Sellaband Limited Edition CD Shop

And there it was, on my Sellaband homepage, a drop down list to select how many Second Person CD's I'd actually like to be sent home once they were finished... What? Don't I get them all sent home? Oh, that too is an option.

They caught me by surprise, the Sellaband team, but that's part of the fun in being in this unique experiment. Nothing they do, however, is without consequence. I won't speak about 'small' things like "where does the postage go" or "whose CD will be sold first" because that will sort itself out as the team has a record of being transparent and open to comments. No, I believe there are slightly bigger consequences of opening up shop with the limited edition CDs.

For one, up until now I'd figured that people who had still CDs to spare after harrassing all their friends into buying one would turn to eBay and sell the remainder to the highest bidder. "Limited Edition" would actually mean "not for sale in shops", and the sale price would soon be determined by rarity and demand and could be $15, $18 or perhaps $20. In time, a healthy second hand market would put an incentive on believing in artists that could gather a cult following willing to pay a premium over $15 per CD. Also, Sellaband CDs for sale on auction sites outside of Sellaband.com may be free promotion for the whole concept. All this is not lost, of course, but by setting the sale price at $15 an upper limit is set to any auction price, at least until the shop runs dry.

Secondly, Sellaband started off promoting (though not enforcing) "5000 believers per artist" or every believer one part per artist. Soon we saw people investing 100 parts, 250 parts and up to 500 parts in one artist. Because having 5000 fans may be considered better in the long run than having 10 with deep pockets, some people (including myself) say this should not be encouraged. Until now there has been a rather natural brake on the number of large investors, as they'd all have to find a way to sell their CDs. I've always imagined these people to be record shop owners, or at least have the spare time for selling each CD separately. The Sellaband Limited Edition CD Shop has negated this need for DIY in return for just a 10% profit margin. A margin that equals a small $5 if you own 5 CDs, but which is totally acceptable when leveraged by 100 CDs or more. Intentional or not, the shop means a significant change from the 1-part-per-investor policy that Sellaband started off with and opens Sellaband to more professional (albeit risky) investments.

The shop is here, and is probably here to stay, because it's a smart scheme. Not because of the truly sympathetic gesture of giving the artist another $1, but because (we can safely assume) the sales will end up on your SAB account which makes that it's easier re-invested than claimed!

More music on Joost

I've been promoting Joost here before, but two things make me revisit the TV-over-internet technology again: An increase in the number of music channels, and a move to unlimited invites by current beta testers! You'd still need an invite though, so I'm inviting all Sellaband members to send me an invite request though the Sellaband private msg system. Mention your full name and e-mail address and I'll send you an invite. Of course, if you're not on Sellaband join there first! Note you'd need a modern PC and broadband internet connection to avoid disappointment.

Sellaband 'R' Us

Phew! Another Sellaband competition is over, so we can all breathe again. All? In the current celebration mood we may easily forget that we've taken some casualties. Francis Rodino, an artist I very much admire for his music and drive, has said that he would stop to "Buy, steal, bribe, beg, bother, scheme, surge" for believers or investment. It was diverting from the music itself he said, and he's now off to record a full band album which is -I'm afraid- not appearing on the Sellaband label. Just before the end of the competition Mysti Mayhem got really bugged by believers who withdrew parts for the single reason to help another artist up one part in the competition. She too has said to put less effort in Sellaband, and only time will tell what that means. Finally, I've been told (privately) that another artist is focusing their attention elsewhere as Sellaband is too much about competition and commerce.

Because of the above I can't find this competition a success, regardless the fine lineup of artists that will play in London. We've had a month in which investments were directed to only a couple of bands, and only by the tens, not thousands of dollars. Even the winner of this competition has gained at most a couple of thousand dollars, which does not compare to the $17000 gain of Second Person in a single weekend during the last competition - not to mention two bands reaching their goal because of it. I can see that increasing the believer base may benefit all, but I doubt many of the believers who just joined will become very active (prove me wrong!). From what I hear, many current believers were attracted through the media, and this source hasn't dried up yet.

There are three parties involved in Sellaband: the artists, the believers and the Sellaband crew, and like a Siamese triplet we're bound to move in the same direction whatever each one thinks. Perhaps the Sellaband crew thinks more about the bottom line, as they most likely have investors who need results, and let's not forget it's their livelyhood too (someone already calculated that by the $600k currently invested the crew certainly won't get rich - yet). In the end however, the crew, artists and believers alike need a quick ascent of many talented artists to their goal, and it's the tactics of how to get there we're discussing, not the goal. Tactics which should make everyone happy, since after all - Sellaband 'R' us!

Added May 4th: Sellaband's Johan V sharing his thoughts on the competition on the message board