RSSAmazon opens its MP3 store to independent sellers
By Tim Conneally | Published September 9, 2008, 2:26 PM
Today, Amazon announced its indie publishing service CreativeSpace is now tied with its MP3 shop, allowing independent artists and labels to release DRM-free materials in Amazon's MP3 store.
Artists can set up an account on CreateSpace and sell their materials with no upfront charges; however, accounts are arranged in such a way that money is not directly distributed to artists. Instead, royalty checks are given out with expenses subtracted.
This method of distribution has been done before, but Amazon provides artists with a full set of account reports that can be updated daily, presumably leaving nothing a mystery. Royalties are only paid out when in excess of $20.
Artists do not have to sign an exclusive agreement to sell their material on Amazon, therefore retaining their ownership. Prices are also set by the artists themselves. To make tracks available, they can submit 320 Kbps MP3 or uncompressed (44.1 KHz, 16 bit) AIFF, or mail a master CD.
In addition to MP3 sales, CreateSpace also offers what it calls "On Demand Publishing" of print media (books), DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, and video downloads. An Amazon property since 2002, CreateSpace formerly offered the ability to publish HD DVDs on demand, but this service was discontinued in February.
The service promises the future ability to publish High Definition video content on demand, even though Blu-ray does not yet support disc-on-demand as a part of its format spec.
Amazon and CreativeSpace's openness to indie artists is a stark contrast to Apple's murky and often daunting process of making their art available for download on iTunes.
This is great - all the unknowns need a distribution path.
Something I have been doing is going to some big stars MySpace pages and listening to the music created by friends on the "friends list". Some are really good and professional. It's nice to hear music from musicians with desire and energy. Not just marketing and hype. It's nice to support and give some positive feedback to energize them.
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|This is good news I made a decision to use Amazon when ever possible instead of Itunes for music purchases. DRM free is the way to go and their downloader adds the songs into Itunes for you. I know Itunes offers some DRM free stuff but to many times I find Itunes slowly moves you back to DRM music as you move through the links. I wish there was a way to exclude anything with DRM in the store searches, but there isnt so with amazon I have no worries.
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|Fantastic. ANYTIME the RIAA is cut out of the deal and the money goes Directly to the artists as it always should have, I'm in!!
This is the ONLY way to purchase music IMHO. And from now on is my mechanism to do so. Otherwise I have no interest in what is offered from the RIAA production studios even if its free....
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|Sounds like something that artists and consumers will dig.
iTunes is a giant pain in the a** when it comes to browsing for anything other than the mainstream releases that Apple pushes.
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|Good going Amazon. I am sure RIAA will have many sleepless nights over this...
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|Yeah, whatever.
It's STILL only available in the US though, even after all this time.
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|Annoying, but this is mostly due to region distribution issues for the releases. Artists often have sign with a label to distribute within a particular region of the world where they operate. Each of these labels specializes in marketing within its particular region.
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|True, but conceivably there is no label at all for some of these artist at this point. And Amazon is an excellent engine for world distribution channels.
They even have a really good streaming functionality for song sampling in place. So I can see this really shaking up the regional BS the RIAA passes of so they can charge some people more then others... And forces others to wait for it when its readily available for free illegally otherwise. And they say they do not cause people to go looking for free alternative by their actions... BS.
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