OraStream is a new music sales platform that features high quality streaming music and offers indie artists the chance to sell or stream their music on the site, to create a streaming music widget and to build and sell native mobile music apps for iOS and Android. They already have some well-known users such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and Jackson Browne but the service is still new and relatively untested. However it's worth a close look as an example of a growing range of streaming and mobile services for DIY musicians.
Last week Eliot Van Buskirk wrote about OraStream and shared a review of their streaming platform and apps and a discussion of their approach to high quality streaming music. Of particular interest to DIY musicians, he also pointed out that you don't have to be a famous artist to sell your music on Orastream or to create your own mobile app through the service.
Enabling Your HD Music Store, Creating Widgets & Publishing Artist-branded Mobile Apps
If you're interested in providing your music via OraStream, you can start by quickly creating a free user account. As soon as your account is verified, you're offered the option to "enable" your store. The presentation above shows the process from there but make sure you read the Terms Of Service which are really easy to skip over at that point.
Much of it is boilerplate though they note that the service is under development and new features may be "buggy". They also note that the net sale price will be split 75% to the artist and 25% to OraStream.
The "Enable My Store" intro page details features for musicians:
Share Related Content With Your Music
"Create the emotive music experience associated with CDs and vinyls. Curate your music with liner notes and commentaries, cover artwork, artist bio and link it to your existing social media pages. Exchange comments with friends and fans."
Offer Free or Paid Streaming & Downloads
"You can promote your original music by offering it for free listening, or for purchase by setting your own price. You can also set a premium price for music produced in HD quality over CD. Your fans may choose to download your music, or stream it on-the-fly."
Publish an Artist App for iOS or Android
"Publish your own artist app on iOS App Store and Google Play and extend the same emotive music experience to your fan base on mobile. Music delivery adapts to network bandwidth and plays continuously even when offline. Offer the convenience of in-app music purchases and engage fans through push messaging."
Stream Music from Your Website
"Use our embeddable web widgets to stream HD music to your own website. Customize your widget players for different audiences, or promote your new music by streaming in HD quality. If you are planning a marketing or promotional launch, you can choose to activate your widget only during the launch period and take it down when the launch is over."
For more information on how things work, you can check out additional presentations on Prezi, such as Managing Your Music. You'll also find that the OraStream Facebook page includes additional links to tips and ideas for musicians using the service
One caveat, some of the promotional material gives the impession that you can get HD-quality streaming music anywhere but keep in mind that, as Van Buskirk points out, smartphones and computer soundcards aren't going to give you the highest quality available though OraStream will provide the best possible.
As OraStream consultant Elliot Mazer claims:
"OraStream does an amazing job making an iPhone sound good. Their adaptive streaming technology lets one hear really good sound coming over the cell network...I think that the first streamer to use OraStream will have a huge competitive advantage. "
If you're an indie artist and create an app with OraStream, please do be in touch and share your experience.
More: Drip.fm Creates Subscription Revenue Stream for Indie Labels
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/App.net) also blogs at Crowdfunding For Musicians (@CrowdfundingM) and All World Dance: Videos. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
