Twitter fight! Twitter fight!

@zedshaw: @tunecoregary Holy crap man, write a blog post. Did you seriously message me that much today?

I recently had a long, occasionally sarcastic discussion on Twitter with Zed Shaw. Zed is a famously iconoclastic developer best known for creating the web server software Mongrel, that TuneCore and thousands of other websites use every day. He's a very, very smart guy, and lately he's been getting into music. He has some typically iconoclastic thoughts about how artists can sell their music directly, here, here and here.

This led to some spirited tweets between me (@tunecoregary) and @zedshaw. It got verbose, so he asked me to write a blog post. Voila. Here's a response to just a few points from the entries at the URLs above. Zed's right in several areas but way off in others.

What’s needed is a mechanism for a musician (or any artist) to put their music on their site, and then let a fan click a button to buy it. Wow, revolutionary right? A widget that plays some music, and then has a link to where you can buy the music. Gee, that sounds kinda hard, I wonder if I could do it.

We're doing that right now, except the links go to iTunes, where the music is already hosted, and they handle payment and download. That's got its plusses and minuses, everyone knows it. So maybe artists could go direct. Enormous questions about the specific mechanisms of payment (is it PayPal?), fulfillment (is it streams, downloads, partials, unlocks, what happens when a download/stream is interrupted?), copyright (there's incredible legal exposure here at all levels, who's responsible?) or quality issues/returns--those are questions merely at the selling end, what about the accounting end? But forget about all that and about the demands of artists and fans (who always want choices, choices) for a moment.

Direct sales are definitely possible, it's true. Artists have sold their CDs out of the trunks of cars at their shows for years. Selling direct off your own website is kind of like that. I expect most artists would still rather get into stores where more customers are. Since the Towers, Sam Goodys and Virgin Megastores of the world have collapsed or are on life support, those stores are now digital. It is true that they act as "walled gardens," where you search and browse only among music that has been hosted on those sites' digital shelves. Part of why we founded TuneCore was to stock the infinite shelf space of iTunes and Amazon so full of independents that it would lower those walls as much as possible. So far, that's working pretty well.

I would love for TuneCore widgets to offer direct sales to customers and allow artists to set their own pricing and completely bypass the stores such as iTunes. Unfortunately that is rife with a number of details around fulfillment and copyright that will take some time to work out. It's not as simple as an XSPF file and a few lines of Python.

As soon as there’s good search engines for music, and a good browser for music that does not honor walled garden we’ll see a massive change in the business. First to go will be these middle men...

If "middlemen" are not nimble enough to cope with the rapidly changing field, that is correct. If they truly are the "middlemen" that Zed believes us to be. If pushing files and pulling a cut of the cash was all they did, just maybe Zed might be right. However, if they provide a useful range of services and charge a fair price for it, they will survive. Further, someone who builds the search engine will become a new middleman (because of Google, SEO is a huge business) and whoever builds the browser software will probably do okay as well, in influence if not revenue (such as Firefox improving web standards compliance). And someone like TuneCore with a nice tidy place for artists to accumulate payments and host artists' assets and offer one-click or easy distribution to new venues will do just fine.

Zed also says this:

For whatever reason, Amazon caved to the labels, and in order to get the right to sell f---ing Britney Spears songs, Amazon probably agreed to cut out any potential competitors to the current business model.

That's not true. The sale of music online is rife with copyright issues, fraud and worse. This is the law, not the opinions of labels (granted, the labels had a lot of opinion on the writing of the law in the first place). TuneCore regularly pulls down albums that have been proven to contain uncleared samples or other stolen work. Most online stores have enough on their plate with customers. Stores aren't interested in dealing with hundreds of thousands of individual artists. They'd much prefer to let us do that. They love us, and we make their jobs easier. Why would they go direct and have to build that overhead of support and management? They'd have to charge more off the back end and the artist would make LESS money.

I'm paraphrasing, but Zed strongly implies that people like TC add little or nothing to the production chain and take revenue illegitimately, either up front or back end. That makes me sad. Zed apparently doesn't understand that a good distributor provides a useful service to artists, and he makes it clear he feels the sooner we can be cut out of the chain the better. As someone who has spent the last three years of his life helping artists earn money from their work, I have to respond. TuneCore provides label-like services without the traditional "sign here and give us your rights forever and the bulk of your earnings forever" handcuff model. TuneCore is most definitely NOT a label, or a "middleman." I built this company to be the good guys of the music business and I still believe strongly in that.

Another point: Zed may be right in that a cheaper competitor to TC might come along, even now there's some, but since when is "cheaper" the same as "better"? Eventually the digital music distribution space is going to be like web hosting - full of fly-by-night companies who offer cheaper and cheaper rates for no-frills service--because there's demand, and demand creates lots of different models. But then it's up to TuneCore to provide value for money. This is true of any business.

As for distribution channels and walled gardens: iTunes and Amazon MP3 are on the top of the heap right now, but that will not always be the case. TC will adapt to work with whatever new model comes along. I always conceived of TuneCore's distribution as agnostic, not dependent on iTunes or Amazon or eMusic or anyone. I'd love to seed torrents of artists' music to promote themselves, if thats what they want. We'd be happy to offer more streaming, or on demand CD printing, or direct sales via widget where the artist sets the price point. All that stuff is great, and we're working on as much as possible. But it has to be sensitive to a lot more than just the mechanics of moving the file, grabbing the cash and walking away. It's just not that simple, and the complexities are precisely where a PARTNER is just what's needed. If it's a fair partner, and a smart one, and a knowledgeable one, why not use them?

Here's to your success as a working musician.

Comments

[Mike]

I find the most interesting comment is the one about most people going into stores to buy music. Really???? Where are these stores? Oh yeah, I should just go to Tower Records. No wait...how about Sam Goody's? No wait...how about Musicland? No wait...how about...Wal-Mart?

No one I know would ever buy music from a store. I also pee in a toilet located indoors.

[Darrell Heath]

I think Tuncore does a good Job.. I would like to see them reap the benjamins enough to have the capability to place New bands on Dig stores ...On Front Page for a day or two at least .......

Thats digy Power..
Heath and Miller co.

[david b cooper]

Hello, Wake up
Traditional record companies OWNED your works (IP) and after you recouped (which rarely happens) you earn 9 to 12 % of WHOLESALE price.

70% of gross from sale one while owning your own IP has NEVER BEFORE BEEN AVAILABLE.

HBO confirmed buyers (read fans) prefer a "subscription" for an all you can eat price for a month of choice. Satellite radio and Rhapsody are using this pricing. Artists can follow this lead and own their IP and lkeep argest percent of the gross.

profitability can be increased in three ways: by increasing income/revenue, by cutting expenses/costs, or by implementing a combo of both. A combo approach is best.

The four major cash flow streams for an artist are:
Royalties - from record sales
Publishing - for song writing and performances of those songs
Tickets - to live personal appearances
Merchandising - selling the products related to the artist's logo

http://BREAKINGaBAND.com

[Kathryn Keats]

OK, I am testing it with some live concert tunes.
Kathryn Keats

[Bailey]

Comment to David's post:

I should think that when you are sending music via TuneCore (the distributor) to iTunes (the retailer) you are in effect acting as the "record label." Therefore you are responsible for taking the mechanical from your net earnings and paying the writers/publishers of the songs on your recording.

Or you can get a license from HFA (but then there's another middle man - LOL!)

[robert]

Stock Market Blues, a novelty song:
http://www.tradebit.com/visit.php/50992/product/-/4599622

Pretty good, in my humble opinion!

TuneCore is a great service. Tradebit is for when I do my own marketing.

[robert]

Check out tradebit.com I use it and tunecore both.
With tradebit, can listen to sample or entire song, then buy it.
Dont have to pay the 30 cent paypal transaction fee for each sale, great if you're selling one song for 99 cents.
Tradebit takes a small fee.

[Eugene Thomas]

Very interesting, and informative, especially the posted comments. I'm in the boat where I wear all the hats from inspiration to graphics. I have enough to worry about on a low budget without all the background sales issues. TC was where I started, and I also use SnoCap. My issue is getting enough exposure to generate sales. When you're a one man show that has to hold down a 40+ hour with changing shifts, touring and gigs are impossible. I'd love to have a way to get more exposure tied in with the sale sites. I've visited some of the add sites, and they offer a lot, but just like the major sites before TC and SC, they are out of my price range. Hopefully soon there will be a way to tie sales and advertising together for those of us that don't have a band and are unable to perform or tour, because we have to make a living first.

[Manzo]

Thanks Tunecore for a great article/response

I am grateful to be involved with tunecore forthe simple fact that for a small fee(Which I already recouped) I am able to have the same shelf space as the Major labels. I dont even have to leave my house and I'm making money! Not as much as I would like to but with more marketing the potential is there!

Tunecore Rocks! ...

[David]

I went to Tunecore and uploaded 10 of our Albums. They are available on iTunes and the others. However when I looked at the printout of sales (well presented) I found to my dismay that iTunes Australia are the only retailer who deduct Mechancial royalties before I get paid. There are organisations like AMCOS in Australia who handle these things but it looks as if publishers who provide songs but don't own the master recording rights are missing out on getting their legitimate royalties. What's the deal?

[Jenny]

I think Tunecore is great. I think making a widget that links directly to Itunes is great since Itunes only allows a little tiny bar the size of a fingernail.
But what is frustrating about your new widgit is that it doesn't even fit on the Blogger sidebar. If you provide that option, you should at least make it fit somehow. Perhaps you should have waited until such a customized widget was available, to make it public?
Still I appreciate all that you do for independent musicians, and for being engaged with us!
Jenny
http://www.jenny-gillespie.com

[Bailey]

On the one hand, it is arbitrary & obnoxiously elitist that iTunes will not accept indie artists, but they will if they come through TuneCore (or another middleman.) After all, iTunes is still ending up with that same artist in their catalog!

On the other hand, as Gary points out, one assumes that most indie artists have no idea what they are doing when it comes to ISRCs and all the various requirements to make a retail piece, and this certainly does help eliminate gobs of workload & aggravation for iTunes, as well as streamlines the process more easily for artists.

The fact is that in the non-digital world you could NEVER get your product in a major retail chain store unless you were signed and distributed by a major label! So it's actually a happy miracle that indie artists now can!

Until there is a universal standard, accurate mechanism in place that can track actual streams, downloads and sales from anywhere, individual direct sales are a nightmare.

They are just fine if an artist is the sole writer, performer, musician, producer & who owns and controls his own publishing. Other than that, without a way to account for actual sales (and as Gary points out - returns!), this circumvents every current system to pay & account to writers, co-writers, publishers, members of the group, producers, sample owners, etc.

There are usually many people who participate in the making of a recorded song. The distributor has always been the clearing house for quarterly reporting of all sales & returns from all retailers, and those reports have always been the Bible of verification to all parties of actual totals upon which everyone's percentages are based!

If Zed Shaw wants to develop something truly useful that can eliminate the middleman (and the retailer!) he should focus on developing a globally recognized standard purchasing mechanism that can reside on any webpage and have a historical reporting mechanism that can't be jacked around!

THAT would change everything!

[Quang Ly]

TuneCore has a great executive team that really makes sense. It is evident in the blogs that are posted. TC really "gets it". TC also continually improve their offerings. These blogs really do add value for artists. It's almost like having a virtual manager.

[Evan]

Zed's dead baby...

Zed's dead.

Artists want to make money making art. iTunes, Amazon, and Tunecore all allow them to do that. Right now when you buy one of my songs on iTunes, I get 70%-ish. When I sell on my OWN website I get 70-ish also... (per download) because I dont't sell enough music on my own to make a merchant account worth it - I use PayPal, which charges a fee of 30ish cents per transaction. So I make the same amount of money on iTunes or me.com. (no this is not a plug) whenever a 99 cent download is sold.

Because most artists that are using Tunecore are in the same boat, its a no-brainer to let iTunes/Tunecore take care of all the crap associated with selling and fulfillment and hosting and (the list goes on) so I can worry about what I do... write music.

Each artist also has unique challenges, markets, needs, wants, (again the list goes on) so to say "this is what artists want" is just not correct. Artists do want to be on iTunes, and Amazon, AND sell on their own sites...

In a perfect world of artists, each artist would have his/her own site or store and everyone would know where to go to buy their music and the artists would get all of it. But this isn't a perfect world, so the fact is that there will always be artists who are willing to give a little to get some...

Evan

[Linda Kay Burk]

Good article for the new artist, like me, who is trying to learn about all of the different sites available to sell downloads on. Certainly, it appears it takes more than being on these sites, to sell your music. Without performances and accumulating a fan base,and learning about social networks and internet marketing will it ever really take off?