by Dr. Matthew Warnock.

Audiolife is an online manufacturing and distribution company designed to help independent artists promote and sell their music and related merchandise on an unlimited number of websites around the world. The company, which also offers warehousing and fulfillment, provides bands and musicians with the ability to set up a virtual storefront where they can easily upload their music or create products to be sold in the store. The process is quick and easy to set up and the backend rewards can be quite substantial, both financially and professionally. With a global distribution system and the ability to quickly and easily manufacture new products, Audiolife.com is taking the grunt work out of the promotional marketing side of the music business and allowing bands to focus their time on more important things like recording a new single or being on the road.

Setting up a storefront and uploading products to be sold in that store is an easy, four-step process. The first step is to sign up for an account and get the storefront up and running. After this is done, which does not cost anything, artists and bands can begin uploading their music to the store as well as creating swag items such as hats, T-Shirts, hoodies and other related products. The third step involves setting prices for these items, which is one of the most important steps in the process. In order to make money from the sale of products, bands and artists need to make sure that the items are priced low enough that they are attractive to potential customers, but that they are priced high enough to cover the cost of manufacturing.

The last step is to distribute the products on an array of social networking sites that the bands or artists already use. Storefronts can be placed on MySpace, Facebook and many other similar sites, and when an update is made to a band's storefront it appears on all of these networking sites at the same time. The stores are set up in a similar fashion to YouTube videos. All one needs to do is copy the HTML code and paste it into any supporting site, such as those mentioned above, and voilà, the store is up and running. By offering this option to their clients, Audiolife is putting the power to sell products in the hands of the bands that create them. Audiolife will help with distribution, but bands will be able to decide if and where they want the storefronts to appear on the social networking websites and blogs they already maintain.

As far as the products themselves are concerned, Audiolife offers just about everything that a band or artist would need in order to develop a product line. On the musical side of things, the site offers CDs, physical and MP3 versions, downloadable MP3s and ringtones. Audiolife will distribute downloadable audio files as well as ensure that they are compatible with the variety of music players on the market. They will also distribute ringtones to 45 different countries and make them playable on 500 handsets. No matter where someone lives, or what playback system is preferred, the MP3s and ringtones in a band's store will be compatible.

Aside from the audio based products that Audiolife offers, they also provide a wide range of swag products bands can create and sell. All of these products come in a wide range of styles, fits and designs and come in both men's and women's sizes. Bands can create T-shirts, sweat shirts, hoodies, zip-up hoodies and even tote bags with their own custom designs to be sold via the storefront. One of the most attractive aspects of the Audiolife set-up is that they will also manufacture products, both audio and physical, for bands to sell at live performances. This will ensure that fans of any band or artist will always be able to buy their latest recording or new T-Shirt, either online or in person. This is something that will no doubt appeal to bands that spend a great deal of time on the road.

Creating an Audiolife storefront does not have any initial monthly or annual fees. Rather, the company makes money when their bands and artists make money. This means that there are no rolling costs for maintaining a store on the site, but when a CD, T-shirt, MP3 etc is sold, Audiolife takes a flat fee from that sale to cover their costs. These fees range from $0.30 per MP3 download to $42 for a zip-up hoodie sweatshirt. In order for musicians to make money with the site, they need to be aware of what these fees are and set prices accordingly.

While this may sound a bit confusing, it's no different than if musicians were to produce their own CDs or merchandise and distribute it themselves. Audiolife simply charges for the cost of producing the product, while the musician takes home the rest without having to go through the hassle of making and selling these items themselves. For example, MP3s are normally sold for $0.99, which means that for every MP3 sold Audiolife takes $0.30 and the artist makes $0.69. Not a bad deal for the musician compared to similar sites. There are detailed lists of all of the fees that Audiolife charges for the production and sale of merchandise that can be found in the "Tour" section of the site.

The biggest plus to the Audiolife concept is that they are not only combining the manufacturing and distribution channels of the music product business, they are handling all of the work that takes time away from musicians being able to practice, write new music and promote their careers. By taking care of product manufacturing, distribution, payments, returns and exchanges, Audiolife is making things easy for any musician to focus on their music while the company handles these important, and often time-consuming, items. Audiolife sends out payments to musicians who have sold items on their store during the previous month, which takes the hassle out of tracking down payments from distributors and a dozen or more sites that are carrying an artist's material. Having a steady stream of income that is not related to performing, i.e. merchandise sales, can provide added financial security for any up-and-coming band, allowing them to focus more on making music and finding new gigs.

The Audiolife concept is one that will appeal to musicians of any genre and in any stage in their career. Being able to conveniently create a storefront, upload audio and physical products, distribute these products worldwide and place the storefronts on an artist's social networking sites takes a lot of the guess work out of this side of the business. The added revenue stream and exposure can be a welcomed resource for any artist that is pushing hard to reach the next level in their careers. Leaving the business side to a company like Audiolife allows the artist to do what they do best - create the music.

Link:
Audiolife