Use The Web: Bandbox.com

Last week I was introduced to a website that is creating something that I have been attempting to plot out for a long time. Bandbox.com is a web-based music company that has created an embed-able store widget for websites that allows artists to sell their music at whatever price they choose and returns 100% of the band’s earnings to them. I know. You’re incredulous. Read on and I will explain how it works.

Obviously, the company isn’t a charity. Bandbox makes its money by embedding small advertisements in the bottom of the store widget. The artists do not have control over the content of these ads, which is a negative, but retaining 100% of the profits from the digital sales mitigates that, in my opinion. In addition, the widget allows to distribute physical media, which Bandbox manufactures, for a small transaction fee.

Bandbox is in the early phases of gaining some traction at the moment, with their most prominent artists being country artist Taylor Swift and Christian singer/songwriter Amy Grant. The market in recent years has been flooded with embed-able digital music widgets, including most notably the one created by former Napster founder Shawn Fanning and his company SnoCap that formed a deal with Myspace.com and then failed to capture the purchasing dollars of that audience. While this isn’t a unique story in the direct to consumer digital music widget market, Bandbox’s payment structure is compelling enough that it seems to have a leg up on its competition.

Right now the company is still in its private beta phase and appears to be limiting the types of sites which the widget can be embedded into. Those who are interested can get in on the beta by heading to the website, entering their band’s name, email address, and blogger/xanga/myspace etc. url. They should send a confirmation email within a few minutes, and deliver the goods a few days later.

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I was directed to this company by one of our loyal readers, Marcus Melton. You can find his design work and opinions at the following websites:

http://www.marcusmelton.com/

http://marcusmelton.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Marcus! If you have a great website you think I should be talking about, hit me up via the Artist House Music profile on the Facebook.