indiestore launch

The traditional music business model has always been broken. Run from the top down, inefficient, undemocratic and pegged against the content creators (the artist). So when digital music revolutionized the business model and the consumption model of music, the industry experienced a re-birth. But this time around, it was run from the bottom up, with efficient distribution and driven by the artist and their fans. Music in the digital age is now democratic and as vibrant as it has ever been.

indiestore exemplifies this re-birth of music. The digital download service built by 7digital empowers artists to gain control of their own product and allows their fans to define their success while giving them a chance to actually make money. Using the same platform built for Coldplay, Gorillaz and The White Stripes, 7digital levelled the playing field by bringing a cost-effective download solution by way of distribution, marketing and consumption to every artist – signed, unsigned, independent and major.

We launched indiestore in late February after initially releasing the service in beta. The idea behind releasing a beta version was to allow the service to build around the needs of the artists who would be using the download platform. We had open forums to talk to independent and unsigned artists about tools that they wanted to help sell their music online, features they would like included on their download store and ways they could communicate with their fans. In response we introduced a widget for artists to sell anywhere on the web, increased payment accessibility with SMS payments, created a ratings and comments tool, counted sales towards the charts in 20+ countries and offered artists to submit their tracks to music licensing guru’s who choose music for synchronisation opportunities.

The democratic nature of indiestore and the control that artists have in using the service defines the new business model for the music industry. No longer can the music industry have a monopoly of someone else’s product. The digital music revolution is here, and we can finally hear what the world has to offer.

Tejas Mistry indiestore Product Manager

Contact me: tejas.mistry (at) 7digital (dot) com