Topspin Revamps Fulfillment Policies In Wake Of Audiolife Acquisition
On the heals of today's acquisition by distributor Alliance Entertainment of direct to fan fulfilment service Audiolife, Topspin, who has used Audiolife to deliver physical goods, has announced major changes to it's own Topspin Fulfilment service.
Topspin's customers will now be serviced by Alliance, though a $.50 customer service fee will be added to to all orders that contain physical goods. Topsin is also adding live customer phone support from their Santa Monica offices.
On the week of June 4th, goods will be transferred from Audiolife's California warehouse to Alliance in Kentucky. Some Topspin customers already serviced by Alliance will have duplicate goods returned to them.
Topspin is also working to integrate it's customers within the full Alliance system, much as CD Baby did recently. In time, the exclusive products that artists make available on their web sites may also be for sale to Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and others. Additionally, Topspin artists will be able to sell the 200,000 CDs, vinyl, DVDs, and merchandise in Alliance’s current catalog to their fans. For some artists that means the ability to easily sell their back catalog on their site, regardless of the label.
MORE: Alliance Aquires Audiolife, Placing Another Big Bet On Music's Long Tail
Someone please explain how this works…
Alliance Entertainment, a distributor, bought Audiolife, a fulfillment company.
Topspin, who makes widgets for bands to sell stuff on their sites, but doesn’t do any designing, manufacturing, or fulfillment of their own, is now charging an extra $.50 per order WHY??
It may be that Alliance is charging more than Audiolife did, and Topspin is just passing that charge along, as well as adding phone support. Just a guess.