On this page you will find all the questions people commonly ask us, with detailed answers. It's a fair amount to read because we cover everything you may need to know. We recommend you read it because it will save you and us time if you are thinking of selling through indie-cds.
All Internet advertising/music promotion undertaken with indie-cds.com, and other work undertaken by us on your behalf, is subject to the following terms and conditions. Acceptance of these is required before we can undertake any work on your behalf. It is important that you read these and accept them before we undertake any work for you. We keep these as simple as we can.
Read full Terms and Conditions
How does your service work ?
IndieCDs will create a short catalogue entry in one of the genre categories, which links to a page of fuller info about the CD or DVD etc. If you have no online audio samples that we can link to we can usually provide one. You need to supply a minimum of 10 copies of the item to us for resale, and two extra copies free of charge to indiecds.com, which are non-returnable. One of these is a review copy, and one is for our sample files. You provide us with information about the band/artist and music releases in either email format, or as text in a MSWord document sent as an email attachment. If you can send a diverse selection of reviews by other people, all the better - it helps us create interesting and informative listings.
Site joining fees are shown in the pricing section (see tab above). Commission will be charged on sales. See the pricing section (menu tab above) for full details. You choose the price point appropriate for your recording. Other price points are negotiable. The site makes a small profit which is mostly re-invested in building the site further and advertising.You will be paid commission at least every 3 months for sales, or at the end of any month when sales reach 10 copies. At present no GST (sales tax) is levied on IndieCDs sales. Export transactions (deliveries to any country other than Australia) are in any case GST free. Please note that if your CDs arrive here damaged and we have to provide new cases, a charge per CD applies that is deducted from your account with us, so it pays to pack carefully. Details of re-packing charges are shown in the pricing section.
A worthwhile service costs money to run. We do not have advertising on our website - you'll find no pop-ups and crappy flashing casino ads on our site. You want a professional service run by an expert team - here we are to do the job for you. We use fast dedicated hosting, top web designers and technical support people, to keep your listings online 24/7. That costs. We think we are very good value, when you look at our package and compare it feature for feature with other online shops.
We are happy to offer all our services to artists with existing websites. Listing with our site means extra low cost publicity for you. We provide you with direct page links and graphic buttons to link to your CD listing in our retail catalogue - these pages are e-commerce enabled with buy now buttons for the shopping carts. If you have multiple titles we can provide (free of set-up charges) a custom order page which links to our secure shopping cart, listing all your items on one page (see and try out the working example here) for you to link to from your own website. We then handle internet order services and can take credit card or Paypal payments over the net, simplifying sales for you. Our listings can be linked to your own website too. If you already have sound samples stored on your own website, we can provide links to those in your catalogue entry. We do ask that you state on your own website that Indie-CDs.com is your web retailer, and link prominently to your page on our site or to our home page, and encourage people to buy through us - we can't afford to run our site without income from sales!
I already sell my CDs with another Internet shop or distributor - is that a problem?
If you give us PREFERRED RETAILER status on your site we will accept your items if you are selling in several other online stores. Otherwise we ask you to limit the number of online retailers you place your products with to a maximim of two other online outlets. We do ask you to publicise us as a source of your CDs on the net. However if you already sell online with more than two other online sellers, who are linked from your website, we will only accept your CDs if you give us PREFERRED RETAILER status on your site. Too many online retailers confuses potential customers, and when Indie-CDs will cover all three important aspects of sales (the ability to sell direct from your own site, inclusion in a major online catalogue, and wholesale distribution with global reach), you need to consider whether other online retailers can do as much for you as us, and choose the ones that serve you best.
Do you distribute wholesale?
Yes, our website has a wholesalers area where CD retailers can see our wholesale prices, stocks, and order direct from us. Any shop or re-seller anywhere that meets our conditions (which means they have to be a bona fide CD re-seller AND pay us) may contact us at any time and set up an account and we will supply them, or pay online with a credit card without setting up an account for immediate service.
Can you help with website design ?
We do not offer site design services.
We can link to sound samples that you have hosted on your own website, up to two Real Audio and five MP3 files per catalogue listing. There is no extra charge for this.
We ask that you link to our listing pages once completed from your own website, where you have one. Publicising your CD sales outlets makes sense. This is a condition of service and our agreement requires that you do this. We will send the exact page links once the listing is ready.
When you release a new recording, you can gain extra exposure through the feature CD slots on the indie-cds.com home page. We select the editor's choice recording and the current featured recordings that are on our main page (the NEWS page). Generally new releases or additions to our catalogue, get featured on our main news page for a period of 1-4 weeks.
We have a mailing list of radio stations and reviewers, and we'll cover the cost of sending a review copy of your CD to appropriate media contacts currently on our list. This is one of the best publicity investments you can make. You need to provide extra copies of the CD free of charge to us for this service. See our list of stations and review publications here. As effective promotion is vital to achieve sales, we strongly encourage all artists to allocate a quantity of promotional items for us to send out.
Privacy
We keep a database of our customers. Within the limits of privacy legislation, we can offer suppliers access to a list of the email addresses of all customers who have previously bought a specific band's recordings through indie-cds. Customers may opt NOT to be included in these lists to protect their privacy. We do not release any other personal information about our customers to anyone, except in cases of attempted fraud, where we are obliged to by law.
do you deal with record labels?
Yes we'll carry stock for independent record labels, agents or producers who represent several artists. In these cases the label or agent acts for the artists, sends us stock, and we pay the label or agent rather than the band. We do not carry stock for major labels however - our priority is to create a home for quality independents on the web. Click on the labels tab in the menu above for more information.
do you accept all submissions in your catalogue?
No - our catalogue is selective. We assess your music ourselves and also send a copy out to external review. If our view is that your music doesn't meet a good artistic, presentation, recording or packaging standard, or simply doesn't fit well with our site and its style, we won't stock it. The music needs to be of professional standard in presentation and performance. If we or our panel cannot write an honest review that's positive overall, and recommend people to buy, we won't list the item in our catalogues.
what about 'bad language' and offensive or adult material?
We make a judgement on a case by case basis where some people may be offended by a item's content or cover. If we find the item offensive ourselves we generally won't stock it. However we won't refuse a listing simply because someone says 'fuck' in the lyrics or there happens to be nudity on a CD cover. Gratuitously violent, racist items or those with other unpleasantries will not be stocked.
what about CDRs and DVDs?
Yes we sell DVDs. We will accept CDRs provided that the packaging is acceptable - printed CDs, standard jewel case ideally with tray and booklet artwork, but we much prefer that all CDs are glass mastered and professionally printed.
what about cassettes
We no longer accept audio or video cassettes. Sorry.
what about overseas artists?
No problem. We have a growing catalogue of artists from many different countries, and genres of music. We can pay UK based artists in Sterling, for all other countries we use Paypal to pay you commission based on our current table of price points.
what if want to cancel selling through indie-cds?
We require a minimum of four weeks notice of cancellation. We return unsold stock, but the two free samples we ask for at the outset and any promotional CDs or demos you may have sent are of course non-returnable. CDs returned to overseas addresses are sent by surface mail. Listing fees are non-refundable.
is there a minimum contract period?
We ask artists to keep their items with us for at least one year to give it a fair trial. However it is open for you to cancel with four weeks notice. However please note that site registration fees and site listing fees are NOT REFUNDABLE when you cancel.