Hey everybody - just wanted to give all the users, both artists and their fans, a quick update on where things are at with INDISTR. The service has been around for about 1 1/2 years and has been quite the learning experience for all involved. We started with a very simple focus and plan - letting independent artist sell their music directly to the public easily and get compensated instantly with no contracts. As many of you know, the music industry is in a very 'interesting' place right now - we've referred to it here as 'the swamp'. I can honestly say I'm surprised that from 2 years ago, if not more, until now - very little has changed in how music is being distributed and artists are being compensated. Artists, fans, the business and even the labels themselves have been predicting the downfall of the classic 'record label' model that we know today. It was assumed that the idea of artist controlled, or independent, distribution would be the natural next move. While we've seen some great examples of this with Trent Reznor, Radiohead, and others - it doesn't seem to have taken hold in the far-reaching manner that we had expected.
We still firmly believe that ultimately the artist should be in control and should make the most money from their art in the supply chain of its distribution. Unfortunately its been difficult for us, and many if not all of our competitors, to find a foot-hold with the artists and their buying public. INDISTR has always been privately funded and operated with a pretty low overhead - we kept things as simple as we could - but there are expenses and set budgets for funding. We're very, very happy to say that we facilitated quite a few artists making money from their work a reality. It was a thrill and an honor to be a part of that and we want to thank those artists that used our service. But the sales have yet to reach what we consider acceptable to justify continuing forward with funding to support new feature development and sales/marketing staff (which was just 1 person). INDISTR will be up and active as a web service but as of this month we'll be scaling back on spending and letting the site run itself.
I can't say this is the way we saw INDISTR heading - the risk in starting it was either success or failure. Instead we've landed in the 'swamp' of the music industry where a lot of our other competitors and similar businesses have landed as well.
Again, the site will continue to be up and active and we'll do our best to help with any support issues or questions you might have.
Thanks again to the artists and users that have support the service in the past year or so - we genuinely appreciate it.
- Benjamin, Founder
2 comments:
Well Ben this industry has certainly become a competitive one. With so many new companies popping up claiming to do things better, the buying public have a hard time keeping up with all of it and seem to only be interested in well branded companies like iTunes, amazon etc.. Its even more challenging on the side of the artist in terms of rising above the muck. Since the birth of Myspace and like social networks, everyone wants to be or thinks they can be a big rock star making the pool of listeners even smaller to grab from therefore jading the listener to ever want to be a part of something new or unfamiliar. Timing is everything my friend and Indistr is a great concept no less. hopefully in the near future, music fans will be ready for change.
From my perspective, on both music and design levels, we're seeing a consumer slump. Is it a matter of inundation? Just the way the US economy has been over the last 8 months? Hard to know!
What I have learned recently is that everyone I know hates their job and is striving to do something real or creative with their lives. Those of us that DO get to do what we want with our lives have to keep doing it, keep pushing forward, and keep pushing others to do the same.
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