Over the last few years we’ve seen a number of online music stores that offer independent artists a way to sell their music without a recording contract. And while a handful of these sites, like AmieStreet, have done especially well, but they tend to be pretty involved - you can’t just upload your songs and start getting paid. Apricado, a new startup that launches today in private beta, is looking to solve this problem by streamlining the process as much as possible. The first 50 musicians to email support@apricado.com with “TechCrunch” in the subject line will be able to set up shop in the private beta.
Apricado makes the music submission process ridiculous easy (perhaps to a fault): After uploading a song, the site will automatically detect the artist name and generate a music store (for example, a song by Mika would generate www.apricado.com/Mika). Each song sold will be distributed without DRM, and the site will only take a 20% cut of the revenues (industry standards are usually 30% or more). Visitors who navigate to this site will be presented with a list of available songs. After entering their credit card information on the same page, the selected songs as downloaded as a single .zip file. Artists can also get embed codes for their stores, so they can offer a mini-marketplace on their blogs or MySpace (a Facebook app is on the way).
Unfortunately, Apricado’s simplicity may also be its undoing. The site currently has no automated way to monitor user submissions to determine if recordings are copyrighted or previously uploaded, which means you’d be free to rip your favorite CD to your hard drive and upload it as if it were your own.
Apricado CEO Jeff Ward acknowledges that this could be an issue, but says that it will implement a blacklist to filter out songs by well known recording artists. For those artists that aren’t on the blacklist, the site will likely rely on the “YouTube method”, using DMCA takedown notices to help them track down pirated music. This may work well enough (or not) for YouTube, but there’s a major difference: Apricado will actually be selling the goods, which will likely make the legal repercussions involved even more severe.
Apricado has a good idea - such simple audio storefronts could conceivably make it the YouTube of music stores, appealing to both professional musicians and novices alike. But unless it can find a way to effectively monitor what gets uploaded, it won’t stand a chance.
“For those artists that aren’t on the blacklist, the site will likely rely on the “YouTube method”
Because that worked out really well for youtube. (see Viacom vs. Google)
why would a new artist put their stuff on a site, that noone in the world knows about? And whats stopping someone from rick rolling people by changing artist’s name on the mp3?
@Andrew
Nothing as far as I can tell. By the way, you should check out this really cool startup.
because of all these rick rolls, I actually gotten to like the song
Hi Andrew:
Good thoughts.
I’m one of the artists that has my store setup through Apricado at the moment. As an artist, I had a simple problem to solve - I wanted to sell the music I created directly to fans off my website. Surprisingly, it was hard to find a good solution that was easy and paid me decently.
My idea of selling direct was to keep as much of the revenue in my pocket as possible,
Apricado is not meant to host a big catalogue of music like an Itunes.
It is meant to allow artists to sell directly to their fans from their own websites. Personally, that’s why I think this product is so handy.
My two bits
Wow, it is easy. MySpace, Last.fm and others better watch out!
TL - tinyurl.com/RealTechNewsHere
This is a personal use music site. If you want to license your music commercially, head on over to AudioMicro at http://www.audiomicro.com the leading micro stock music licensor
C’mon TC…Why would you write about this nothing Apricot site? this is a total failure. Any business with 20% gross margins will never last.
Apricado ONLY taking 20% of sales rather than the standard 30% doesn’t get me very excited as an artist — it’s still 20% too much. To understand why, read this.
If Apricado let artists set the price of their tracks, or if allowed a pay-what-you-want option, that might be interesting. But it looks like all tracks will sell for $0.99.
I hope for their sake that Apricado has a more elaborate plan in the pipeline, because building a new business around selling digital downloads at $0.99/track doesn’t make much sense at this point…
‘Apricado CEO Jeff Ward acknowledges that this could be an issue’
Could be? Without screening where the music is coming from this site is going to get sued to death.
“If Apricado let artists set the price of their tracks, or if allowed a pay-what-you-want option, that might be interesting. But it looks like all tracks will sell for $0.99.”
http://www.mixpal.com
Set the price of your tracks to whatever price you want. Sell any format you want. Oh, and get paid immediately upon every sale.
Pricing will eventually be based on file size at roughly .02 a MB, so a 70MB full length album selling for $10 would pay $1.40 in comissions. But right now, it’s free for musicians.
There seems to be a lot of loose ends to this site…I wonder how successful it will be. http://blabtech.blogspot.com
a suit lost in calif. can be and usually are enforceable in canada. i hope these apricot guys have a good bay area attny. the weak tos says no (a foregn co. with not conflict of laws article???). 1 honorable broadside from apple legal will take them offline almost immediately.
flying by the seats of thepants is fun. the guy are spo obviously amateurs. let me know if you enjoy steve’s tango
How do they handle less then $1 purchases? It seems that most of the money should go to payment gateway…
Yes, yes… lots of considerations.
But what I really want to know is… Jason, do you also secretly love Mika?
What happened to the comments? What is with this reply thing, and why no numbers? I’m not trying to have old-man syndrome, but at least bring the numbers back! =)
As for why TC covered this, I think covering the (potential) failures is important too. Not to mention, with TechCrunch’s following, their reporting affects the reported (Heisenberg principle of physics)–Covering a potential failure may be the kickstart it needs, and sometimes good ideas need that.
> sites, like AmieStreet, have done especially well, but they tend to be pretty involved - you can’t just upload your songs and start getting paid.
Really? I guess that’s exactly how it works for me at Amie Street: I came, uploaded music by my band, Dreamlin, started selling music and am getting payed on monthly basis. Everything is pretty simple.
I agree w/ Ry’s response to Andrew. I see this more as a way for artists to setup storefronts and promote their own music for direct to consumer sales. They may pick up a few fans along the way as the community grows.
The challenge Amie St. had (and still has to some degree) is that its too easy for any guy with a ukulele to upload music. It’s like music spam and there needs to be some sort of filter.
Amie St. has gotten some bigger names like Pavement, Pixies, Blitzen Trapper, etc, but there’s still lots of sub-par to average clutter.
W/ Apricado, I’d expect a community rating or built in filter to help cut through the clutter.
Their name and icon disgust me.
@Indie Music Blog - At this point we’re focused on the financial transaction side of things for the artist because it is the most straightforward thing to solve quickly. The goal is to give artists as many tools as possible to promote themselves. Music discovery will come and I’m open to all possibilities.
@freya, @techdude, et al. - Solving this one simple problem certainly has brought up a number of other issues. They are challenges that we’ll have to overcome, no doubt. Please share your ideas where you can see us improve on these areas? All advice is welcomed
@LT - If artists have to pay a flat-rate (monthly/annually) to be able to sell their music, the starving artists will shy away from this. With Apricado, we’re trying to remove barriers (financial, technical) so that artists can get sell their music online quickly and easily.
Thanks everybody for the comments, it’s really great to hear everybody’s different critiques, criticisms and concerns.
Also, I wanted to let you know that you can follow the Apricado progress on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/apricado
As an indie artist I think Fuzz.com already does this better than anyone… and their Blip site rules. Also, as old school as it is, the PodSafe Music Network still rules for getting promotion.
Apricado? You can even buy beats (music instrumental) online.
http://www.givemebeats.com
Check out betarecords.com!
85% back to the artists. Free, unlimited use. Social features to connect with fans. Discovery methods in place. A store widget for MySpace, Facebook, your site, etc. Set your own prices. Be seen by the music (A&R), TV, film, advertising, and gaming industries for licensing. And we have our own recording studio and are signing acts within all genres in non-exclusive way.
So this seems to be yet another place where bands can sell their music online. Big woop. There are soo many of these site, and they all compete with Itunes. Even an unsigned artist can get into itunes, amazon, etc by using CD baby or Tune Cure.
So the trick is that Apricado gives artists more money. This is great! But, since they’re not given any value adds to the music, why would an artist choose to sell through a retailer no fans know/trust. Seems like another snocap to me!
Further to this discussion, you may like my video on the Future of Copyright: http://gleonhard.blip.tv/file/1028802/#
About the Future of Copyright: 1) An actual distinction between ‘Copy’ vs ‘Performance’ of digital content no longer exists 2) Even if it did: the ‘Selling of Copies’ is no longer a growing business, or a sustainable model 3) The exclusive right to ‘make copies’ is becoming impossible to enforce 3) Criminalization of Sharing and Policing of Web-Access is not the kind of ‘Justice’ our society can afford 4)New Permissions & ‘Usage-Rights’ for Digital Music can and will solve this problem..