Genres

A guide for artists

Connect and communicate with your fans, and promote, distribute and sell your music, via eListeningPost’s unique word-of-mouth previewing service.

The Questions

The Answers

eListeningPost’s word-of-mouth service in fifty words...
Provide your fans, and their friends, and their friends, with the chance to preview your music, up to five times, via our unique word-of-mouth previewing service, which helps you to promote and sell your music via your own email list or website, or using our mail server or web platform.

What it's all about?
Everyone knows that bands need to let their fans listen to their music before they will buy it. Everyone knows that a great way to do this is to 'give' them this music via the internet - either by streaming tracks on a website, or letting people download digital tracks to their computers. Easy. The problem is how do you get people to come to your website? And how do you sell them your music? And why will fans buy the music once you've given them it for free? eListeningPost exists to solve all those problems and more.

How does it work?
You upload your music to eListeningPost as Windows Media or Real files (we will tell you how – it’s easy). We encode your tracks in a special way, which means that you can email them to your fans, or they can download them from your website, your MySpace page (or our website), and they can listen to them five times each, in full. They can purchase the track facilitated by eListeningPost as an MP3 or protected track that can’t be burned or they will be sent to where you want to sell the track from. They can also go directly to your website or give you their feedback including their email address to be added to your email list.

What do people see when they preview a track?
When a fan clicks on your track they will first see a special ‘screen’ via their Windows Media Player or Real Player (the will have a choice of which player to use). This will explain what is happening. If you choose, we can put a short ad before your preview – providing a great way for you to make some money (more on that in a minute). Once a licence is provided the song will play like any other track through the Real Player or Windows Media Player. Each time they press play that process will be repeated (and on the third play they will be asked to offer you some feedback). They will also be given the option to buy the track and go to your website. Download a song from the website and see for yourself how it all works

Do fans have to register?
Your fans do NOT have to register with us before hearing your music. In fact they never have to. We don’t want to make it difficult for them to hear or buy your music. We do ask for an email address when fans buy tracks, but that’s only so we can securely email them details of how to access their tracks once they have paid you. We only hold that information entirely for the customer’s benefit and do not share it or use it for any other purposes.

How do people get my tracks?
Whenever you upload tracks to eListeningPost they will then become available, for preview and purchase, via your profile page on the eListeningPost website – which you can point your fans to and link to from your own website. You can then distribute them to your fans in an email or any way you want. We will also give you a link/URL that downloads the tracks when clicked on. You can put this on your own website, even if your website is your MySpace page. You can pass them round on memory sticks. You can burn them to a data CDR. You can stick them on any P2P network. You can send your tracks to all your fans and friends, and they can forward them on to their friends and colleagues, and them to their friends, and so on and so on. Every person who receives your track will be able to listen to it five times in full, and has the chance to buy it. (A warning though, eListeningPost does not allow sending previews in unsolicited email – ie ‘spamming’ - and if you do we will disable your previews so that no one will be able hear them).

What if I have trouble sending email to all my fans at once?
We realize that for many of you sending emails to your whole fan base can take a lot of time. This is even harder when you include an attachment. With that in mind, we have also created a system that enables you to send email to your entire fan base with one click on our website – you just create what you want to send and then click the send button. And you can do that as often as you like. There is a small cost for providing this service, which is charged as an optional extra (full details below). But if you do opt for it, you can use the service for all of your fan communications as well as to manage all of your fan’s addresses. Plus, if someone offering feedback on your tracks asks to be added to your fan base, we will automatically add their email address to your mailing list, and make sure they receive all future tracks and correspondence that you send out. Again, you do nothing. Until now, many bands could only access this type of service after signing to a record label.

Can we upload any tracks?
You must own the recording and publishing rights to the tracks you upload to the eListeningPost service, or have written permission from the people who own those rights (ie if a label paid for the recording, they may own the rights to the recording, so you’ll need their permission to make tracks available in this way. Also, if you are uploading a cover version of a song, you will need the permission of the songwriter or publisher that owns that song before you upload the track). You need to read the full Terms and Conditions and Copyright Policy of eListeningPost.

Will I know if my tracks are being heard?
Simple answer, YES.  In fact, we will not only tell you if your track is being played, we will tell you how many times it is played.  And where in the world your track is being played. You might find that there’s a big following for your music in Japan and it’s time to get your bags packed so you can go and play for them.

How does the sale of downloads work?
We don’t get involved in the payment process (though we’ve set it up so it is no work for you either). You need to set yourself up a PayPal account, which is free. We suggest setting up a business account to allow fans to buy your music with credit cards, which the personal account doesn’t allow. We also suggest setting up a micro-payment account to get the most money from your sales (we’ll show you how – it’s simple). To do this click here. Whenever anyone wants to buy your track we’ll send them to your PayPal page where they can make a payment directly into your account. Once they’ve done that we’ll give them the activation code for the track they have requested or let them download a MP3. This is brilliant – it really is – the money comes straight to you, but you do nothing – we deal with the buyer’s request, we set up the PayPal payment, we supply the activation code. All you have to do is remember to transfer the money from your PayPal account to your bank account. Oh, and try not to spend it all on drugs and alcohol…

How can I make money from advertising?
If you choose (it is not mandatory) you can allow us to place a 15 or 30 second advertisement in front of your preview. This means you can make money simply by having your fans listen to your preview. Unfortunately the ads that appear are random so you will not be able to select or block specific ads, not right now anyway. We also cannot guarantee that an ad will appear on your preview every time it is watched, nor exactly what price we will be getting for ads for. However, we expect to sell ads for somewhere between $20 - $40 per 1,000 previews. We will give you 60% of the advertising revenue associated with your tracks. As far as we know this is much more than you will get from any other website that is making money by selling advertising alongside your music (most don’t give you any at all). The share we are keeping will cover our costs of selling and delivering the ads.

What’s the catch – where do you make your money? 
We’re not a charity, and we don’t claim to be doing this just out of the goodness of our hearts (although, for the record, lots of our friends are in bands who are looking for ways to promote and sell their music that actually work and is not just making money for other people, and that was really why we set all this up). But this is how we make our money:

Firstly, there is a small onetime setup fee that puts you into the eListeningPost system. Included with this fee is the bandwidth for your first 10,000 previews. After that we charge a monthly subscription fee that is less than the cost a few beers. With this you can upload as much of your music to eListeningPost as you like and the limited play tracks will remain active as long as you keep paying the subscription. You will also get the statistics of how many times and where your track is being played as well as the feedback and email addresses received from your previews. Additionally eListeningPost will facilitate the sale of your music world wide in 6 different currencies without taking a cut.

If you choose to allow ads with your previews we will keep the smaller share of the money made from them (the rest of the ad money comes to you).

The last charge is bandwidth costs, which is the cost of delivering your download and previews. This is not expensive at all but the cost adds up for us as more bands use our services. You will receive 10,000 downloads/previews for US$20/£15 and your first 10,000 are included with your set up fee. When you are close to using these up we will bill you for additional bandwidth. Hopefully that will come very quickly.

An additional feature of our service is the bulk email and contact management system. There is a small additional monthly fee for this tool. What this allows you to do is create email with or without the previews attached and send them to your entire email list with one click. All your addresses are maintained in the contact management system and when anyone gives you their email address through the preview, email you send or your eListeningPost Profile page it is added directly to your contact database and if they chose to be removed that happens automatically as well.

Why does eListeningPost charge for their services when other websites are free?  
We are an independent company - we do not have investors to please by making money at all costs, and we’re not trying to become the next ‘biggest site’ on the net by stealing all your fans. Nor are we trying to build a technology empire. We are focused on helping you promote and sell your music without having to sit and wait for a big label to come knocking, and without having to spend most of your time administering your promotions and sales. We believe you will feel the value of the services we provide exceed the setup fee and monthly fees we charge.

How much are the fees? 
eListeningPost accepts payment using PayPal in six different currencies. These currencies are US$, UK£, Euro€, Canadian$, Australian$ and Japanese Yen. The currency you pay is determined by the where you live. If you live in a country that uses a currency other than these you can pay in US$. The fees are as follows:

  • Onetime Setup Fee: US$45; UK£35; Euro €45; Canadian$55; Australian$65; Japanese Yen ¥6,800.
  • Monthly Subscription Fee: US$9; UK£5; Euro €8; Canadian$10; Australian$12; Japanese Yen ¥1,200.
  • Monthly Email and Contact Management Fee: US$5; UK£4; Euro €5; Canadian$6; Australian$6; Japanese Yen ¥900.
  • Bandwidth cost per 10,000 downloads/previews (your first 10,000 previews are included with your setup fee: US$18; UK£10; Euro €15; Canadian$20; Australian$25; Japanese Yen ¥2,200.

All subscribers will also receive a free weekly e-newsletter filled with tips and advice on how to promote, sell and develop your music, plus you will have access to advice from our team of music business experts, who will try to answer most of your questions to help you develop your sound, and make a living out of your music.

What if we want to sell our music as MP3?
Lots of bands and independent record labels sell their music in MP3 format, because only MP3s can be played on all digital music players, including the iPod. They realize one of the most important things for an artist is to keep their fans happy. We agree, so we allow you to sell in MP3 format too. Again, this system doesn’t mean any more work for you – you just upload an MP3 track once, and we make sure everyone who buys your music has the option to download an MP3 version once they have paid. (Bear in mind that if you sell tracks as MP3s people are able to illegally share that track with friends or via P2P networks even if you haven’t given them permission to do so. This is why the major record labels don’t like selling their music as MP3s – though we are of the opinion that people can and will always rip tracks off CDs as MP3s, so just not selling MP3s via digital music services achieves little and you risk pissing off your fans. However, we will leave this decision to you).

What if I stop paying my monthly subscription?
If you stop paying your subscription your tracks stop being available via eListeningPost, meaning they won’t appear on the eListeningPost site, and people who downloaded or received them won’t be able to preview or buy the music through eListeningPost.

How do I choose what to charge for my music?
You have 3 pricing options to sell your tracks at. These are high, medium and low. The medium price is the price set by iTunes, the high price is 20% above that price and the low price is 20% below. The currency the consumer pays in is determined by where they live. This will be converted to your local currency by PayPal using thier conversion rates before it goes into your account. To get the most money from your sales you should set up a PayPal micro account. This is explained in the help section.

  • High prices are: US$ 1.19, UK£ 0.99, Euro 1.19, Canadian $ 1.19, Australian $ 2.00 and Japanese Yen 180.
  • Medium prices are: US$ 0.99, UK£ 0.79, Euro 0.99, Canadian $ 0.99, Australian $ 1.69 and Japanese Yen 150.
  • Low prices are: US$ 0.79, UK£ 0.59, Euro 0.79, Canadian $ 0.79, Australian $ 1.35 and Japanese Yen 120.

What if I want a customized preview for may fans?
It is possible to customise the feedback and sell through pages that your fans see while previewing your music – ie to have those pages feature your own imagery, pictures and text. However, we would have to charge you for such customisation – email custom@elisteningpost.com for more information on this service.

What about videos?
Everything we can do with your audio track we can do with your music video. It’s not quite as easy to encode your video in the required formats as it is for audio tracks (mainly because you need more sophisticated software). The easiest thing to do is to ask the person who made your video to supply them in the formats and sizes required by eListeningPost at the outset. Click here to find out more about the formats and specifications we require. Once you have your videos in the right format, you upload them in the same way as your audio tracks.

How do I get started?
Click here and register as an artist at eListeningPost. Then sign up for the eListeningPost service and upload the tracks you want to promote and sell, there is no limit. We’ll encode your tracks within 24 hours, and you can start sending them out as soon as that is done. It really is that simple, honest.

So remind me what I get for my money?
Basically you get control of everything about your music promotion and sales eliminating the middleman. But specifically you get the following:

  • Creation secure of ‘preview’ tracks for your music, which you can make available via your website, your MySpace page, our website, by email or by file-sharing systems.
  • The potential of your music going around the world, passed from friend to friend to friend with you knowing exactly where it is going and getting feedback and email addresses along the way.
  • Chance to sell your music directly to your fans all over the world in 6 currencies without having to share any of the sales with a middleman.
  • Freedom to make your music available to everyone digitally without having to give it away.
  • A chance to have a place to sell your music online by linking to your profile page on eListeningPost from your website and/or MySpace page.
  • Advice from industry experts on how to better promote, develop and distribute your music, through our regular e-newsletter.

Plus, for small additional cost...

  • Ability to send your entire fanbase email with or without previews attached with one click.
  • Facility to manage your email addresses via our contact management system
  • Automatically add new addresses to your address list from your previews, your email and your profile page.
  • Have people that want to be removed from your mailing list be removed automatically.