Basilisk
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
168
Posts :
2984
Posted : Dec 2, 2008 23:08
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Check out Cytopia:
http://www.cytopia.org
Then there is my own site, Ektoplazm:
http://www.ektoplazm.com
The question here becomes: is it worth it to sell music online? Or is it better to give it away and reap the rewards of massive exposure? This question can only be answered by the artists... many of whom will find greater value in reaching a larger audience and drumming up some gigs by going free... others who may still benefit from digital and physical sales.
From my perspective, for a lot of unestablished artists, I don't see what the point of commercially releasing a digital EP that only ends up selling 25 or 50 copies in total. That is like charging potential employers for your own resume. Once you get to the point where name recognition alone earns you hundreds of sales then it might make sense... until then, I think a lot of artists should think about what they have to gain.
The issue here is twofold: the market is extremely saturated (there are more artists and labels vying for an increasingly smaller share of overall sales) and people have already become very used to the infinitely copyable nature of digital media. These two effects make it difficult for new players to become established commercially.
As for the portals themselves--I think the issue is that uptake rate amongst labels is very low. For CD buyers, digital download shops are hardly any sort of substitute. The selection isn't very wide, the prices aren't competitive, and the lack of focus on quality presentation (i.e. high resolution cover art and CD-quality media) does little to attract business. This is not solely the fault of the various online portals out there... it is a tough problem, particularly as most psytrance labels have not come on board with digital media sales.
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