7 Digital Launches Innovative IndieStore

UK download site 7 Digital may be best known for it’s custom download stores for artists like Coldplay and Oasis. But what caught our eye a few months back was that they made downloads available in a variety of formats including WMA, iTunes compatible AAC and if the artist chooses even DRM free MP3. Payment can be made in UK pounds, Euros or US $’s making transactions possible worldwide.

Now 7 Digital is making many of these same tools available at affordable prices to independent artists and labels via new site IndieStore.com.  A limited store is available for free but for a just under a $150 set-up fee a more robust storefront allows artists to retain 80% of revenue and create track bundles.  Other community features include calendars, blogs, and playlists. IndieStore is a major addition to the indie/D.I.Y. toolkit.

Read much more about IndieStore including terms and conditions from a company press release posted after the jump.

indiestore.com

www.indiestore.com

Beta launch:                        24^th May 2006

Official launch:       28^th September 2006

Background:

indiestore is a concept developed by 7 Digital Media. indiestore is a simple and easy to use service that allows independent artists and labels to sell their music online digitally. indiestore uses the same technology that powers the download stores of Coldplay, Oasis, Gorillaz, Feeder, Maximo Park and many more.

Key features:

• Multi-format file support – WMA, MP3, AAC
  • Upload one file & we’ll do the rest
  • Compatible with all MP3 players
• Non-exclusive, sell your tracks on other download services
  • You retain 100% of the rights to your music
• Live sales chart and latest indiestore list
  • We added two lists that will automatically update and allow people to view the very latest indiestores as well as our best-selling artist chart. To appear on the latest indiestore list you need to have at least one active track.
• ‘Jump To Random indiestore’ button
  • On each indiestore we added a jump to a random indiestore link. This helps people to browse indiestore randomly.
• Real-time reporting
  • On the lefthand bar of artists indiestore we added a stats section that shows total views and previews for your store.
  • Artists can log in to the manager tool and view real-time sales reports by month and also a breakdown of the last 100 sales made
• Artist A-Z listing
  • We added an A-Z listing of all indiestores which includes the artist tags so you can get an idea of what you’re letting your ears in for.
• Bundles
  • Pro account holders can bundle their tracks meaning singles, EPs and albums can be created. Inside the indiestore Manager will reveal ‘see/edit bundles’ in the menu.  All of which means you can now bundle tracks together and price them more effectively.
• Tags
  • The thinking was that instead of providing a list of genres for artists to choose from, we’d let artists chose the words they would like to define their music. It offers much more scope than simply choosing ‘pop’ from dropdown.
  • We also created a tag cloud – http://www.indiestore.com/tags for users to search and discover new music
• Forums
  • Indiestore forums as for the artists to communicate between one another, to raise issues and give us their ideas on what features they would like to see on indiestore
• Customisation
  • Each indiestore can be customised with a set of style sheet templates with more templates being rolled out later in the year.
  • Artists can also add customised headers and background images

Future Key Features:

• Email List Management for indiestore artists
• Integrate indiestore artists within 7digital.com
• Feed indiestore artists into Yahoo! Audio search and Froogle
• DRM
• Video
• Digital Locker – facilities for fans to keep lists of their favourite artists and tracks, as well as was more ways for artists to communicate with them
• A location based tool for searching fans/artists in your region

Service levels:

Starter – Free

• Up to 4 tracks
• MP3, WMA and AAC (iPod) formats (upload one file – we’ll do the rest)
• 70% revenue share, quarterly accounting
• Previews, blog, picture gallery, tour dates
• indiestore.com/yourchoice URL
• Support for credit card and debit card

Pro – £75 p.a. – all starter features plus:

• Up to 20 tracks
• 80% revenue share, monthly accounting
• Monthly accounting – we automatically paid you at the end of each month
• Promotion on the 7 Digital network
• Chart eligible in US,

  UK

  and 20 other countries
• ISRC generation

Feedback:

We have created a Google notebook of coverage online from websites and blogs talking about indiestore, this can be viewed at: http://www.google.com/notebook/public/04102212934010556150/BDQs4SwoQ35-D2bgh

Statistics:

• 50,000 page views per week
• The average indiestore generates £13 in revenue per week
• Currently there are 2,400 active indiestores
• All indiestores generate over 2,000 sales per week
• Over 8,000 streams per week

Success Stories  :

• indiestore was successful in securing a spot on Richard & Judy supporting a primary school’s closure theme song – http://www.indiestore.com/saveourschool
• In conjunction with Oxfam, indiestore will be supporting a new music festival called OXJAM. An unsigned band, The Roads, will be the headline act for the music festival, their upcoming new single will be made available exclusively through indiestore.com – http://www.indiestore.com/roads with all proceeds going to Oxfam.

Indiestore Manager:

Test log in to view interface – https://www.indiestore.com/manager/

User: test777@7digital.com

Password: 7digital