Re: Needing some assist with planning, designing and posting a new sale on Ebay


"Don Lancaster" <don@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6mpemqFhsnfoU2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Six String Stu wrote:
Hello all,
While I am not new to Ebay (been a member since '05) my activity has
been very limited. I'm one point away from getting a new star though. I'm
at 9 now.

Part of my inactivity issue is finances, of course. There are a lot of
things I would love to buy and have shipped to my door. I also have an
item for sale! One that I could deliver immediately after payment (IF I
can figure out how).

First a lil background.
When I first signed up to Ebay I was hoping to sell a pic of my service
animal to as many folks as possible. I was trying to raise the capitol to
finance my debut album "ScuffleTown Blues". I needed to pay for the
mechanical license rights (Royaltys) for some songs I covered.
That Idea crashed and burned. Mainly because folks seemed to think it was
a sympothy plea and begging. Can't say that I blame them. The average
person, who doesn't need to know all of the circumstances behind the
effort, could in all fairness easially come to that assumption. Plus I
didn't do a good job of relating my intent.

Fast foward a couple of years and here I am with a CD for sale. The rules
of the mechanical license rights purchase allowed me to burn 500 copies
of my album. If I wanted to produce more, paying more at that time is
allways an option.
To date I have gifted or sold around 120 copies. One of the reasons why
much more have not been sold is due to transportation issues and the lack
of accessable venues where I can preform and sell my product. I live in a
very small town way out in the boonies of the grain belt. Also I am
pretty much stuck in my house because I do not drive (legally blind and
epilectic. From a Traumatic Brain Injury).

What I would like to do is offer my CD for sale on Ebay. As a "Buy it
now" item with multiple inventory and after payment recieved, either
allow the buyer to download thier copy or email (probably through
"bigfileDOT com") a copy of the album to the buyer.
One worry is how to service the dialup customers. That file transfer
could take awhile!
Another concern is with allowing folks to download the full album and
preventing that person from sharing the download link with others.
probably a passcode thing could fix that.

If anyone here has the inclination and the time to walk me through this
project, I would be very appeciative. You'll even get a free copy of my
CD! Tho I am sure it is not even close to proper compensation for the
effort involved.

Everyone here can get a look at my CD and download samples of the music,
including the title track in it's entirety, by following the link in my
sig section.

I thank you in advance and hope to hear from some kind soul soon!
Have a great day. :-)



Why would anybody buy a CD when you can do a direct download instead?

Well, for one reason would be to have it personally signed by the artist. I
sign my sold CDs at gigs and venues. Doing so electronically isn't possible.
This was one consideration I had. Also why I came to this plan.
That led me to this current idea. Sell the album in a "Buy It Now" auction,
and download it directly after the purchase.
I thought that I was clear about that in the post.
So if a person was to buy it via the Ebay site they would not get the signed
copy mailed to them.
I also sell songs on Soundclick. btw

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=884755&content=music

These songs are either originals or in the public domain. For my Debut album
I have a limited number of copies that I can sell, (with the exception of
the title track which I own all the rights to) without going and purchasing
more royalty rights. With the originals and the public domain songs I am
free to sell as many as the customers want from me.
Ergo, selling on Ebay the remaining number of the original 500 copies (save
for a few I'll keep back for prosperity) seems to be the most ecconomically
feasable method. :)

The music industry has been changing for some time now. Your question points
to one of the main reasons why nobody is shopping in music stores anymore
like we did back when vynal was the rage. A Musician must now make his beans
and bread doing preformances and selling the copyrite usage of his or her
intelluctual property. The public has a limited conception of the laws
involved and do not even consider this stuff when cheating an artist out of
what is rightfully his or her sale by passing a copy to a buddy or online
stranger, instead of letting folks listen to it while parting in their own
environment. Too many times a CD is bought once and traded thousands, if not
millions of times. It's very hard to make a living, let alone a profit, off
of CD sales alone nowadays.
And before you start with "copy and sell copies seems like a rip off for the
customer" Think about it from the musician's side of things. The cost of
making that ONE Master copy. You have instruments, recording gear, sound
reinforcement gear, engineering, mixing and tracking. And the list grows the
more complicated the process of building the production becomes. None of
which is inexpensive.

In the begining I have purchased the *Right* to sell 500 copies of the cover
songs. I cannot sell 501. Currently I have 300 copies left in the tally. I
could burn them all onto plastic and wait for someone to buy one that I
would then mail to them, but the price of postage drives the final cost
upwards. So selling copies over the net via digital transmission saves me
money on the blank disks, cases, cover sheets, mailing "envelopes" and
postage.

Surely you can see the logic.


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