The Audiolife platform allows artists to:
• Create their own virtual store with an unlimited number of downloads, ringtones, CDs and merchandise items.
• Sell directly to fans on any website, blog or social network on the web.
• Have one central place to design custom products and manage all e-commerce.
• Easily buy high quality, affordable CDs and merchandise with no minimums for live shows and events.
• Focus on making music while Audiolife handles all on-demand manufacturing, distribution, customer service and accounting.
Does this solve anything for you? Was going to more than one place to do merchandise, CD manufacture on demand and digital sales through your website difficult and time-consuming? Is the widget the killer app for the “musical middle class”? Your thoughts in the comments…
I love the idea… being able to design, promote and sell your music and merch online is awesome, specially because there are no costs.
It’s looking good- Audiolife is the future of the music industry!
AudioLife would be fantastic, except that it’s forgotten that the rest of the world exists. They need to hurry up and open it up to at least Europe and Japan before someone beats them to it.
This is awesome. I think most people feel that the music industry’s current business model needs some improvement. Company’s like Audiolife are very forward thinking and ahead of the curve. I love that there are no upfront costs or inventory to worry about. Musicians that don’t have managers or a label to handle everything for them will love that this is literally a one-stop shop.
At first glance, it looks rather interesting.
However, the reason I’m not really interested in it, is because the quality of their products doesn’t entice me. I’m into screen-printed clothing, properly pressed (not burned) CDs with digipack or cardboard packaging, and think it’s very important to provide high-quality digital files for sale (preferably with various format options, a la bandcamp).
Audiolife currently only offers digitally printed artwork on CDs, only supplies CDs with jewel cases, and, according to their FAQ, their album downloads are only 128bit (!).
I think Audiolife will most likely strike a chord with music hobbyists and new and financially challenged artists. Those looking for quality pressings, high-resolution digital files, and boutique merchandise, will probably not find Audiolife a suitable match in the short-term.
-Mark (www.theenrighthouse.com)
I’ve actually been using Audiolife myself for about a month and a half now and have found their products to be of excellent quality. There is a huge difference between screen-printed clothing and digitally-printed clothing, and it really is a matter of preference. Personally, I don’t like the stiffness and the eventual cracking of screen-printed t-shirts. These digitally-printed shirts have received great reviews from my fans because not too many bands have this type of merch.
As far as CDs go, I used to use CD Baby until I discovered Audiolife, and the quality is just as good. The printing came out just the way I wanted it to – exactly like my uploaded file.
All in all, I haven’t received any complaints from fans about my products. The best part is, there was no risk involved on my end. No credit card or money was needed. Perfect!