Getting Started with PLUGOLA

I'm glad to see that some of you have taken the step and have begun to experience what PLUGOLA can do for you and your music. I know it's a bit slow at the moment, but we're just getting the ball rolling into public cyberspace. That doesn't mean you can't begin telling your fans and friends where to find your music.

After you have uploaded your MP3s and/or videos they will be available in your personal media player. By default, the player will only play 30 second clips of your songs/videos, to the public. You can change this to play full in your "Account" page. You control all your content from that page (ie: pricing, duration, plugging, etc.). Once you have configured your player, you're ready to begin digitally distributing your music.

There are several ways to begin spreading your music. For starters, you can send web traffic directly to your profile where your media player/store is always displayed. You are also given the option to customize your profile page anyway you see fit. To get your your shorter, direct link to your profile; just click on your profile photo. A small window will display with your contact info and you will find your link highlighted in red (see screen shot to right).


If you already have a profile or web site elsewhere and you would just like to use the media player/store to sell your MP3s/videos, that's ok. You can easily embed the PLUGOLA player on any web site or profile page that allows HTML (please check the 'terms' of web hosts or social networks to be sure you can use third party widgets). All you must do is click on the red "Get the code" button on your media player. Once the code is displayed, click the "Copy" button, then paste the code where you would like it displayed on your site. Your fans and other PLUGOLA members can listen/preview/purchase all within the player, itself; without leaving your website.

For your die-hard fans, and at your discretion, you may also allow your music and videos for "affiliation" (in your "Account" section), or better known as, "Plugging". Once someone purchases any of your content set to 'affiliation', they can request to re-sell, or "PLUG" your music to others. You can set their commission as an incentive to any percentage you feel is fair, and this is only possible by your approval.

These are just a few tips to help you get started using PLUGOLA to it's full potential. We will be posting more tips & tricks as we go along, so be sure to stay tuned or subscribe to be kept up-to-date.

PLUGOLA Soft Beta Launch

The day has finally arrived! PLUGOLA has begun a soft launch for public beta. We have been developing and testing for many months now, and we are finally ready for you to give it a shot.

Registration and membership to PLUGOLA is free for everyone, and besides a few minutes of your time, giving us a test run will cost you nothing. In fact, there's a pretty good chance you will MAKE money.

You should be able to find any answers to questions you may have on the site, but to answer a few questions you may have up-front:

• registration/membership is completely free & there are no hidden fees to anyone. However, we do take a fee of only 18% of your total download sales. This is the lowest percentage (or highest artist payout) in the industry. We plan to balance our costs with (minimal) outside advertising. This will help keep payouts to artists higher and costs to music fans lower.
  

• By uploading your content, you're only giving us permission to digitally distribute your content and NOT any ownership rights of any kind. Plus, all your content is non-exclusive with our website; meaning you may upload/sell the same content to/on any other website, or however you see fit.

• We pay you for all your sales from the past month, after 30 days, if your total earnings reach $25 or more.

• "Plugging" feature allows other members/fans who have already purchased your music/videos an opportunity to help you distribute & sell this same content, at your approval. By default, your "affiliates"/fans will receive and incentive of 5% of the download price, but you may set this percentage to whatever you like.

• You control pretty much everything. You set the prices, your band's image, you choose the content available for "plugging" or promo, even who can promote you and who can not.

• We have both online and offline free promotional tools. These include; an embeddable digital music store you can include on any web page and 'free download' coupons you can hand-out to your fans at live events.
  

• Your personal media player/digital store can easily be embedded on any web page, including your own site, MySpace & other social networks. Plus, registered Plugola members can buy directly inside your player, without ever leaving the page. Of course, anyone can listen/view content in player.

• How artists are displayed on the site is based on a user activity algorithm. Of course, members (both 'artists' & 'fans') with the most activity, ranks higher. It can't be cheated by hit bots, proxy servers, etc.

If you have any more questions you can probably find the answers at the links listed below, or please feel free to contact us directly.

Main Page:
PLUGOLA (www.plugo.la)
Sales/Distro Agreement:
http://www.plugo.la/index.php/home/pages/sales
Artist Terms:
http://www.plugo.la/index.php/home/pages/upload_terms
General FAQ:
http://www.plugo.la/index.php/home/pages/faq

I hope you & your band finds this useful. We hope to see your stuff uploaded.