Tell me more ×
Answers OnStartups is a question and answer site for entrepreneurs looking to start or run a new business. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

I'm building a startup music service that uses recordings of real musicians and creates completely new music out of it. Musicians that submit acceptable recordings that are sitting on a hard drive somewhere they can join my affiliate program where I offer them residual income from any sales from songs containing their samples.

Question: What would be a good payout percentage to the musicians based on the revenue generated from music containing their samples?

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

why bother. ;) let them set the prices.

from: http://www.stockmusicsite.com/stockmusic/alliance/default.cfm 3. YOU ARE IN CONTROL - You retain full ownership of your content. You choose the price to sell at. You configure your tracks with title, description, keywords, etc. You can sell your tracks individually or in multi-track "soundpacks". You can configure one or more artists under your account if you have content from multiple different sources. We make it easy with batch upload and batch edit capabilities, a price administration wizard and other helpful tools to maximize your control and minimize the time it takes to configure your tracks just the way you like. You can remove or replace any tracks at any time.

you can however, offer the minumum and maximum rates and even a guideline rate. and for these you should do a comparison shop and see what others are doing.

one example (same site as link above): http://www.stockmusicsite.com/client/options/pricing.cfm

do however, check other sites as well. http://www.google.com/?q=royalty+free+music

share|improve this answer
Thx @b0x0rz. My model is different. We create new music out of pre-recorded music. Their music, in its original form, never appears on the site. My partners and I compose all the new music. Furthermore, if a client needs music from a "live band", I can deliver that over-night from my laptop without any setting up any recording sessions and the affiliates stil get residuals. I'm sure its one of a kind :) So again, I wonder, what % should I give offer these affiliates since I'm doing all the hard work? :-D – Gregarious Jun 7 '11 at 11:15
i see. very likely they will demand 30%, but if you really want to push it - 20% still seems fair. however, your answer raises the issue of sustainability in the long run. are you the only one that can do this (personally i mean) - what happens when you get so many orders that you can not handle it (including your partners). asking you - can it scale?? - hire more people, train them, etc... if yes - then 20-30 is fine. if NO, then probably you will not be able to get investments anyhow. – b0x0rz Jun 7 '11 at 11:21

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.