News: Digital Nations a new way to sell your music

About Digital Nations http://www.digital-nations.com/


It's no secret that the retail record environment has been shrinking at a tremendous rate. Stores are closing, and getting CDs into the remaining shops is a daunting proposition for today's artists.

But here's the good news. Digital sales are on the rise. With this in mind, we have created Digital Nations, a digital-only label and subsidiary of Favored Nations.

Digital Nations (DN) works as a digital distribution network for our artists. Here is how it works: The artist supplies DN with the music and artwork, then DN uploads to the entire list of DN's digital music stores, well over 100 of them - and growing. The list below represents a portion of the stores to which DN uploads.

Many of these stores offer hi-def downloads, ringtones, streaming, etc. The continually expanding list of stores serviced by DN includes many international stores, including all five major iTunes in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand. So every DN artist is assured of maximum possible distribution in the worldwide digital marketplace.

For sites that include pdf booklets with downloads, DN will upload the artwork in its entirety. DN then will create an online marketing plan, which DN implements for the artist. This can include sending out a press release to DN's large database and forwarding any interview requests to the artist.

DN acts more as a digital distribution service for artists than it does a conventional record label, so DN artists have the significant advantage of retaining all rights to their masters.

Because of the many complexities of setting up a release and taking it down, DN requests a one-year exclusive term. Following the first year, DN offers month-to-month rollover terms.

DN pays the artist 70% of any funds received from all of the digital stores DN services. For example, for every iTunes single download, DN collects the full rate of $.71, so the artist's portion of the sale is close to $.50 per downloaded single.

The artist is responsible for paying any third-party royalty recipients such as producers, musicians and managers. The artist also assumes responsibility for paying mechanical royalties for territories in which the digital store does not pay them directly to the mechanical rights societies.


Retail

Although the CD retail environment is getting slim, people who still enjoy shopping for CDs do much of their shopping online at Amazon.com. As a value-added service, DT also is offering a new feature for physical distribution at Amazon.com.

The artist sends in the materials needed to manufacture CDs, i.e., finished art, or special templates from among the many available options provided by DN, plus the audio files. DN can take the artist's original artwork and work it into whatever template the artist chooses. Amazon keeps these on hand and builds CDs one-by-one for each order it gets.

The CD is featured online, offered for sale in the physical-CD section of Amazon just like any other CD. Once ordered, it is individually manufactured and sent out by Amazon shipping. There is the added bonus of the security, convenience and speed of the dedicated Amazon shipping service.

This program can totally change the way an album is made and budgeted, since the artist does not have to invest up-front to produce 1000 CDs that may or may not sell, then make money back on the markup. A CD is made only when ordered. Amazon pays out 40% of the retail price of the CD sale, and that is split 50/50 with DN.

Unlike the digital stores, which set their own pricing, this Amazon program allows the artist and DN to set the selling price of a CD. For example, after setting a theoretical price of $10.00, 40% of the sale price split 50/50 would result in a profit of $2.00 each for DN and the artist.

Though this is a comparatively low royalty, it is a greater amount than an artist would normally receive from a major label with a conventional deal.

With DN handling the deal, there's no prior investment. DN takes care of all the setup fees, so profit is made starting from the very first CD sold.

To summarize, DN offers the convenience of uploading the music, creates the CD's accompanying printed material out of the template, pays for any fees that may be involved with doing this, accounts to the artist, fixes any problems that may arise with the account, etc.

As with all aspects of DN's deals with our artists, this simplifies the artists' business responsibilities, so they can focus on making music and earning money, while DN handles all the rest.

If you are interested in receiving a deal that also includes the Amazon retail store as a value-added service, it is simple to include this in your basic deal with DN.

Yes, there are still ways that artists can create a piece of work, get it out across the globe, and receive a respectable royalty on their product while still retaining all rights to their intellectual property.

Please contact DN today to begin receiving the considerable benefits of your own deal with DN.

We look forward to servicing your music to the world.

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