MusicFloss finds itself a great niche – is this the next big thing in “Independent Music Distribution”

The website is MusicFloss and if you are an independent artist and are looking for a platform to get yourself out there, this site is what you are looking for.

While MySpace is gearing up to simply be “MySpace Music” and numerous additional online distributing efforts around, I am not too familiar with a site that offers quite as much as MusicFloss does. I mean you have Virb that is good and you have Bandcamp which is great, but this might be that half step up from Bandcamp due to promotional features. Let’s take a look:

Upload and sell your songs, individually, part of album, however you want
Manage your online presence with photos, updates, tour info, videos
Tracking system behind the scenes for sales, views, plays
Widgets like the one below to put on your own website (including MySpace)
Ability to send a link with your music to industry folks and have on their PR database (bloggers & review sites) and have it look pretty darn slick (see basic example)

In complete transparency, I am not working for MusicFloss but I have moved most of my label artists from my own label (Yer Bird Records, thank you very much) to join in this endeavor as I truly believe in it. While I personally have joined as an Independent Music Label – we actually receive almost all of the revenue from any sales and if you are aware of the cut from the “big online retailers” you will know that this is a huge point of differentiation. Aaaand if you are a solo unsigned artist it can get even better as you would receive 100% of all sales – you don’t have to worry about anyone’s “cut” of your sales. You still have to set it all up, but if you are dedicated to your craft, spending an evening uploading/typing up the bio/getting pictures together – than this site is a no brainer.

The site is brand new as of June 1st, 2010 in a “public” sense now but has been in “beta” stages for a little while to get all the artists involved and everything up and running. It is founded by the good folks over at the IndieMuse music blog (also a great blog for music in its own right) and it is touted as an independent community. I know in “independent culture” the work community is thrown around quite a bit, but I think it is actually something that MusicFloss is really about. You don’t even have to sell anything, just be there to get your music heard (this isn’t just a digital outlet, it’s the whole thing – see the breakdown of the benefits). Remember, most sites are what you make of them, but MusicFloss kinda gives you a bit of a head start. It is looking very promising and you should swing by for a look around!

~~Example of widgets to embed~~

Buy Ghosts I’ve Met’s music at MusicFloss. Artists earn 100%.

~Smansmith

4 Comments

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Sara says:

4 June, 2010 at 10:37 am

I’ve been using the Beta of MusicFloss for a little bit now and it’s AMAZING. Very user-friendly and worthwhile. If this really is the direction online music is going, we all have something to look forward to.
zenm says:

8 June, 2010 at 7:36 am

I like bandcamp because of the option of purchasing in FLAC or ALAC … this would prevent me from choosing to use MusicFloss. Maybe they should look at this issue.
slowcoustic says:

8 June, 2010 at 9:18 am

@Sara – great to hear!

@zenm – I hear you, the best audio quality possible is always the best. But until FLAC or even ALAC are “widely” used, I don’t see this dissuading too many people or being an “issue”.

It is an nice (or great) option for loss-less audio but unless all these bands are taking that from studio masters (or original loss-less source) the option is really moot. If they are, that is great, if they are simply re-encoding and uploading – which does happen – then….

I admit that I uploaded in 256 VBR for my label albums taken directly from a new CD with a fresh import, but still that isn’t the “best” but definitely more than good enough in my opinion in the Independent Music Industry today. Maybe in a few years when bandwidth and the average portable media player storage/playability improves I will have a very different opinion as well.

~S
David says:

8 June, 2010 at 2:37 pm

Thanks for the kind words about the site, Sandy!

In regards to the other comments/concerns:

@sara – Thanks!

@zenm – Thanks for the feedback. We’re all for offering the highest sound quality possible, and what Sandy said is the main reason why we don’t have the FLAC option quite yet.

Between those issues, artists struggling to even meet the 192 bit-rate minimum when uploading, and the fact that we are a completely self-funded platform, it didn’t seem like a battle worth fighting yet. With that said, as FLAC or other formats become more user-friendly, we will certainly be staying up with the times. In the meantime, we allow artists to sell or give away their music at 320 kbps, which is significantly better than iTunes, Amazon, and pretty much every other digital music store.