FreeRocker Music Store

What our 12.5% fee is for

Seriously...we've checked, and this is probably the most inexpensive website to sell your merchandise that exists these days.

Here are some other sites that work like ours including their prices:

• CDBaby.com charges $4 per CD sale and 9% of digital downloads plus they include a $35 setup fee to get you started
• IndieRhythm.com charges up to $69 to get your account set up and then $3 per CD sale
• CDUnsigned.com charges $25 to set you up plus $2 for every CD sold
• CDPulse.com charges no setup fee, but they do charge $4 per CD sold and take 40% of your online digital download sales
• SongCastMusic.com charges a $19.95 setup fee plus $5.99 fee every month and then a big chunk from each album and digital download

When all of us promote our own stuff, we each try and get away with marketing for as little money as possible. We even try and get away with marketing ourselves for free; I've tried it, you've tried it. But the truth is, we can't.  We can do it for as little as possible, but that's as close as we'll get. It was a hard decision to make, but it's the only way we can keep things going and obviously, keep growing. 

If you want to find alternatives, by all means, go for it. There are different ways to get your music out there, so use every possible way you can find. We know what it's like to operate on a shoe-string budget, really we do. 

When we started FreeRocker 3 years ago, it was a way we could stream indie music to the masses.  Create a buzz, and make sure Indie Bands has a way to showcase their work. In fact, the Streaming Radio Station side of things is still free for musicians to send in their music, it always will be. But we started to get more requests from bands to add more information on bands, more pictures, more bio's, more media.  So, we did, and the requests for different things keep coming in.  We really needed a way to branch out and be able to do what the bands wanted or needed us to do for them. But, this takes time and resources, material and multiple people to get everything done. So, we decided to start charging a small fee for the work that needed to be done. Or, we get stagnant and never grow for the bands or for ourselves. 

We are going to let you in on what we do for every CD that comes across our desk. These are the reasons why we charge 12.5% per sale:

For EVERY Band Store that opens, we...

• Resize the Cover Art - We have 6 different sizes we need to add to the site, plus we colour manage the picture
• Convert the audio on the CD into .mp3 files so we can upload them and put them on the site so people can purchase them 
• Add the files to the rotation on our Streaming Radio Station that plays 24 hours a day
• Upload all the audio files to each server and link them to the online store, and the radio station.  We also need to make sure they are added to the 2 databases with the correct information
• Listen to your CD and watch any videos that you may have produced. We also go to your website, if you have one and read all about you and your music.
• Double check all the audio that has been converted for encoding errors and adjust them if they're not correct
• Create your webpage and add it to both the streaming station aspect of FreeRocker and of course the online store. We let you know when that has been completed 
• Lock down your CD and assorted Merchandise in our stock area and make sure it stays pristine for shipping

It's about 120 minutes of work per CD.

PLUS: we do all kinds of free “members-only” things - opportunities and things we can do for you, for no charge - FOREVER. Even if you never sent us another CD or another dime, we would do these things for you for decades.

PLUS: we are always available to take your calls and emails. Many artists spend hours on the phone with us, asking all kinds of questions.

We NEVER accept any other money from you, ever. NO advertising. NO “paid-placement”. Everyone is given equal treatment.

We NEVER sell your information to other companies, no matter how much they offer to pay us.

THAT'S what the 12.5%. We work hard to make it worth it to you.

And it helps make sure that we're still here to sell your music for many years.