![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Music-Biz-Weekly-Podcast-3-300x300.png\" "\\"Music-Biz-Weekly-Podcast-3\\"")
Welcome to transcript of episode seven of The Music Biz Weekly, a weekly podcast co-hosted by Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson.<\/p>\nWelcome to transcript of episode seven of The Music Biz Weekly, a weekly podcast co-hosted by Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson.<\/p>\n
Each week Michael and Brian will discuss the latest events in the music business and music marketing events and techniques.<\/p>\n
Download The Music Biz Weekly Podcast from iTunes.<\/a><\/p>\n If you like the podcast I ask that you visit iTunes and please Rate & Review The Music Biz Weekly.<\/a><\/p>\n Tune in every week for the latest discussions and comments on the music business Be sure to follow both Michael and Brian on Twitter for updates on each week’s podcast.<\/p>\n This week’s episode, April 29, 2011 – E-Commerce Solutions for Bands<\/strong><\/p>\n I would like to make a special note, Episode 8 of The Music Biz Weekly Podcast will include a very special guest, one of the most sought after speakers in the digital music market… Ian Rogers CEO of Topspin!<\/em> Michael Brandvold \u2013 Welcome to episode 7 of the Music Biz Weekly Podcast. This is Michael Brandvold and on the other end of Skype I\u2019ve got Brian Thompson. How you doing today Brian?<\/p>\n Brian Thompson \u2013 I\u2019m doing fantastic Michael, how are you?<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Not too bad, not too bad, it\u2019s a beautiful day down here in the bay area. We\u2019re actually supposed to hit 80 degrees this weekend, and I can\u2019t wait to get out on my bike and enjoy some nice weather.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Lucky man, lucky man. We\u2019ve got blue skies here in Vancouver today too, so should be a good weekend.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 So, you know I think we should just\u2026 let\u2019s just jump straight into (the) topic for episode 7. I posted on twitter that we kind of do an improv podcast every week here, because literally you and I get on Skype\u202615min before hand and throw topics out, and we just pick something and go with it.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Yeah, totally. For people who that are tuning for the first time\u2026 we\u2019re not script driven, we don\u2019t sit there and brain storm for all week. We literally toss a couple of ideas back and forth and say \u201cyeah, that sounds good, let\u2019s talk about it. Let\u2019s hit record.\u201d<\/p>\n MB \u2013 We just kind of watch the news of the last week and if there\u2019s a hot industry topic, or if there\u2019s something we just feel like\u2026 let\u2019s discuss it, because we get a lot of questions on it\u2026 We just throw it out there, and we go with it. You know, surprisingly I think that\u2019s really kind of become the cool part of this podcast. It\u2019s not scripted, it\u2019s not overly planned out, and it kind of forces us to think on our feet.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Hey, I wouldn\u2019t like it any other way. I pride myself on being as upfront and with my opinions as possible. So there\u2019s no need for script when you live your life like that<\/p>\n MB \u2013 So, this week\u2019s topic that we pulled out of the hat is \u201ce-commerce\u201d. The various e-commerce solutions that are out there for bands and musicians, and some basic e-commerce techniques, marketing\u2026what you need to do to sell your music online. Because at the end of the day \u2013 and I think you\u2019ll agree \u2013 every band\u2026the first thing they want to do is they want to sell their music. Even though we\u2019ve had many discussions about selling music as\u2026next to near impossible at times. That\u2019s the first and most important thing bands want to do: sell music.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Ya, I mean the first thing\u2026I mean I get emails, tweets and Facebook messages every single day<\/span> from people asking for advice going \u201cDUDE, where do I start? Where do I begin? Do you have a recommendation for which service to use?\u201d and you know what, there are so many options, and there are so many great options, and a lot of them overlap, some of them have amazing features that maybe you\u2019re not ready for yet? And others have monthly fees tied to them, because they are more pro in nature\u2026 and there are other free services that you can use that take a cut of your sales\u2026 so it really depends on where you\u2019re at and where you hope to be a year from now, and how intense your marketing and promotional campaign is going to be. That really determines on\u2026 you know, which service you should focus on.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Yeah, and you know, before jumping in and start naming names, I would highly recommend\u2026this is something you can shop around for. There are so many of them out there and they all have different types of deal structures. Make sure you compare them. A monthly fee vs. a monthly percentage, do they charge you for support? Do you get support? Will they fulfill the orders? Do you have to fulfill the orders? Shop around and just look at the various little costs that could be involved because at the end of the day you might get yourself into a deal where you\u2019re paying a monthly fee on top of a percentage of a sale and you\u2019re shipping out stuff on your own and you\u2019re providing customer service. Is that the best solution?<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Yeah, I fully agree. So maybe we should start? Maybe we should start rattling off\u2026 well, I mean, there\u2019s also 2 or 3 sides to this topic. I mean, we can be talking about digital music sales, we could be talking about album (like physical album sales), we could also be talking about t-shirt merch sales.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 I think we need to be talking about all of it. Because in this day in age, you better be selling more than just the digital download. I\u2019m hoping you\u2019re trying to sell CDs, DVDs, t-shirts, hats, stickers\u2026 you know, I hope you\u2019re trying to sell anything you think your fanbase is interested in buying.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Totally. I mean, hopefully. But of course, like you said, the magic word is \u201cfanbase\u201d. I think the very first thing a band needs to do is really look at \u201cdo you have a fan base?\u201d<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Do you have somebody to sell to?<\/p>\n BT \u2013 No I mean really, I know a lot of people who that are watching what we\u2019re doing, and listening to this podcast\u2026are\u2026maybe they just started a band? Maybe they just finished cutting their first EP, and they have played 3 shows. So I mean, this could be a very long discussion depending on where you\u2019re at. Are you at that\u2026is your band, or solo career in its infancy? Or have you been gigging for 5 years, with an email database of 5000-10000 names?<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Right.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 So how about we start by\u2026looking at the 3 different areas of revenue (which we just talked about) and throwing out some ideas for where they can source out places to sell. So, digital music. Digital music, #1, obviously because the last figure I saw was like 92% of worldwide digital music sales \u2013 might be a little less now \u2013 is itunes.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Yeah. The 12000 pound gorilla, whether you like them or not, whether you hate apple or not, that better not play into your decision. You need to be on itunes.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 You also do need to have your own service integrated into your own website and social media profiles, but there are people who are dedicated to itunes, and that\u2019s not a bad thing. A lot times, if they stumble upon your music, they go to itunes.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You know, I do that a lot. I hear a band I like, I search itunes. If itunes is not there, I search amazon.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Okay, so I think most people know how to get their music on itunes. You can\u2019t do it by yourself. You have to go through a digital aggregator. So those people include CD Baby, Tunecore, The Orchard\u2026Who else do we got who does digital aggregation? I mean, we\u2019re just talking North America, there\u2019s different companies in Australia there\u2019s a company called Valley Arm\u2026 Does Nimbit do\u2026?<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You know I want to say\u2026 I think they might?<\/p>\n BT \u2013 I think Nimbit does\u2026?<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Or they may have a relationship with somebody that they would then get you on to it.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 But anyway, there\u2019s the idea. You can\u2019t do it yourself, you need to go through a 3rd<\/sup> party, and we\u2019ve rattled off the top ones anyway. And there\u2019s tons<\/span> more. If you don\u2019t want to go through any of those, just go into google and punch in \u201cdigital music itunes aggregator\u201d and that should probably get you your results you need to surf and find. So that\u2019s number 1 of course. Number 2 is Amazon mp3. and I think all of the same digital aggregators\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Will get you there!<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Exactly. So signing up to CD Baby or Tunecore, 1,2 punch, you\u2019ll automatically get into the 2 top digital music stores on the planet.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Yup. Again, you just have to be there.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Okay, so now\u2026 of course, both of these services take a percentage of your sales. Now, if you want to go the DIY route where you have full control of some thing of your music and you have album store widgets you can embed on your facebook page, your website, etc..etc\u2026 That\u2019s where you need to look at other services.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You know, lets just add real quick: by getting yourself on to itunes or amazon, does not prohibit you from selling your music in other ways.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Oh yeah, they are not exclusive.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 They\u2019re not exclusive. So don\u2019t worry about that. You can sell your music through many different platforms, and you should try to get your music into as many platforms as possible, so that you get that exposure.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 and if for whatever reason you need to, you can opt out at any time. You\u2019re not signing any term of contract. So, there might be a\u2026you might need to pay a penalty fee for having them pull it ahead of the renewal date, but there is no\u2026 you don\u2019t need to fret. You\u2019re not signing anything exclusive.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Right, right.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 So for the other approach, again, my favorite is Bandcamp. I think Bandcamp is an amazing site that is really super easy to work, super easy to navigate, they don\u2019t take any percentage of sales but they do take a percentage for\u2026the Paypal transaction fee \u2013 I think it might be 15%. But anyways, it\u2019s much less than what itunes or amazon would take. And they\u2019ve got great widgets for you to embed on your site, create an online store, very shareable, great sounding music player\u2026 and the beauty of Bandcamp is that you can also bundle physical goods with your digital store! So you can actually sell a digital album coupled with a t-shirt.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 And I think that\u2019s real important, bundles.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Big time.<\/p>\n MB \u00ad\u2013 Big Time.<\/span> You need to think about that. Because that adds value perceived, additional value to the consumer, to your fan, when they are spending $10 and if they see that they get a t-shirt with it in addition\u2026 boom! It\u2019s worth\u2026it makes more sense to them to spend that money that way.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Well let\u2019s face it, you spending digital goods costs nothing. There is no cost. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re giving away a CD that cost you a buck, or a buck fifty or whatever. There is no cost, it\u2019s a digital good, it\u2019s free. So for you to sell a t-shirt with a digital album bundle for $20, or $15 even, whatever, it\u2019s a great deal. And it provides\u2026 I mean there\u2019s a huge perceived value there. Much more so than just trying to sell a digital album for $10, that no one can touch or feel. So tying it to a physical good really can help spur sales.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Oh yeah, for sure, for sure.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 So Bandcamp is a great one. There are many others. There is Reverbnation now, does digital sales as well, and they also have a merch component.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Nimbit does. I have a client that\u2019s been using Nimbit to sell his 3 disk box set, you know great little widget tools so you can take and embed the digital store on to Facebook, onto your website, onto your blog\u2026 you know, they\u2019ve got integration with their email campaigns, they\u2019ve got some marketing tools so you can provide samples, so you can give away songs with a signup\u2026 you know, like you said, there\u2019s a number of good players that will provide that digital sale solution.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 You know, now that we\u2019re talking about Nimbit\u2026The big news on the block in the past month\u2026which I think we touched on briefly before, is Topspin. Topspin has now opened itself up to everybody. Up until a month ago, Topspin was\u2026they referred to themselves as the Photoshop for music marketers: which means it\u2019s not Microsoft paint, where you can sit down and do a shitty little doodle with very little experience. It\u2019s a very intensive music marketing direct to fan platform. It\u2019s not simple, there is a huge learning curve but it is\u2026 it provides you with a huge toolset that not only enables you to sell music directly to fans on all of your platforms across the web, and with beautiful widgets and amazing control of them and flexibility\u2026but you can also use it as your email management data software to do some amazing email marketing campaigns with analytics to really look at the numbers on the backend, analyze what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t\u2019 working\u2026 but you can also use them as your physical merchandise store as well, with stock management, and all that kind of stuff. Now they\u2019re not free, they do charge a monthly fee, so again it goes back to the discussion earlier where you and your fanbase are at: are you prepared to\u2026 you know, if you only have an email list of 50 people, then maybe it\u2019s not the right time to jump into such a complex system.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Yeah, you need to think about how your commerce can grow. Initially\u2026 you know, initially you may sit back and think \u201cI don\u2019t want to pack up a t-shirt and ship it out myself\u201d but if you\u2019re getting 1 order a month, why not? You know, start with a solution where somebody else is just processing the order, sending you the order file, and you\u2019re taking care of everything: customer service, shipping, returns, all of that, because it\u2019s a small quantity. But it would be nice to know where you could grow as your business grows. So, will your solution 6 months from now let you\u2026 say, \u201cyou know what, now I\u2019m ready for you guys to stock my inventories and ship it for me, without signing up for a new system and replacing your store.\u201d You know, think about these types of things now. You may have no fans, little fans, or very little business right now, but you\u2019re hoping that in 6, 12 months you\u2019ve got some e-commerce business happening.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Yeah, on the topic of physical merchandise, basically you\u2019ve got a number of options. There are 2. You can go through a company like Spreadshirt, or Zazzle, or Reverbnation, or Cafepress\u2026 those I think would be the top 4 that manufacture your merch orders as they come in. Which means you have no upfront cost. You aren\u2019t paying a $1000 to have a couple boxes of t-shirts arrive at your doorstep and sit in your closet while you wait for order to arrive. But, what you give up by partnering with these people is\u2026 obviously you\u2019re going to be making anywhere near the amount of profit per purchase.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You know, the products are a little more expensive, your take is less, and I\u2019ll be honest, you can recognize a Cafepress store and merchandise selection in a second because it\u2019s similar to everybody else.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Yeah, again, it really depends on where you are. For example, on my website, Thorny Bleeder, I have a Spreadshirt store for my merchandise. And you know I\u2019m a record label, a tiny little indie record label, so it doesn\u2019t make sense for me to invest a $1000 for the few orders that roll in every month. But you know, I\u2019ve gotten a few products from them and they look amazing! They look really really great. And you know, I\u2019m selling t-shirts for $20, and I\u2019m making\u2026 I dunno, 6,7 bucks of profit per shirt which isn\u2019t\u2019 bad. I\u2019d rather make 6 or 7 bucks than have $500 worth of inventory sitting in my closet.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You know what, I think this is leaning into what would be a topic for us down the road as well, is just merchandising.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Totally.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 I spent years working in the merchandising side of things, and I\u2019ve got some good friends who might actually be some interesting guests to talk about that. Because at the end of the day, you can go out and shop around for silkscreen printers and get t-shirts printed.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Again, if you have the ability to ship orders, I mean if you\u2019re a band that is planning on the road 5 months of the year, then obviously you\u2019re not in a position to ship your own orders. You ultimately\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You want a fulfillment house.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Yeah. And there are many different people. There are people where you can print your own goods and ship it to them to do your fulfillment for you. Or there are people who will do the printing, and the manufacturing, and the fulfillment all on their own. So I mean there are so many different things.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 There are so many options, and it goes back to the first thing I said. You need to shop around and look at what everybody provides and what the cost is. And be honest about what you really need at this point in your career. One thing that I will put out is that at any point you want to make sure you got good customer service. Because that will make or break\u2026 and by that, that means if you\u2019re going to let your mom do your customer service for you, she better be on top of it. Because there\u2019s nothing worse than somebody who sends an email that says \u201cI got the wrong size shipped to me, how do I get a new shirt\u201d and you don\u2019t get a response for a week.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Or, you don\u2019t want an order sitting there unfulfilled for 7 days with no communication to the person that just entrusted you with their visa.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 because here\u2019s an interesting thing that many of you may not know about. Orders do not get charged \u2013 meaning that the money is not collected until the product ships.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Correct.<\/p>\n MB – So what that means is that you might take an order but you don\u2019t have it in stock. You\u2019re not collecting the money until the product comes in. That makes sense. The worst situation is (when you) just imply that you got that t-shirt in stock, but because you don\u2019t have a support team that can commit to what you\u2019re doing, it doesn\u2019t get shipped out for 3 days. That meant the order sat there for 3 days and you did not get the money for 3 days. And in that time, that person might decide to cancel their order.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 I worked with a band a few years ago who insisted on their store being managed by themselves, and they simply put up their shirt sizes on a Paypal button, beside each on their website. It looked ugly but they did get a few orders. Well, turns out that the email address where those orders were being sent to was on somebody\u2019s \u2013 and they admitted that \u201coh, I don\u2019t check that email very often\u201d. DUDE!<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Oh… what? How much money is sitting there??<\/p>\n BT \u2013 So I\u2026 because I was working with these people, I was getting emails from customers going \u201cDo you have any idea when my orders going to ship? You know, I placed it two weeks ago?\u201d And I\u2019d be like \u201cI dunno, it\u2019s not my store\u2026let me contact the band and find out for you.\u201d And sure enough, I didn\u2019t get an answer on their email, I had to call them and go \u201cWhat\u2019s up, are you guys not shipping orders?\u201d \u201cOh\u2026 we have some?\u201d It\u2019s like errrr\u2026So anyway, little things like that. If you\u2019re not in the mind set, or if you\u2019re not organized, if you\u2019re not on the computer everyday, then obviously you need to acknowledge to yourself that you\u2019re not capable of this job, so\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 And outsource that. Because believe me. Fans will be the most vocal when they\u2019ve sent you money or ordered something and they don\u2019t get it. And I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re a small band to a band like KISS or Motley Crue: if they\u2019re getting stiffed on their order, they are going to be very vocal about it.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 And you\u2019re not going to get a repeat order, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 For sure. So just.. you know, so many people I think ignore that portion of the e-commerce business. There\u2019s a big, big chunk of this whole workflow and infrastructure that happens after you\u2019ve collected the money. You\u2019ve got to be able to ship it, you\u2019ve got to be able to handle returns, you\u2019ve got to have somebody who can pick up the phone and call somebody and answer questions \u2013 that\u2019s a requirement. If you can\u2019t do it, don\u2019t be afraid to outsource it.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 So let me ask you a question. Let\u2019s look at two different scenarios: beginning band who is just getting their\u2026just dipping their toes into the water, so that\u2019s the first scenario. The next scenario would be a band who\u2019s been around for a few years, have a few thousand fans and whatever. So what would your ideal solution be for each of those two scenarios?<\/p>\n MB \u2013 I think we first, we already hit it up front. Ideal, regardless, you need to get in to itunes and amazon. So that gets your digital out there. And you can\u2026if you\u2019re a small band, you can just put a link on your site that says \u201cclick here to go buy on itunes.\u201d You don\u2019t have to worry about setting up a deal with somebody else to do your own thing. That\u2019s easy enough to do. Then you\u2019ve got physical goods, if you\u2019re a small band. And how much physical goods do you have? If you\u2019ve got very little or if you\u2019re going to use Cafepress or Zazzle, you\u2019re almost set up right there. You know you can go to Cafepress or Zazzle and get a store built \u2013 they\u2019re gonna build it for you. And you can link to it. And they\u2019re gonna handle the production, they\u2019re gonna handle shipping, they\u2019re gonna handle everything for you. So if you\u2019re just starting out, that might be the best way to kind of get your feet wet into this commerce work, because you need to learn what\u2019s going on before going out there and building your own store and posting your own store and warehousing your own product and supporting and supporting your own product. I think, if you\u2019ve never done it before, try learning through some of these simple methods of Zazzle and Cafepress and stuff like that.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 So on the other side, you know, if there\u2019s a band out there that is selling some good sales on their last album, they are selling merch, they are on the road consistently, they have a good considerable email database of fans\u2026 what would your ideal set up be?<\/p>\n MB \u2013 You know, the ideal set up is one person who can sell physical and digital goods for you. So you don\u2019t go out and join somebody who just does digital goods, and then you have to build another store for somebody else who does physical goods. It\u2019s confusing to the customer. You do want \u2013 if at all \u2013 a single store. Because I\u2019ve run into this in the past, where bands \u2013 major bands \u2013 have had a link going off to here to buy some customized merchandise. Well, when a fan buys that item they don\u2019t necessarily realize they are buying it from a different store. They are buying it from you the band. So they\u2019re gonna tell you, the band, when they have a problem.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 That\u2019s a great point. And I think what that leads to is something that a lot of people don\u2019t think about\u2026is there\u2019s a lot of free services out there nowadays, especially in the last half year that allow you to create a music profile on your Facebook fanpage. And there\u2019s a number of sites that give you really great looking music tabs on Facebook. But going back to what you said, now if you use one of these free services, chances are it\u2019s going to\u2026or most likely is, 100% going to be different from what you\u2019re using on your website. So now you\u2019re going to have to set up another profile and now you\u2019re spreading yourself over many different platforms instead of maybe just focusing really on one. And the more professional you get in your music career, the more either you or someone in your team will be needing to be looking at the numbers of your visitors, your conversion rates, where they\u2019re coming from, how did they find you\u2026and you can\u2019t do a good job of analyzing the metrics of your fan base if\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 If your metrics are split across four different platforms.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Exactly. Then it\u2019s just impossible. So that\u2019s where the benefit of somebody like Topspin\u2026where they are a be all and end all solution for everything. I just started using them the past week, for two of my clients. And I\u2019m diving in\u2026and there\u2019s a lot to learn, lots to study, but there\u2019s a great community there that\u2019s ready to help you. There\u2019s some great forums and instructional videos. But for 10.99 a month, for their introductory package, you know, you have access to creating your own digital music store, creating your own physical music store, fan management software for email, and also providing you with the ability to integrate all of those components into a Facebook fanpage. So again, that\u2019s for the more professional artist. But for my recommendation \u2013 like I said, so many people ask me daily \u201cwhere do I start\u201d? \u2013 my suggestion would be (after uploading it to itunes and amazon through one of the digital aggregators) setup a Bandcamp page. In half an hour it can be done, it\u2019s not complicated. You can integrate those widgets into your website. And then either \u2013 like you mentioned \u2013 go through one of those Spreadshirt or Zazzle or Cafepress to at least get some merchandise available to anybody that might want to do it. And then signup for a free email account database as well. So I mean that could be through Reverbnation has one\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Mailchimp, Constant Contact\u2026<\/p>\n BT \u2013 and Fanbridge, Fanbridge is phenomenal. Now some of these also, when you sign up for them, again they have a facebook integration component for your music page as well.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 And you know, I think this gets into a really important point. Facebook commerce, social commerce is becoming, this year, is really the buzz. It\u2019s big, it\u2019s\u2026 you know, a lot of people, a major companies are investing money in developing technologies to let you sell directly inside Facebook. Not the \u201cclick a link in Facebook and leave Facebook to go to your store to complete your purchase\u201d but the entire purchase happens inside Facebook. And on top of it, it has Facebook social sharing applications, meaning fans can share that t-shirt from the store on their wall, and other people can buy directly from the wall. There\u2019s very interesting things happening, and you should really be thinking about that now. Because I\u2019ve been doing e-commerce for 12 years for bands, and the old way used to be \u2013 you built one store and you put links and you tried to get traffic everywhere out on the internet to come to that one store. Things are sort of changing now, because you\u2019ve got, you know, over 600 million people hanging out on Facebook and not leaving. You need to put your store where the fans are. But that means, does your e-commerce solutions let you have multiple stores that are all working off of the same backend. Which is really important. So…an order that\u2019s placed on Facebook goes into the same order processing as an order that was placed off of your own website. You know, it draws from the same inventory, the same system\u2026so you don\u2019t have to maintain different stores.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 You touched on something\u2026just talking about the ecosystem of Facebook and how e-commerce is becoming much more prevalent in that world. Facebook made an announcement a few days ago which I think is going to have huge ramifications to how we look at e-commerce within Facebook, you know, a year from now. I think it\u2019s going to be vastly different. And what I\u2019m referring to is the new \u201cFacebook deals\u201d program that launched. Facebook deals is what they hope to be the Groupon killer, where it\u2019s online digital coupons. Now the thing is, is that\u2026I mean it only launched in 5 test cities. But guaranteed a year from now it will be everywhere. But the way that Groupon and Grouster and all these other deal-by-day services go, you give them your Paypal, your visa account, you buy the coupon and badabing, there you go. You\u2019ve got your coupon. Well with the new Facebook deals, you do it through Facebook credits. So now Facebook itself is\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 \u2026Coming up with their own currency.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Right. So now, all of a sudden they\u2019re gonna be\u2026 who knows? They could be an Amazon killer in some regards. Because Amazon, a huge chunk of Amazon is \u2026people giving their goods to Amazon to sell on their behalf. So who knows? I mean, a year from now you might be selling your music and goods through a tab on your Facebook profile for Facebook credits.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Yeah. You do have to watch what\u2019s going on on this, this is all developing so fast right now. And I will just throw my two cents in \u2013 nobody in the past has really been able to successfully launch a system that had their own credits and their own currency that people really adopted. It\u2019s adding another level of \u201cokay, here\u2019s my credit card number\u2026I\u2019m now going to buy credits, and with those credits I\u2019m going to buy merchandise.\u201d It\u2019s something that never has really taken off in the past. Facebook though is a complete different beast, and they may have the momentum and the size and the leverage to make it happen. So watch what\u2019s going on. But I think right now, you just need to be thinking about how can you sell your products and get your Facebook fans to promote your products, because\u2026an endorsement by your fan means A LOT. You have one fan who posts on their Facebook wall that they just bought your new t-shirt and how cool it is, that\u2019s the best advertising you can get.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 oh yeah. I think\u2026yeah\u2026 we\u2019re probably at our limit\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Definitely.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 I think the whole summary of everything we\u2019re talking about is\u2026 regardless of where you and your music are at, you need a strategy people. You need a strategy! That\u2019s all it comes down to. Don\u2019t rush into everything, anything. And don\u2019t just start clicking\u2026<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Don\u2019t sign up for every program that\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Just put some though into it, do a little bit of research, look at the options out there.. I mean, lets say there\u2019s 10 big players, you know\u2026 so it shouldn\u2019t be that overwhelming. And you can click on my blog, on Michaels blog, you can go on Hypebot, Music Think Tank\u2026 there\u2019s so many different sites that talk about all of these services everyday, so get educated, create a strategy for yourself\u2026 and best of luck with your e-commerce endeavors.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 Yeah, definitely. You need to be thinking about selling, and selling more than just your music. I\u2019ve got a friend who says \u201cbands are t-shirt factories.\u201d<\/p>\n BT \u2013 Exactly. So that concludes episode 7 of the Music Biz Weekly Podcast. Thanks for tuning in again everyone, we really appreciate it. I\u2019m Brian Thompson from Thorny Bleeder.<\/p>\n MB \u2013 and I\u2019m Michael Brandvold from Michael Brandvold Marketing.<\/p>\n Transcriptions done with assistance from Tak from The Pawnshop Manual. Go check their music out at www.thepawnshopmanual.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to transcript of episode seven of The Music Biz Weekly, a weekly podcast co-hosted by Michael Brandvold and Brian Thompson. Each week Michael and Brian will discuss the latest events in the music business and music marketing events and techniques. Download The Music Biz Weekly Podcast from iTunes. If you like the podcast I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[769,12],"tags":[213,848,854,855,471,337,803,602,814,856],"class_list":["post-4160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-biz-weekly-podcast","category-music-marketing-2","tag-amazon","tag-bandcamp","tag-digital-sales","tag-e-commerce","tag-itunes","tag-merchandise","tag-music-biz-weekly-podcast-2","tag-reverbnation","tag-topspin","tag-transcriipt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11658,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4160\/revisions\/11658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.michaelbrandvold.com\/blog\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" "\\"More...\\""){kind=spacer}
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