conference room and suddenly decide that “You Belong With Me” really hit home? That finally someone understands them? Someone please explain …

The Ugly:

• Some random dude repeatedly telling us that Lady Gaga is “a monster.” It just became really awkward at some point.
• Slash playing his solo for “November Rain” during a performance of “Blame It.” Who comes up with these ideas and how?
• Every lame ass joke that someone said last night including the whole dialogue between John Legend and Carlos Santana.

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?!

Category: Events, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Tags: 2010 Grammys, Beyonce Alanis Morissette, Lady Gagay and Elton John, Pink's performance at GRAMMYs, Slash GRAMMYs

Artwork Credit: www.budikwan.com

This is a list in the making …

Derek Sivers’ Blog
Alexa Traffic Rank: 42,736
As the founder of CD Baby, Derek has definitely made some noise in the industry so you know he has a thing or two to say about it. An entrepreneur and former musician himself, Derek shares his vast knowledge of the music business and doesn’t hold back.

Category: Marketing, Music 2.0 | 1 Comment »

Tags: best music blogs, Derek Sivers, Hypebot, music industry blogs, music industry resources, Paul Resnikoff, promoting music online

Mahmood Khan

Mahmood Khan is an experienced sound engineer, producer, writer, lyricist, performer and one of the pioneers of the fusion sound. After an extensive foray writing and producing music, Mahmood spent five years finding and putting together what is today known as mahmoodkhanFunk (MKF), a group of talented musicians. Check out their performance at the Sydney Opera House below:

Mahmood is a dedicated musician that has embraced the Internet and social media to promote his music.  After promoting their video on YouTube, they received 100k hits in just one week. MKF has also established a relationship with Gibson, getting them on board as partners to do some press. They are currently in the process of creating a weekly live performance of Mahmood Khan on the Internet using Livestream.

CLICK HERE to visit MKF’s site.

Category: Audiolife, Music | 1 Comment »

Tags: Audiolife artist, Mahmood Khan, mahmood khan funk