Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?

Subject: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 04:21 PM

Hi Everybody,

I just signed a contract for the manufacture of my first CD by Oasis. I noticed that one of my options was to allow songs to be distributed on DigStation. I said no for now because I didn't buy electronic distribution rights for the four covers on my CD and I am quite the Luddite and haven't set up a website yet or a YouTube page or anything. All the same, I'd like to hear what others think of this option. Do you use it? Do you like it? Does DigStation treat you right?

Loking forward to whatever you all have to say.

Thank you.

Sharyn

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 06:39 PM

I really don't think you are a 'luddite', Sharyn. I think you may be a novice, or unlearned in setting up a website...but it sounds to me as though you are willing to use technology, something a Luddite would never do.

Good luck with your CD.

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 07:11 PM

I signed up with DigStation & pretty much all the other options that came with the Oasis promo package, I haven't had any kind of action with any of though but I've nothing negetive to say which is a positive. The CDBaby option was worth while though. You get the free discout to sign up because you were an Oasis client.
Good luck with it all

Barry

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 07:52 PM

Thank You, John and Barry. Keep the responses coming, please. Barry, I didn't know you had a CD (Where have I been?). Could you PM me with the details? Thanks

Sharyn

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 02 Feb 09 - 08:04 PM

Hi Sharyn
I tried to PM "Sharyn" but it said "no members found.
You can PM me or just go to my web site www.FinnAndHaddie.com or just follow this link Finn & Haddie & you'll find info on my CD.

Sorry for the thread drift

Barry

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 01:14 AM

That is bizarre,

Maybe it has to be lowercase.

More on DigStation, please, folks who use it or hate it or express preferences for alternatives.

Sharyn

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 08:02 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 03 Feb 09 - 09:22 PM

We are back to 'what is Folk' - Had a listen to a few pieces , and NONE of it is what I would describe as Folk .

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Gedpipes
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 08:01 AM

does it matter LF?

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 08:27 AM

Not really Ged

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 04 Feb 09 - 10:08 AM

Um, Could we get back to the original question, please?

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: GUEST,pushStar
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 10:40 AM

Here's a good article on the back end of Digstation: http://www.pushstar.com/digsad.htm

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 11:30 AM

Alright, everybody, since pushstar posted a link, pushing iTunes, now tell me if you use iTunes to distrbute your music and why or why not?

Thanks,

Sharyn

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: GUEST,itunes is for real
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 02:10 PM

Right - you most certainly want to be listed on iTunes which is a true digital distribution site ~ People are actually on iTuens surfing for new music. It's a broader reach for sure, not just a propoganda site as the article states.

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: GUEST,pushStar
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 02:10 PM

hope this helps - let me know if you have questions.

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: GUEST,Rob
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 03:59 AM

Hi Sharyn,

I was researching about DigStation myself when I came across your post so I thought I'd offer our recent digital distribution experiences.

We signed up with DigStation because it was included with the "MEGA" bundle upgrade we added to our Discmakers replication order--this basically included accounts at DigStation and CDBaby. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but CDBaby submits your album to iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, and a host of other places besides offering MP3 downloads on its own site. That said, the appeal of DigStation (from the artist perspective) is that 100% of the sales go to us whereas it seems 60% is the average on most sites, including iTunes.

We officially released our album and all digital downloads have been from iTunes, none from DigStation. I think the ubiquity, ease, and familiarity/security of iTunes make it the dominant and preferred choice--listeners trust it and they probably already have an account so it's convenient. In our experience, it was definitely worth having our music on iTunes so if you can get you music on there, it will probably be worth it.

What are the iTunes downsides? Apple takes significant percentage of sales (CDBaby takes an additional percent, but it is much smaller). On the other hand, if it lets listeners find our music who otherwise wouldn't, then it's worth it. It is also worth noting they pay the artist quarterly in case this bothers you.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your music!

~Rob

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: sharyn
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 10:42 AM

Thanks, Rob. Another question: did you buy internet licensing (can't remember what they call it) for your songs, or did you avoid this by not recording any covers? You may PM me if you don't want to answer this publically!

Sharyn

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 10:00 PM

Lately, I've been getting my music "fix" through emusic.com - 75 downloads per month for $359.82 for two years, which works out to about 20 cents a cut. I've downloaded a number of Mudcatter recordings from emusic - mostly recordings from CDBaby and "The Orchard."

I don't know how much of that 20 cents the performer gets, but it certainly works well for me. It's just a hassle to make sure my 75 cuts come out even every month, because I lose what I don't use.

How does a performer opt for recordings to be made available on emusic.com?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: GUEST,Rob
Date: 23 Feb 09 - 04:37 AM

Hi Sharyn,

I'm not an expert on licensing, but I looked into it before, and you can obtain both mechanical and digital licenses pretty easily for many songs at Harry Fox Songfile. If the songs aren't there, the process is more involved, but still doable. Digital or mechanical, I think the standard statutory rate of 9.1 cents / song applies to each download or physical disc.

Our CD contained all original songs so we didn't have to worry about licensing. Our music is folk rock / indie rock so check it out if you're interested.
Lightning Inside You

~Rob

Subject: RE: Who Puts Their Music on DigStation?
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 23 Feb 09 - 10:35 PM

After two years and no sales through DigStation, I've given up - especially since they now want to charge artists just to keep the listings current. I've had sales through I-tunes, Napster, Rhaspody, and other sites, but not one through DigStation.

It's not that it's a bad site, but they don't seem really oriented toward directing folks to traditional music.

Dan