What was up there, except i want it legal as well. do not want to get sued. Also is there an affiliate place i would like both, i want to get like a rhapsody clone up. more, that is why i would like a license, from the artists but dont know where to go around to it.
You would need to find out the recording company where the artists are from and approach them about the idea. They should be in the best position to point you to which department handles it and the charges involved.
Well, it would be impossible to do that, there are thousands of artists. i know all these sites like napster and so charge for music. How can i get in that position? to where i can charge like 25 cents a download
That's why I am saying, work with the recording company or the label companies, there is only a handful of those and they will take care of the individual artistes issues.
Youd need hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to invest in something like that. And Napster is not run by one person its a huge corportion, each person doing his own share.
People sell licensed music via agreements with "the bigs" -- check out the ASCAP site: http://www.ascap.com/licensing/ This should give you a good idea what is involved. For the most part, this may involve initial and/or montly cash outlays (that may also deal with advances on royalties) since most of these guys don't want to deal with very small numbers and let everyone just put up music for sale. Too much administration and dealing with the usual issues.
I believe ASCAP only licences the rights to "perform" the music. The rights to sell the recordings are a whole different issue. Napster, iTunes, etc. all negotiate sales deals with the record labels directly. If you have clout like the iTunes music store, you might have a say in the price the tracks sell for. Of the 99c the iTunes music store collects for a track, the record labels receive at least 65 cents. If you were selling for 25 cents, you would be running a big loss! http://www.thespacelab.tv/spaceLAB/2006/04April/MusicNews16-ITunes.htm You will also have tons of competition. For example, Myspace is planning to begin selling MP3s: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1864533,00.html An alternative would be to sell independently produced tracks (i.e., not with any major labels). The cost would be lower, and unsigned musicians who want the opportunity to sell their music might be willing to take less of a cut per song.
There are lots of affiliate programs out there: http://www.realnetworks.com/info/affiliates/ (Rhapsody) http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/ (iTunes music store) http://www.napster.com/join_network.html (Napster) http://www.emusic.com/affiliate/affiliate_faq.html (emusic) http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join (Amazon) http://www.clickquick.com/programReview.asp?P=85&M=4&S=50 (CDNow/Amazon)
Here is a better site directly dealing with your question, re "the bigs" -- the Harry Fox Agency: http://www.harryfox.com/public/infoFAQDigitalLicensing.jsp Enjoy.
Actually, why not of just trying to repeat what the established big boys have already done, to maybe create a niche market by allowing new musicians without representation to market and sell their music on your site.
This is the traditional thought but I will tell you from experience in this area that you are climbing up macho mountain. Unless you have some type of ability to attract this crowd, e.g. you can have up a good amount of content from the bands in your good sized college, this is a very saturated market. Now with all these myspace type scripts coming out, every person thinks he's myspace. If I had a dollar for every free phpfox script installation out there... The only market even more saturated than this one is the ringtone market. Unless you are part of an affiliate deal it will cost you. One of the most popular (and least successful according to affiliates) is mediaplazza.com which has such a program. You can do a search here and you'll see a few others that I don't know at the moment. Jamster is another - jamster.com.
You might try to approach smaller recording companies and independent labels. It might also be a good idea to focus on a niche like metal music or new age. I know that the market is much smaller, but if you try to compete with the big players you have no chance. Also niche targeting has the added advantage of lower marketing cost. If you wish to expand later you can create more niche sites again targeted at a specific genre. Hope this helps. Regards, George
Wow this is Very strange that rhapsody deal, you get 15.00 for each free trial, and you can "Spam" This is going to be funny lol. I can use one of my bulk email lists, i have about 300 million in a bulk. and i guess i can try myspace as well, doesnt cost them a dime to sign up yet i get 15.00 i can make some $$$$$