This may be true for you, but somehow iTunes is selling millions of downloads for $0.99 each.OniZabuza wrote:I just registered on the site as a musician (my website is http://www.bheded.com). And I like the idea. But I see one problem with the whole project.
You won't have a problem attracting bands, of course. Who doesn't want to sell their MP3s for money?
But why would fans pay money for each MP3 downloads of independent artists from newmusichouse.com when they could get a larger (and at first immensely larger) selection of independent MP3s from SoundClick.com? Of course, some songs there aren't available for download, but I that just about everything I want, is.
Honestly, I rarely pay for my favorite artists MP3s, much less bands I'm unsure of.
It all kinda hinges on how much it takes for you to know if you like a band or not. My guess is that it's one or two songs. The model typical band situation would go something like this: A band has 12 tracks to an album. The band has two good songs available for free and the rest either 15 cents each as individual downloads or the whole 12-track album for a dollar (the band can set different prices for tracks and albums). The sales of the non-free tracks can go to help cover the cost of the free tracks if the band wants to not have the site cost anything for them.
This leaves you, the downloader, the choice of "the free tracks were enough for me and I'll go on and find other free tracks on this site" or "those free tracks were good enough for me to spend a buck to get the rest of them and thus encourage the band to make more music for me to enjoy."
This model gives the band the chance to be known by having their music available and the change to make money if they so choose. The fan gets to find free music and also the opportunity to help out bands they like.
As with the above example, the revenue from your non-free tracks can go to cover the cost of your free tracks, thus having the site cost you nothing.OniZabuza wrote:As far as from the artist's side (on purchasing downloads of my own music so my fans don't have to), I really can't see myself purchasing $20 in downloads for my fans to get my music for free, since I already offer what I want to give away free on my website. And on SoundClick.com.
Another feature of New Music House is the ability to have your own web site home page. If you are properly registered, you can point your web site domain name (www.bheded.com) to the NMH servers and the site will then return your band's profile page. All the usual band info (members, news, calendar, forum, photos, etc) will all work and look like it is your own web site. The only thing that would kick a visitor over to the NMH domain name would be if they wanted to download a song (redirecting to NMH would be for security purposes).
So now with New Music House, you have a free web site, free downloads, unlimited uploads, and the possibility of money coming in from the sale of your songs. Phase 2 of the site will have lossless compressed (FLAC) uploads so that the downloader can request any type of encoding they want (mp3, ogg, wmv, whatever) pre-compressed server-side that you will allow.
People who just want to find free music can do so at New Music House. If they don't want to pay for any music, they can do that just fine. If the band does a good job of setting out good samples, people are going to buy music they like, especially if the price is right.OniZabuza wrote:Now, of course I see the value in having fans be able to purchase my MP3s online. I could make some money! But, am I the only one who finds it hard to believe fans are going to pay to check out new artists on your site, when they could do the same thing for free somewhere else (like I said, soundclick.com adds 50,000 new songs per month)?
Phase 3 will have on-the-fly full CD printing and mix CDs mailed to the purchaser at no additional cost to the band. This first phase of having everything use the upload/download process makes it really easy for us to start with. I have already researched the CD printing thing. But since that will require much more capital to get that part going, it will have to be done after the site itself is generating revenue to pay for the CD printing machines.OniZabuza wrote:With sites like Kozomo up, who manufacture and will actually sell your CD at no cost to the artist (and soon to offer MP3 downloads), I think you're going to have a tough sell in the end.
Easy: advanced search features.OniZabuza wrote:So it comes to this:
How are you going to get music fans to spend their money on your site? What is going to make it so much better than soundclick, myspace, and other free music sites, that people will be willing to pay (and spend time inputting their credit card, etc) to use it? What's going to bring them?
I've already registered. You have my support. But I can't see the reason music fans will use it.
The whole reason I created this site was because I was having trouble finding local and independent music online. I could not find in any of the sites that you mentioned a "search by zip code and surrounding areas" feature, "find bands who are performing near me next week" option, "where can I perform" search for bands, "suggestion query" based on your rankings of songs you've downloaded, "where are some places that match my style of music that I can perform", "what are some good matching bands for me to go on tour with", and things like that (some search features will be available after this first roll-out phase). I know there are some people who can manually search and download music for a long time to find what they like and don't like, but having really nice advanced search features will make finding music you like much nicer.
Having a site that is the "full package" for both musicians and fans will be this site's greatest asset.
How does that sound? I hope this helps.
Phade.
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