A brand new company launching later next month has chosen one of our tracks as their flagship song. We want to make sure people can buy our music on line at the time of the launch.

What digital stores would you recommend we join? We are worried about royalties and fees and basically don't want to be ripped off. As we don't have management at present, your advice would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

Have to tell you it's all iTunes at the moment - virtually nothing sells through other outlets.

We find AWAL (Artistes Without A Label) good aggregators for iTunes.

Tunecore.com are one that seems to come up often.

A review of digital distributors from mosesavalon.com

Tunecore do need I-Tunes though to survive, but they get the tracks up there (on to I-Tunes) for you, should you decide that they are the main company that you want to be with, which, you do really.

From Tunecore,you get a simple tick box when you upload as to which distro`s and territories you want you material released through.

What I would say though, that if a store is already "flagshipping" your stuff, do stick with them and ask their advice.

A friend yesterday asked me about airplay and PR companies.

The same applies as above, make sure that the belief is in your product as well as any returns to you or them.
An honest plugger,(and there are quite a few), will quite happily tell you the truth rather than take any fees from yourself or your financers.

Those are the people you want in your corner.(and of course your fanbase and I-Tunes)
Best of luck with it all.

AWAL for me.

It's always the usual suspects that I see (and truth be told, I've used 'em and recommend them as well). But don't forget Finetunes. Lesser known but with an excellent reputation. Plus, they are very, very good with the German download stores (a bigger market than the UK the last time I looked). In fact, given the extremely short deadline, you could contact all three and safely go for the one that guarantees the quickest turnaround.

www.finetunes-solutions.de/index.php?lang=en&nav=1.1

However, I have to ask: how much are you being paid to be the flagship? It might be the most money you will see these days. Selling individual tracks will not make you rich. As Mart said on a previous thread, it's a bit like having an extra milk round.

Come back and tell us when the track is up.

David at Finetunes is a nice chap, very friendly and helpful on the phone one morning.

We've just sent all the stuff off to AWAL for our forthcoming release on Oct 21st (Flashlights).

We'll see how they get on.

For the last single we only sold through www.indiestore.com/dastards which was fine but this time we want some wider exposure.



Stretch
www.dastards.com

The problem we found with AWAL and iTunes is that they have no way of giving instant sales information; so if you get three key radio/TV plays in one day, you can't see the reaction.

That's the kiss of death for the vital ingredient in breaking tracks - MOMENTUM.

AWAL has now given us monthly (as opposed to quarterly) statements because our earnings are getting pretty substantial - they can only do it when there's a really high turnover. But it's still impossible to get next day sales info.

Actually - that is one really good feature about Indiestore.com. Sales show up instantly. There's a 'Manager' area which shows the last 100 sales and it is updated immediately following a sale.

So when people email and say 'I've just bought a copy of your single' we can check to see if it's true!

Stretch

Indiestore give you the ability to craet quite a nice looking page easily too.