Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What is the meaning of this?

This website is now the home of Polydactyl Records. I'm going to try to sell music through this site. Here's my business model. The music is free, however if it's already posted somewhere else you can get it there. You buy this stuff because you either want a physical copy or you want to support us. I will try to make the business side of it as transparent as possible. I'm going to do something similar to Rough Trade, a 50/50 split of all profits. The price you will pay will be the costs of packaging and physical stuff, the cost of shipping, and whatever we decide the cd/cassete/record is worth. As I said, the last part will be split 50/50 between the people who made it and the record label (i.e. me and others if it gets bigger). This brings up a good question of where exactly the vast coffers of the record label will go. Two places. First, I like getting paid for effort I'm exerting. However, I will try to keep this to a reasonable minmum. Secondly, the money will go into making stuff for new music or clearing up legalities of old music (a high school musical?). For every single disc I will break down where all of the money is going. Which brings up another good point. How much will said discs cost? Well I don't like paying 20 bucks for a cd and I don't know anyone who does. As I said the music is free though. However, for you generous and rich souls out there, it won't be expensive. I've sold copies of my debut solo album for 3 bucks (1.50 for materials, 50 cents towards my producer/recording guy, 1 dollar for me which went into making more). This is probably less than what the actual cds will be sold for but I don't think I want to sell cds for more than 10 dollars so I'll try to keep that down.

The first order of business will be getting a sample disc up of the artists in our cult (ha ha ha.... fine). I'll post it up here and start designing the covers. For this one it might be extra cheap (i.e. no profit) so you can buy them as gifts for all of your friends!

Also soon to come: a page where some of said free music is posted, a page of stuff you can buy from us, and a page on how to buy stuff from us.