Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Program
- What was the purpose of requiring a password to read the FAQ?
- How does the merchandising program work?
- How do I know if my recording is good enough for the site?
- Why must my CD be professionally printed and pressed?
- What is the cost to me?
- How much will I earn on each recording sold?
- When do I get paid for records sold?
- How can I find out how many recordings I have sold?
- What if I don't have a computer (Internet access, e-mail account, etc.)?
- What kind of sales can I expect?
- When does the agreement end?
- Is this agreement exclusive?
- I already have a web page. Isn't this just redundant?
- How many recordings should I send you?
- Will my record be merchandised anywhere beyond the Internet?
- I'm ready to begin. What do I do now?
- I still have more questions. What do I do now?
What was the purpose of requiring a password to read the FAQ?
Two reasons. One, so that any questions about merchandising on the Guitar Music 9 site could be answered frankly. You should have all the facts you need to make a decision. Two, to be able to keep up with those motivated enough to respond and to permit follow ups, if need be, via e-mail.
How does the merchandising program work?
Artists and bands who have released instrumental or mostly instrumental recordings are eligible to sell their recordings through Guitar Music 9, a division of Guitar Nine Records, on a consignment basis. After completing the merchandising agreement, paying the one-time setup fee and sending ten recordings to us, Guitar Nine Records will then provide the warehousing, inventory, order-taking, billing, shipping and handling of your recordings to customers and fans over the Internet. You receive a draw for every record sold. Guitar Nine Records retains the difference between the cost to the consumer and the draw paid to the artist.
How do I know if my recording is good enough for the site?
Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records is made up of musicians just like you. We don't claim to have golden ears and we are not the ultimate judges of quality, by any means. However, we do reserve the right to 'draw the line' and not list recordings we consider not up to the standard set by the recordings we already offer. In the past, we have rejected a few submissions for being 'below the line' and referred them to alternate sites for their marketing. Like it or not, our customers have come to expect a certain level of overall quality from the recordings available on the site, and if we disappoint them, they won't return to buy more CDs, meaning every guitarist on the site pays an unfair price. If you are honestly not sure how your CD stacks up, send us a single copy beforehand that we may use for evaluation. It may save us both some time and money.
Why must my CD be professionally printed and pressed?
Simple. Our customers are looking for quality, guitar-oriented recordings by artists who take their work seriously, and that's what we are offering on the site. Buying over the Internet and through the mail, a consumer is essentially buying 'sight unseen', and so giving them the assurance that the album has been manufactured to a 'major label' standard (and not computer-burned CD-R, or short-run CD-R) assures that the customer is getting a recording just as good as one they would find in their local record store.
What is the cost to me?
The basic, one-time-only fee to cover the cost of setup and disk space is FREE* (regularly $25). We spend several hours making scans of your entire CD package and your photo, making sound clips, and entering song titles, artist credits and other information. You can pay a little more ($20*, regularly $50) and get more disk space, resulting in more or longer sound samples for your music, according to the following table:
| SUMMARY OF OPTIONS
|
| OPTION
|
COST
|
| Basic Listing: Online information with album and artist graphics, links to your existing URL, sound clips totaling up to 6 minutes. |
FREE*
|
| Extended Listing: Same as basic listing, except sound clips totaling up to 14 minutes.
|
$20*
|
* Hurry, for a limited time only - spread the word!
If you think about it, for less than 50 cents a week over a one year period, you establish a solid presence on a very popular web site, as well as having your CDs, your biographical data, your album graphics, your sound clips and more available instantly to all of the over 13,000 customers that have already purchased from Guitar Nine Records in the past. As an artist, you know exposure is great; access to paying customers is a hundred times more valuable.
How much will I earn on each recording sold?
Each artist selling on Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records may set their own "Artist Draw" (the amount you receive when a CD sells) according to our Price Point tables. If you are selling CDs for example, and you want earn $8.50 for each CD sold, the final cost to a customer in the United States would be $14.50 (includes the shipping). Customers outside the U.S. pay international shipping costs. You can view a current price list of products for sale on our site. Keep in mind two things when establishing your prices. One, in the words of one famous guitarist with over 30 years in the music business, "My music is extremely important and precious to me, and it's essential for me to not give the impression I'd just as soon give it away." Second, remember we're not just selling little pieces of plastic with paper inserts here, we are selling an entertainment experience. We've seen misguided discussions on pricing CDs that centered around the manufactured cost of the CD, not the value of the music on it. Consider this: you wouldn't set the price of a concert ticket on the basis of how much it cost you to print the ticket, would you?
When do I get paid for records sold?
Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records will mail checks on or about the 15th of every month for any artist currently owed $20 or more. That means you must have sold roughly three CDs in the previous month. You can also sign up to be paid via PayPal.
How can I find out how many recordings I have sold?
In order to best inform you how your recordings are doing, you will be assigned a user code and password that allows you to check the status of the items we are currently stocking for you (sample status page) using your favorite Internet browser. You'll be able to see how many have sold, whether a check has been sent, etc.
No other record company, distributor, or consignment outlet in the world can offer this state-of-the-art information to you.
What if I don't have a computer (Internet access, e-mail account, etc.)?
You don't need a computer. What you do need is access to a computer, access to the Internet and access to an e-mail account.
If you don't have your own e-mail account, get a free one from Hotmail or ask your father, mother, sister, brother, wife, husband, or 'significant other' if they wouldn't mind sending and receiving e-mail on your behalf. The advantage of a Hotmail account is that you can send and receive your personal e-mail from any computer in the world with an Internet connection (library, Internet cafe, airport, Uncle Fred's).
Internet access will only be helpful if you wish to check the sales status of your recordings at any point in time.
What kind of sales can I expect?
Our goal with this merchandising program is to bring together some of the most interesting instrumental guitar-based music, and offer it for sale to fans of this genre. They will be able to purchase music from many artists at one time, with their credit cards, over a secure connection, the minute they find what they like, after listening to the sound files. Contrast this to an instrumental guitar fan who has to chase down several artists, on different web sites, all with different prices, shipping charges, payment options, delivery dates, etc. By coming together, we create a site where the synergy of all the guitarists and bands together will hopefully stimulate sales for everyone.
To answer the question, we honestly don't know what kind of sales your recording will achieve. Set your expectations at a modest level and hope to be pleasantly surprised.
When does the agreement end?
The agreement is open-ended. Either you or Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records may cancel the agreement with a 30 day notice. If you end your presence on Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records, any unsold merchandise will be returned to you postage and handling due.
If you decide after some time that the program is not for you, we'll just shake hands and part friends (in cyberspace!).
Is this agreement exclusive?
No. You are free to sell your records by any other means necessary. This program simply provides you with another sales outlet.
I already have a web page. Isn't this just redundant?
You should have a web page! However having a web page, and having a well-promoted and frequently-visited web page are two different things. Those of you who have had pages on the Internet for more than six months have already figured out that just being on the Internet doesn't mean a thing without a promotion strategy (for the site, not your record). Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records has been promoted for many years (since 1996), and we've built traffic up (mostly guitar fans and guitar players) to a very nice level.
Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records has over 45,000 pages currently up, and hundreds of sites around the Internet are linked to our site. Hopefully your site will get to that level too, but it will take a fair amount of effort.
The bottom line is that a little redundancy is good. It shows that there are several places that your record can be bought. If the customer wants to buy it from you directly, from your web page, fine. Our site will be there also, as a convenience to those that want to use their credit cards and/or order from a company they've dealt with in the past. When your record label grows to a profitable level, you may not need us anymore.
How many recordings (CDs) should I send you?
That's really up to you. Send a minimum of ten to fifteen. In order to reduce the shipping somewhat on a per unit basis, you might prefer to send twenty or twenty-five. Any more than twenty-five in the first shipment is probably excessive. Once you start selling them, you'll have a better feel for how many to send in each shipment.
Will my record be merchandised anywhere beyond the Internet?
No.
I'm ready to begin. What do I do now?
Click here to bring up the merchandising agreement, print it off, fill it out, and send it, along with the recordings you want to sell (and an extra recording for sound sampling and scans) to Guitar Music 9/Guitar Nine Records. If you've sent us a copy of your record before (for the Undiscovered, or for evaluation), it is NOT necessary to include an additional recording.
I still have more questions. What do I do now?
We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have, no matter how basic. Send an e-mail here for a quick response to any of your questions.
|
