ReDigi Allows Artists To Profit From The Resale Of Their Digital Music

Despite ongoing lawsuits from the major labels, Redigi, the controversial online marketplace for pre-owned digital music, has announced the launch of their “Artist Syndication Program.” The program is designed to “directly support artists” by allowing them to profit from the resale of their music in the secondary market (ReDigi will share 20% of the transaction fee with the artist each time their track sells and resells).

In order to avoid the resale of illegally acquired digital files, ReDigi’s Verification Engine claims to ensure that each music file uploaded for storage was legally acquired from an eligible source. Their Atomic Cloud transfer system then enables the transfer of a digital music file between buyer and seller without copying or file sharing.

When compared to traditional physical record stores, where artists were left out of the loop and received nothing for the resale of their music, ReDigi is actually the first secondary market for music that compensates artists for the resale of their work.

"Artists have always been a great priority of ours,” said Founder, John Ossenmacher. “When the digital landscape eroded album sales and bands were realizing only a fraction of what they previously earned – not to mention streaming, which has compounded this problem even more – we knew we had an opportunity to do something big to reverse this trend."

In addition to being able to store, stream, buy and sell pre-owned digital music, users now have the option of buying new music through iTunes on ReDigi.com. They can even use the credit they’ve generated from their pre-owned sales to fund purchases of new music.

"A used marketplace does not always have the songs you want, so ReDigi allows its users to place an order for a pre-owned song," explained CTO, Larry Rudolph. "Now, if they do not want to wait for someone to offer that song, they can purchase it from iTunes through ReDigi.com."

Redigi’s partnership with iTunes is likely an affiliate sales deal that practically any service can do, but it is still an interesting move that essentially turns the service into a complete digital music marketplace.

These announcements come as the record industry fights to take down ReDigi. Capitol Records sued the company last January, arguing that a service that let users buy and sell previously purchased tracks on iTunes amounted to a "clearinghouse for copyright infringement." Interestingly enough, Google got involved in the case and intended to offer arguments as to why the recording industry's lawsuit against ReDigi could pose a threat to the growing $41 billion cloud computing industry. The case is yet to be settled and is currently ongoing. 

Artists and / or management can visit www.ArtistSyndication.ReDigi.com and fill out the application for the Artist Syndication Program. Once verified and approved, eligible syndicated artists are paid quarterly as their music resells.

Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House, LLC and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud