Indie Music Web 2.0 Platforms Compared

While doing my daily scanning through Twitter today, I ran across a few tweets pointing out a small comparison chart of three web 2.0 music sites. Why only the three, I'm not sure since, there are plenty more than that, and listed within Listio's directory, as well.

I've also been running into a lot industry feedback on PLUGOLA, such as, "You're in a crowded market" or "it's just another indie music web site". Although that may be true, I believe this is causing a lot of the features that makes PLUGO.LA stand-out to be overlooked. Not only that, but it's tough for musicians these days to find what's best for them with all this new technology being thrown at them. So, I put together a little comparison chart of my own.

Please keep in mind that, this chart is only comparing Plugola's features against some of the other digital music distribution websites, based around some sort of community and independent musicians. I tried to remain unbiased as possible, so if you think I missed something important, or you think I made a mistake, please leave me a comment.

'Plugging' and Sharing Your Favorites

One of the stand-out features of PLUGOLA is that artists can allow their fans to re-sell their music for a commission of the artists' choice. We call this, "Plugging". The concept behind this is to encourage fans to continue sharing the music they love by offering financial incentives, while in a controlled environment for the artist.

If you discover a great, new artist and you want to share a few of their tunes with your buddies; instead of just handing over their MP3s, why not ask those buddies to pitch-in and support the artist? Plus, you are to earn a commission, set by the artist, for every download you generate. If you buddies like those tunes, too, then they can turn around and share them the same way.


After you have downloaded your favorite track(s), you must login to your "Account". This is a double-login for security purposes. Not all artists allow their music to be plugged, but if they do you will see the "Plug" button in your downloads manager. By clicking on the "Plug" button, this will automatically send a "plug request" to the artist. In it's place it will say "Approval Pending". Once the artist approves this request, you will receive an approval message and it will automatically appear in your media player manager. If you decide you no longer want to plug a particular track, you can either click on 'disable' in your media player manager, or of course, you can always delete the track from your account completely. Just be sure to save the track to your computer before you delete it from your Account.

As an artist on PLUGOLA, you have the option to allow your music to be 'plugged' by your fans. If you decide to allow your fans as affiliates, all you must do is login to your 'Account' and select "Yes" next to each or any track you want to make available for plugging. Anytime one of your fans downloads those songs set to "yes", there will be an automatic option for them to choose or not. If a fan decides to plug any of your tracks, you will receive a request message to 'Approve' or 'Disapprove'. To a fan, a disapproval will result in their account saying the track(s) are "Not Available" for plugging.

By default, all affiliate commissions are set at %5 of artist earnings, per track. However, artists are free to change this percentage to whatever they would like at any time they want.

We believe this is a great interactive way for artists and fans to build relationships and work together with a common goal in mind, while everyone benefits.

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.