Working across both the digital and physical markets, I am frequently asked my thoughts on the future of physical music sales. While I believe a physical market will survive for music, I also often point to services like Amazon Disc on Demand as an interesting space to watch. Many questions arise over this service, and I aim in the below to address some of the more common questions I’m asked.
What exactly is Amazon Disc on Demand?
Amazon Disc on Demand uses the digital files that are delivered for the Amazon MP3 store to print a CD or DVD on demand for customers who order a physical copy. The transaction counts as a digital sale, but results in a physical copy.
What are the benefits of Disc on Demand?
No stock is held. You are able to sell to customers who prefer physical copies of releases without the exposure of having hundreds of units of stock sitting in warehouses across the world when demand may not justify that level of exposure.
What releases are good for Disc on Demand?
If the physical release of a title does not exist in the market, Disc on Demand provides a good option to reach customers who prefer physical units but may otherwise be missed. Disc on Demand is a particularly good option for older catalogue titles on which sales have slowed to the point where the physical is deleted, or perhaps should be to save on costs of slow-moving lines. It could also be a way to test the water for developing artists and releases.
In what territories does Amazon have the Disc on Demand program?
Disc on Demand is only live for music in the US and Germany at the moment. It is to be launching in one or two “major European territories” in the near future. These territories are not confirmed, but one could likely make some educated guesses.
Can I have a booklet with a Disc on Demand release?
Disc on Demand releases do include booklets which can be 4-32 pages. However, DoD booklet artwork currently needs to be in a different format than booklets for the MP3 store. Releases via the Orchard are currently set up using a standard template, but if you have an important release for DoD with which you would like to add a more detailed booklet, please contact your Client Manager.
But isn’t the quality really poor?
The Amazon Disc on Demand program suffers from a bit of a perception problem stemming from the somewhat lesser-quality of the packages at the time the service launched. Amazon has long since improved the quality of DoD products, increasing the booklet paper weight to 130gsm. Having seen several DoD packages, the quality can be indistinguishable from many “proper” physical releases.
If CDs are being printed to order, doesn’t it take a long time for customers to receive their copy?
No — the order is immediately sent to Amazon’s printing facilities, and the CD can be shipped out within 24 hours. No additional processing time occurs.
How is the pricing set?
While Amazon reserves the right to set retail price, a vendor can specify a desired list price and a royalty is paid through on this amount when a disc is sold. Your Client Manager can assist with further information.
Do Disc on Demand titles sell?
Sales of course vary by title, but we have seen steady sales through Disc on Demand. A particular recent success story happened with Acoustic Live by Nils Lofgren. When Nils toured as part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Acoustic Live sold over 700 units through Amazon Disc on Demand in Germany, hitting #3 on Amazon Germany’s Live Albums chart. The physical version of this title had been deleted, and Disc on Demand was able to service a market that otherwise would have been missed.
How do I have my releases delivered to Disc on Demand?
Please contact your Client Manager for further details.
Between Amanda Palmer and Veronica Mars, crowdfunding has proven its worth beyond the shadow of a doubt. In one year alone, global crowdfunding initiatives grew 81% to generate a reported $2.7 BILLION. Of that, music-related projects represented a very respectable $202.5 million, i.e. 7.5% of all raised funds and 4th most important category after social causes, business and entrepreneurship, and films and performing arts.
So, how do you get in on this? It couldn’t be more simple: install RocketHub via The Orchard Marketplace. For step-by-step instructions and a video demo on how to create a campaign, check out this blog post. The design has since changed but for the most part everything is still the same.
To add to the appeal crowdfunding has on its own, RocketHub has just announced an exclusive partnership with A&E’s Project Startup. Through this new deal, projects launched via RocketHub will have the opportunity to be featured on air, online and in print through A&E’s channels. In addition, if a project is really unique and attention-grabbing, A&E just may add itself to your list of funders.
“But I’m not a startup, I’m a musician!,” you say.
Don’t worry, we asked that question, too. While the first wave of projects is startup-related, RocketHub is planning several other engagements with A&E, Project Startup just being one of them. With music representing such a significant portion of the crowdfunding sphere, related projects will naturally ascend to higher visibility, and as such raise awareness in line with RocketHub and A&E’s goals: amplifying crowdfunding projects to do more than just raise funds, but also gain significant and strong awareness.
So get your thinking caps on and start an original campaign with RocketHub. The more stellar the idea, the higher the chance your project will not only get you money, but also create that oh-so-precious buzz and engagement you can’t get enough of.
RocketHub is accessible via The Orchard Marketplace. Read more about them on their One Sheet.
Here in the Product department, we’re always busy building cool stuff to make life (and business) easier for our clients. This time, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of a brand new Accounting section. Please, everyone, calm down. Excuse me, sir, can you put your shirt back on? This is a family blog. Thanks.
We’ve rebuilt Accounting from the ground up — updating the look and feel, improving the workflow, and boosting performance. The user experience should be more painless than ever.
Our new accounting can now generate combined statements, showing you expenses, checks, adjustments, and your net balance over your selected time span and multiple periods. This can generate a lot of pages, so we’ve also added a “go to page” box down by the pagination, so you never have to click 37 times to get to page 38.
Filtering is now much easier and more powerful, too. While viewing your revenue breakdown, you can filter by any criteria, or combinations. Only interested in how a certain release has sold? Filter by release (multiple versions are differentiated by their UPCs). Want to see if that iTunes UK promotion was worth it? Filter by store, then by country. The filters are designed to be played with, so you can add or remove them one at a time, or en masse.
Exports are now easier than ever too. You can now export your accounting statement in Excel or plain text, filtered or not, on the Statements page.
The most common question around accounting, of course, is “When will I get paid?” To that end, we’ve redesigned the Statements page to be clearer and easier to read. It now gives you a more accurate estimate of when your check will be cut, based on your contract type.
Those are just the highlights — for more, check out the demo below and if you’re an Orchard client, go see it for yourself in The Orchard Workstation!
We recently launched an app in The Orchard Marketplace which makes it its goal to pair artists and labels with the perfect director for their music videos.
This app, Radar Music Videos, has quite a few success stories to support its mission, and in this guest blog post, Caroline Bottomley, Managing Director of Radar, is going to share two of them.
Read up, and if you’re a client of The Orchard, install Radar Music Videos in the Marketplace.
Alt-J “Breezeblocks” — Director: Ellis Bahl
The Artist/Label and The Brief
Spring last year, Infectious Music posted a music video brief for their new UK signing Alt-J on Radar, with the teasing headline “INTRIGUING DIRECTORS ONLY NEED APPLY.”
Alt-J were still relatively unknown at the time, but sharper directors knew the band and liked the look of the £4k (approx. $6k) budget.
The Response
Radar has thousands of professional directors worldwide and our back-end shows the brief was viewed nearly 1,500 times. 41 directors submitted treatments to Infectious’ label manager Connie Meade, via the Radar mechanism. That was a lot of treatments for Connie to work through. Nowadays we recommend that labels expecting a big response state: “we only want to hear from experienced directors who have made popular, award-winning, brand-commissioned or editorially-featured videos,” or something similar.
The Director
Ellis Bahl was a young director in New York. He’d had some success with MTV Idents and co-directions of music videos, but was ready to branch out on his own. You can see the treatment he wrote on the Radar blog — and you’ll see it has a different ending to the finished video.
What Happened Next
Infectious’ brilliant marketing helped push Alt-J higher and higher up the media’s agenda. This video in particular got them coverage across U.K. media and a high profile feature in The Huffington Post. The director began to be courted by talent spotters and he’s now represented by two of the best agencies in the U.S. and U.K. (and now works with much bigger budgets). By the end of the year, Alt-J had won the Mercury Prize, the video won ‘Best Alternative Video’ at the UK Music Video Awards and from amongst the many millions of videos on Vimeo, it was chosen as one of the Best 12 Videos on Vimeo of 2012.
Plugging — it’s a word we often hear in relation to promoting something, recommending it, giving it your stamp of approval. iPluggers does just that for your music, and it does it all around the world.
With a 100% airplay guarantee (or your money back), iPluggers provides the platform for you to pitch your music to more than 30,000 radio stations of all genres and all types, including AM, FM, satellite, internet, and more. You can create an artist profile (or online airplay kit) on which to share and promote your tunes in minutes by following the steps below:
Now iPluggers will review your release before approving it to plug. This can take up to 5 business days, and you’ll get a notification as soon as they’ve given it the green light. Once your release has gone through iPluggers’s system, you’ll get to set a plugging date, after which all radio stations subscribed to the genre you chose to plug will receive your release. To increase the likelihood of your release getting picked up, we also recommend that you complete your Artist Profile. Many fields will already be completed thanks to the app’s integration with our API, but you’ll need to tweak it to make it just right for iPluggers.
Track your releases by clicking on the Results menu and download reports for your plugged tracks by clicking on the corresponding link. You’ll be able to track the artist, song, radio station and country as well as when said radio station downloaded your track. While iPluggers can’t track if a specific radio station has actually played the song, the likelihood is high once the song has been downloaded (because stations can preview the song on your artist profile, it’s unlikely they would download it unless they intended to play it). Furthermore, all plays will be tracked via the usual SoundExchange/CMJ/MediaBase channels.
As Next Big Sound shared recently, and against popular belief, radio spins continue to positively impact track sales. Now that you have it all laid out in simple steps, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of that extra push to bump up your sales!
See below for a more in-depth demo on how to get your music heard around the globe:
iPluggers is available via The Marketplace. Find out more about them, including special pricing for The Orchard’s clients, on their One-Sheet.
