Make Money On Sellaband
Invest In Music
Sellaband is an independent music industry website where you are the record company (although they don't have that slogan any more). Sellaband allows you to become a 'believer' by buying shares, known as parts, in music albums by your favourite Sellaband-registered artists. Naturally one part entitles you to a limited edition copy of the album on CD and usually depending on how many parts you buy you can earn a share of both the sales revenue and the publishing revenue of an album. Artists can offer anything from 0% - 100% of revenue to their believers. Well known artists such as Public Enemy and Jonathon Davies of Korn have been known to raise funds via Sellaband.
Fan Funding
Artists can choose how much money they want to raise and once they've sold the target amount of parts, they then use the money to record and produce their album. Once the album is complete the limited edition copies are sent out to believers before the official release date. Other rewards and incentives are often offered in addition to income-share. Any money from income-share that is owed to believers is deposited in their Sellaband account every three months.
A&R
Investing in music is a highly risky business and requires good A&R (artist & repertoire) skills. You need to be able to pick out the best new artists, not just the ones with the best music but the ones who have a good following, the ones who are most likely to become successful, the ones who are most professional, the ones who take themselves seriously, the ones who have already established a fanbase, etc. However, Sellaband is not just about money. This is a new way of doing business in the music industry and it's also about fans being able to find the music that they actually want to listen to instead of the same old commercially released music they hear on television and radio. Sellaband brings artists and fans closer together to make that music happen.
Return On Investment
Investing in an album then making a return on investment from sales and publishing alone is not going to happen. Although Sellaband did previously give you the useful opportunity to have your own online store they have now removed this feature. However, they do have a voucher system that allows you to buy additional copies of albums you have funded with 50% discount. You can then make 50% profit on these CD's by selling them to friends and family or through your own music store or record label at the retail price. Furthermore you can actually take the orders before you make the purchase for these CD's.
In fact, it would be perfectly legal to start your own market stall or even a shop to sell copies of the discount CD's you have invested in. You could actually run your own record label with very little outlay. Amazon also invest a considerable amount of money in Sellaband artists and all Sellaband albums are sold on Amazon as standard. I believe Amazon are taking advantage of the voucher system. In addition to earning money from sales and publishing revenue and income from selling discount copies you can also make a little extra from Amazon sales. By signing up with Amazon Associates you can then either start your own online store to promote and sell albums you've invested in or place product links on your website or blog. Amazon Associates pay up to 15% commission.
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