Indie Kazoo - Sell your music online in a snap!
by Nadine Benny
Just wanted to let all you indie songsters know about a tool I discovered called the Indie Kazoo. For $20 per month, you can set up an online store and sell CDs and downloads. You upload your music, control the samples, set the price, and sales revenue goes directly into your PayPal account.
You can have an indiekazoo.com/yourstore, or you can integrate the software within your own website.
I discovered this working on a project for my job and have explored the software myself, so I can tell you it’s truly simple and straightforward. I had a store set up in minutes, and if you don’t have a PayPal account, they guide you through this process through their site.
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Published on: October 24th, 2007
Terms Used: indie music, online indie marketplace, sell
About: Nadine Benny
Hello. I play piano, sing, and dance. Those are the artistic manifestations of my self :-)
I’ve worked in non-profit organizations, advertising, artist management, organized several small and not-so-small events, managed booking, PR, and the list goes on. I currently work for an[...]
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i’m curious to check out what they offer that i can’t find on other sites. their site says that they set you up with your own store page and help you open a paypal account if you don’t have one. you have to be older than 18 and have a credit card and you can only sell music.
to compare, indyish let’s me sell my cds for free and it goes through their paypal account since I don’t have one, so i think 20 bucks a month is too steep for a service i can get for free. plus, as an artist on indyish i have my own artist page and can blog, podcast, upload photos and videos, use the forums, and connect with other artists…
unless indiekazoo generates a ton of traffic toward your products i don’t think it’s doing anything new. but for selling downloads (which i can’t think of a way of doing on indyish…anyone?)i like their layout for presenting songs and albums. so it seems like something good for people who want a simple all-in-one music site with no extras to think about and have the cash to put in. i’ve seen sites that let artists upload mp3s for download by purchase where setup is free, but can’t remember any links. does anyone else have experience with sites like this?
i’d personally rather be a member on a site where my work maintains the network (when i make a sale indyish takes 2%) rather than joining a pre-built site that makes money for my using it (20 dollars a month) and i get 100% of sales. it seems like a site that wants lots of people to join and be paying member fees would care less about my doing well than a site that relies on my success to make their cut (plus the community aspect of offering forms of connection among artists).
thanks for passing it along, I’m always into weighing new options. that’s what makes the web so interesting; sites competing to provide something unique and valuable to users.
Posted on October 24th, 2007 at 4:27 pm [permalink]
The way to sell downloads through Indyish would be to post your product as normal, and explain in the body of the product post that when someone buys the download version you are notified of the sale, and you send them the songs. This is the same as the rest of the sales on Indyish, just with digital content and no shipping costs.
There are lots of different ways of sending big files- you could use yousendit.com or use an ftp account (indyish or other) to put music up and send your customers the url to download via email. It’s normal to tell your customers they have X amount of time to download, then take the file down or change the password.
We don’t have this all automated for you, so there’s some DIY. And some communication with us might be involved if you want to try the ftp option using an Indyish ftp account.. but there’s no 20$ fee and we’re pretty nice to talk to I think. A little nerdy, but nice. Aaand we can emphasize automating it too, potentially, it people think that’ll make a big difference for them.
Anyway, yeah! indie kazoo. It’s like http://www.shopify.com. Cool for it’s purposes for sure, but I’m like Tessa, more interested in reducing costs and increasing benefits through working in a network with people who have all different kinds of skills. Ian Goodman actually had an interesting post on some ways this idea can go on his blog here.
I think the best option might be to do both, if you can: gain the benefits from the paid system in the short term, and the community in the long term.. but I’d be curious to know what other people think?
Posted on October 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm [permalink]
After talking to a few friends and researching on the net:
Snocap is free for the first year and then 30 dollars per year.
CD Baby is $35 to join, then they take 9% of downloads and $4 of physical cds. They pay out weekly, whereas most sites pay out monthly, or after a certain amount is sold.
MP3.com is free to sign up either as a “fan” or an “artist”. Fans get to download mp3s and create a profile and blog. Artists get the blog and profile plus 100mb of mp3 uploading, 10mb of photo uploads, unlimited video uploads, and forum access. I’m not sure if they take a percent of sales, but it seems limiting to make people have to join the site in order to download your tracks.
Any other ones worth looking at?
And yeah, thoughts on community and moneymaking and networks?
Posted on October 24th, 2007 at 10:42 pm [permalink]
Those are all awesome options. yousendit is a favourite, and that shopify site is quite funky, I’d never heard of it before. All these have their own unique selling point. Indie Kazoo caught my eye because of the simplicity with which you can embed the store into your own site, though it is pricier than other options. Perhaps it’s a model for artists who are selling more consistently, and would like to use the time they would spend administering their online sales to do something else – like promote, or work on their craft – and can afford to do so.
It’s true, though; it is a one trick pony and does not offer the valuable networking that sites like Indyish and mp3.com offer. I agree with Risa too, if you can work many platforms, you can get the best of all worlds.
I started reading Ian Goodman’s blog entry, and it looks amazing, I will be sure to finish it up later today. Since I don’t know how to put links in my comment, please see Risa’s comment for a link to Ian’s blog :-)
Posted on October 26th, 2007 at 10:06 am [permalink]
Hey Nadine, here’s how to write a link!
Posted on October 28th, 2007 at 1:52 pm [permalink]