Sell Music | Wazala

Posts Tagged ‘sell music’

Musicians This One Is For You!

February 1st, 2012

We’re happy to announce the release of SoundCloud integration within Wazala! This integration allows you to set up a music shop with a few clicks, and grab music you wish to offer for sale, from SoundCloud into your Wazala store. We feel many musicians already using SoundCloud will benefit from the easy upload and set up of their music for sale. Not having to go through the creations of separate products, waiting for loading time and doing it over and over again.

The process is quite simple. In the Product tab, you will find the option of importing your tracks from SoundCloud, Once you click on that, an authorization page appears and you need to login into SoundCloud.

Once you allow Wazala access, your tracks will be listed. Here you can choose which tracks to import, state the price and if you wish to activate them for sale. Wazala can also import the genres as categories.

The import will start once you confirm. Depending on the size of your files, this should not take long. Once the import is complete click on Done, and you will be able to see your tracks listed as products for sale.

Customers will as usual, be able to preview the song, and once purchased the delivery is automated and secure through a masked Wazala URL.

It’s that simple, it’s quick and the best thing you can make money selling your music! Rock on!

Helping Your Business Get Back On Track

December 24th, 2011

So things haven’t gone your way lately. Times are tough and your business seems to be on a downward spiral for which there is no reprieve. You are close to, or in the process of shutting down. The thought of just throwing in the towel has crossed your mind, but you may still have a few more moves to play, and you know that the way in which you play, could either save or condemn your business. So what actions should you take and what actions should you avoid entirely? Here are a few pointers on what to do, and what not to do when your business is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

DON’T Add Fees
Adding fees while failing to add value is a recipe for disaster. The airlines did that, and it just pissed people off. If you’re going to charge extra for things, at least make sure that what you are charging for is of a higher quality than when it was free. Say you sell website themes and offer free support, instead of adding on fees to help get people set up, offer more added value services that you can include to the mix for this fee. Make that fee less of a blatant cash grab and more of an incentive to buy your services or product. Your customers will thank you.

DO Reward The Loyal
Your most frequent customers are often your biggest cheerleaders. They constantly show you appreciation by continually purchasing your products, so show them a little appreciation back. Rewarding your biggest customers will help you keep there business when times are sour, and will act as incentive for other customers to pledge their allegiance to your business. Try a final push and reward them.

DON’T Jack Up Prices
Want a sure way to alienate customers and drive your business swiftly into the ground? Look no further than a price increase. Not only will a sudden price increase lose you a good deal of customers (look at Netflix), it will cause many customers to lose their trust in your business, and could permanently tarnish your image. You very possibly will be undercut by the competition, and that will definitely end in an early grave for you business as well. Instead look to see where you’re loosing, and where you profit, try to cut your losses by eliminating the products that do not covert well into profit first, and push others that do.

DO Make Sure Your Business Is Efficient
Is there any way you can save a buck on the goods or services you are already offering. This is a great time to find out. Make sure you business is getting the best possible prices on everything it needs to function. This is a great way to cut costs while keeping the same amount of money coming in. Just make sure that saving money doesn’t mean sacrificing quality. Start with a good financial overview on where you spend the most, see how you can consolidate some of these expenses and cut down slowly.

There is no formula for getting a business back on track, but if you follow these tips and tread carefully when making major decisions, you have a dramatically better chance of digging your way out. Just make sure to strike a balance between cutting costs and making what you have to offer more appealing. More customers, less clutter. Good luck!

Spicing Up Your Product Descriptions

November 4th, 2011

You’ve got the product down. It’s your baby, you’ve worked hard on it, your in-love with it. Now comes the part where you have to present your product to the masses, in the hopes that they too will fall head over heels. A good picture is a nice side dish, but an amazing product description is the big, juicy, steak that is really gonna get their mouths watering. Here are a few tips on how to serve up a perfect worded plate of seduction.

What is the product for

People like it when you are specific. They want you to give them an idea of how and when they should use a product, and what goal they will accomplish by using it. Say your selling a lipstick. Is it an everyday lipstick, a neutral color, that is subtle but will make them look slightly more put together when they go took work? Or is it a sexy, special occasion, knock ‘em dead cherry red lipstick, that they should put on before going out on a date? People are looking for specific things, so you should let them know in writing that they’ve found exactly what they’re looking for.

How will it make them feel

Most consumers buy products based on feelings, so why shouldn’t you be specific about exactly how your product is going to make them feel? Is it going to make them feel cool? Sexy? Alive? Confident? Savvy? Frumpy? (I hope not the last one). Let’s revisit the lipstick example. Say our product is that “knock ‘em dead cherry red” lipstick, part of your description could read: “This lipstick is guaranteed to be the milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard, and have you thinking, damn right, it’s better than yours”. That’s a pretty corny, song-referencing example, but you get the idea.

How long has this product been on the Market

Is it a hot new product that they just have to have? Or a longstanding that’s become a classic go to? These are questions that should be answered in your descriptions. Let people know how long the products been around. If it’s a top seller, note it in your description. If it’s a seasonal product or a limited edition, tell people that they’d better act fast, or they might just miss out. If you just brought back a product due to popular demand, people should know that it’s there for just that reason. This will create a bit of a a buzz and personality for the product. Giving customers a product’s history can help them make a more informed decision. All in all, that’s what these tips are for. Give people more information to confirm their decision, so that they have to look no further for the product that is just right for them.

F-Commerce – Selling on Facebook

October 27th, 2011

We all knew it was only a matter of time. Facebook and ecommerce locked eyes, and it was love at first at sight. A whirlwind romance ensued, followed by an Elvis themed Vegas wedding. Not long after a romantic honeymoon spent almost entirely under the sheets, the happy couple welcomed a child, a darling baby they named fcommerce.

Though still in its infancy, fcommerce has the shown potential to change the way we buy things, the way we shop, and the way we use social media. Consumers can now buy things directly from a Facebook page, share their purchase with their friends, and see what their friends are buying. They can take advantage of special Facebook promotions just for fans of products, and even get deals when they “Check In” to retailers physical location. It has positioned itself as a convenient place to buy for 600+ million Facebook users. That’s a lot of potential. But how do you, a seller, utilize this potential effectively? While there’s no one way to the the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, here are a few choice routes to get you on your way.

The biggest advantage for selling on Facebook, is that you’re integrating your store into a thriving community. So use your words. You want your page to be a place people flock to, like a Taco Bell after the bars close. To do this, you need give people incentive to visit and stay on your page. The easiest and least costly way to do this is to put out interesting and amusing content. Post links that you find interesting, that you would want to read. It doesn’t necessarily have to be directly related to your store. You just have to use discretion. That really funny video of babies dancing? Post it. Heartwarming marriage proposal? Post it. Drunk high school girls knife fighting during morning assembly? Probably not. Its okay to be a little edgy, just don’t go roaring off the cliff.

After you’ve gotten the hang of finding interesting links, you should start initiating conversations on your page. Pose a question that you think will open up a debate. The more activity on your page, the better. You could even post a link, then ask a question relevant to that link. For instance, if you posted a link about a cool new tablet computer, you could ask “Do you think it stands a chance against the iPad?” Post your answers below”. Sometimes people will respond, sometimes they won’t; its a numbers game. If they do, keep them engaged by posting follow up questions and acknowledging their points.

Offering promotions and contests exclusively to your Facebook fans is a sure-fire way to draw people to your page. People love free stuff like a fat kid loves cake. If you offer something exclusively to your Facebook fans, your fans will feel like they are in on some sort of secret.

So now your getting some traffic on your Facebook page. How do you convert that traffic into mucho mulah? That’s where Wazala comes in. Wazala has a powerhouse shopping cart widget that you can embed directly into your fan page, allowing you to sell anything from your Wazala store right on Facebook. It looks great, smells great, and is absolutely amazing in bed (or so I’ve heard). Plus, its crazy easy to use, both for the seller and the consumer, so once everyone is hanging out on your page, they will be able to buy your products without issue. Wazala makes you money, and saves you time, so you can get back to your true calling: making it rain at the club!!!!.

To check out an example of the Wazala Facebook store, checkout the demo store here:

http://www.facebook.com/Wazala?sk=app_147605761926866

Creating An Online Holiday Pop Up Store

October 23rd, 2011

With the Holiday season just around the corner, more businesses are catching onto the idea of a Holiday Pop Up Shop. These little businesses open around the Holidays spreading their marketing hard, then simply disappearing once the season is over. Halloween shops are found in strip malls, while Christmas gifts and gift wrapping businesses take advantage of this in small mall carts and little huts. They pop up out of nowhere, make a quick profit during the holidays then close shop.

Lately the same idea is becoming popular online. Ecommerce sites, and businesses are also taking advantage of this by creating limited time holiday pop up stores for specific merchandise of the season, or even marketing there goods as featured gift ideas in a separate Holiday store.

Thinking of creating one this season? Well Wazala would be a perfect fit!

Easiest Holiday Ecommerce Setup
The simple and easy to use store manager of Wazala allows you to add products easily for sale. Whether you wish to offer digital products with digital delivery or shippable products, it is effortless to create a product, upload a few pictures, set shipping rates (as well as express shipping to meet the holiday deadline) and list your products for sale. We truly mean it when we say easy!

Spread The Joy Of Shopping
A quick way to market your new store is to publish it on your site immediately. Wazala’s viral features allows you to add your store to multiple websites, social profiles and especially Facebook for added marketing and sales push. You can create the store with the true functionality of a pop up light box. The Wazala red button, looks great with a Christmas theme (you can also create your own), and you can customize it to be clear with a title of “Holiday Gifts”. Add it to your Holiday specials page on your website, as well as our Facebook business page for a fully functional Facebook store, and you’re ready to take orders anywhere your customer is.

Holiday Discounts & Special Offers
Coupons, sales and special discounts are also easy to create with Wazala. Your ecommerce platform comes pre-configured to give out discount codes on specific products or store wide deals, and customers are always on the look out to save more during the Holidays. Place your on sale products in a category, offer coupon codes on social networks or for returning customers via email marketing. A proven way to close deals is to also offer free shipping, or at least discounted shipping. While some care to get their shipment on a discount, many also look for express shipping that you can set up with Wazala for an extra fee that your customer can pay.

Socially Drive Your Pop Up Store
The purpose is to attract those looking for deals and special promotions, and using the Wazala social promoter with discount codes, this time of year would prove helpful in gaining new customers. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can be configured to your Wazala store to post out your special deals, Holiday products and shipping rates. With a simple password configuration, you will be ready to ring those bells and shout out your offerings.

With only a few weeks left for the Holidays starting early is important. Many try to finish their shopping early enough to relax and enjoy the season, while marketing may take time to work, putting in your efforts early will prove big. A big tip we hope you would take advantage of is to send out a coupon code to all your customers, allow them to redeem and also send it out to a friend.

Share a little this Holiday season and reap the rewards on the New Year.

Selling Your Music Online

September 5th, 2011

If your reading this, you’re probably a musician, a band manager, or something in between, and you want to make money selling music online. This article will give you a few ideas on how to make that happen.
The first thing you have to know about selling your music online is that its VERY COMPETITIVE and you need to be vocally smarter not loader!
Ready to put some BASS into your sales? Read on..

Be Everywhere
Don’t be shy. If you want to actually sell your songs online, your going to have to get your butt out of your cozy cocoon of solitude and become an annoyingly social butterfly. Sign up for every music service, forum and blog in existence. Create awesome profiles with pictures of your band in badass poses. If the regular band profile is a shy, acne ridden nerd sulking in the back of class, your profile should be the popular jock with a heart of gold and perfect SAT scores. Not every profile you make is going to be a home run. Some of them will get no attention whatsoever. The key is to be in front of every pitch, swinging like a freaking madman.

Make It Easy to Find
There’s no point being crazy cool if people have no clue where to go to witness your awesomeness. In order to make your presence known, you should tag your music with specific keywords that are relevant to the music your putting out. Just to give an example, my brother is in a band. I would best describe what him and his band “play” as a highly delicate mix of jazz fusion, electro-acoustic pop, and horrifyingly awful garbage. So if he wanted to make sure that people found his music (I don’t know why he would), he would tag his music with the words “indie, jazz fusion, electro acoustic pop, horrifyingly, awful, garbage. That way, if someone was in the mood to take a dive into the musical equivalent of a dumpster, the incomprehensible heap of noise that his band calls music would be right there to aptly accommodate them. (sorry brother!)

Sell Anywhere
So your a pretty big deal, and easier to find than an senior citizen in miami. Now its time to start printing the money. Wazala and the Benjamins go way back, and we’re always down to arrange an introduction. We make it scary easy to start selling your music online, so that making bank doesn’t make you crazy. Another great feature that makes Wazala so incredibly amazing is that it allows you embed your store everywhere. Your Facebook, your blogs, your tumblr, your website, your mom’s website, it doesn’t matter. Long story short, anywhere you show your “I live to rock” mug, people will be able to buy your “I live to rock” mugs.

Stay Social
Talk with your fans. Engage them. Let them know whats going on with your band. This goes hand in hand in hand with being everywhere. A social media presence online is imperative in spreading the word about your band, as well as retaining fans and keeping them informed. Basically, people expect to hear from you. With Wazala’s social promoter, this is a breeze. The social promoter recommends and publishes messages to your twitter and facebook account, making it much more simple and efficient

Offer Something Different
Don’t be boring. Offer more than just music. Selling your merch is a great way to make extra money and raise awareness about your band. You can sell posters, CD covers, t-shirts, unreleased songs, tickets to shows…..the list goes on and on. You could also sell signed merch for your hardcore supporters. Wazala allows makes selling all these things easy. You can also sell the physical version of your album, in addition to the digital version.

Cut The Middle Man
Cut out the middle man! Make sure that everything you sell is revenue to you! Wazala does not take a transaction fee. Just a minimum subscription, & there is also a free store where you can sell up to five products to start with until you can afford more.

Show Your Best
Make great music. Music that gets a reaction. When it comes down to it, if your music isn’t good, no amount of marketing is going to be able to sell it. Remember you may only get one chance to make an impression on a listener, so you better make it count.

Dune Music – An interview with the people behind the talent

August 11th, 2011

Lately we seem to see more musicians and labels using ecommerce solutions like Wazala to better their online sales of both music and merch. The importance of engaging with your fans directly and allowing them to buy from you on your own website or blog has been proven successful in achieving better revenues. We caught up this week with Adam Sieff from Dune Music, to chat about their experience with online sales.

Tell us about Dune Music and what it is you do?
We’re a platform for promoting and recording some of Britain’s most talented jazz artists, all of whom have won a clutch of prestigious awards plus several nominations for MOBO, Urban and other music prizes. I’m they Communications Director and deal with all aspects of marketing and promotion, especially in helping our musicians keep in touch with their supporters and the jazz scene.

What types of musicians or bands do you work with?
Strictly jazz…..that swings! We’re proud that all the artists came up through our Tomorrow’s Warriors jazz development scheme run by our founder, the original Jazz Warriors double bassist Gary Crosby OBE.

What prompted you to start an online store?
We wanted to be able to sell more than just music, such as rare posters and artwork, and to be able to control pricing easily. And we particularly felt the need to attend to our customers in a friendlier way.

What social media tools do you use to promote your business and how?
Twitter and facebook are effective, as are monthly emails and constantly updated Posterous blogs. But just because new tools are effective it doesn’t mean one should forget old media – newspapers, radio and TV are still hugely important. But nothing is as helpful as great reviews (in any media) and word of mouth reports that spread the word where you can’t.

Do you have any advice or tips to musicians on selling their music or merch online?
If what you’re doing is really good, then as the movie says, people will come. But it’s not a race, it can take time for your message to spread, so don’t panic and hang in there.

Any gigs coming up that you would like to announce?
We have a prestigious Friday Tonic event at London’s Southbank Centre on Friday the 14th of October at 5:30pm in the Clore Ballroom. Our Yamaha Music Experience prize-winning Tomorrow’s Warriors Biggish Band and the16 piece Tomorrow’s Warriors Youth Jazz Orchestra will be performing along with some special guests. And it’s a free event!

To know more about Dune Music, visit their site at www.dune-music.com

My Product Rocks

August 11th, 2011

Show us what you would sell with Wazala for a chance to win a FREE Wazala large account

Last month’s promo was a big hit. Our winner Shawn Hesketh owner of the Wazala store wp101.wazala.com and the design studio Left Lane, won the Wazala large account, and gifted it to his sister Tiffany who is now building another Wazala store. Happy to see this entrepreneurial family grow with Wazala, we are doing it again!

This time, it’s about what you want to sell. Show us what you would sell with Wazala for a chance to win a Wazala large account free for an entire year! Use it yourself or Gift it to a friend!

Upload a picture, video, link of a product you feel will sell well, to our Facebook wall. Give it an attractive name and explain why you feel it rocks, and would sell well. then share this posts to your friends and family to like, comment and vote.

What kind of product, you ask? Well we want to see what creative product you would sell online using Wazala. From music or a digital download, handmade handcrafts, photos, works of art, it really can be anything you feel will sell well. Be creative and sure it clearly showcases what you would sell in an attractive way. Remember the public is voting, so your product should be appealing to buyers!

Can’t think of anything to sell? Why not share this with someone who might? This contest is open to anyone and everyone with a product they wish to sell online!

Entry process:
Simply visit our Facebook page and post the product to our Wall. It can be a picture, video or link to somewhere, where it is available. Make sure you state what it is, if need be.
Once you do that, share this with your friends on Facebook, to like it, comment on it positively, and voice out that you should win. (use the Share button, below the post you created)

Terms:
You can upload as many pictures as you wish to increase your chances of winning. The Wazala team will choose one lucky winner, taking into consideration any comments and “likes” your picture gets from others in the community, so make sure to spread the word about your picture(s). This promotion will run for a few weeks and the winner will be announced on Facebook, Twitter and our website. Anyone can join. Whether you have a Wazala store, or still thinking of starting an online business you can enter to win. The prize is granted as a new Wazala subscription, and is transferable “once” to a person of your choice. Yes you can enter to win and give it away as a gift!
Happy Winning Everyone!

Win a Wazala Online Store – The winner!

July 3rd, 2011

Winning!
- Charlie Sheen

A few weeks ago we asked all of you to join in and submit a picture of your creative space for a chance to win a Wazala online store for a year.

Our exact words were: “Where do you work out of? A desk in a corner of your home? A little office somewhere? Or even your laptop at a coffee shop? We want to see your personal space. Be it an office, studio, workshop, art gallery, kitchen chemistry lab, digital workstation, recording studio or even your camera! Show us where, how or what you use to create your ideas into wonders of art.”

All you had to do is upload it to our facebook page and promote it so others can like it and comment.. We got a great collection of pictures but at the end you decided who wins a free Wazala account for a year!

Shawn Hesketh owner of the design studio Left Lane, all the way from Houston Texas submitted a picture of his creative space. A very clean looking picture of his office space that got the most like and comments. Ok we have to admit it was on of our favorites as well!

We are happy to welcome Shawn to the Wazala community and looking forward to see what he will be selling online. Congrats!

We’re also looking to start our next promo, have ideas or can think of something cool to give out? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.

Augustine – An interview with the band

June 23rd, 2011

Jordan Meredith and Louis Johnson make up the electro-pop, New York-based band “Augustine,” named for Jordan’s hometown in St. Augustine, Florida where the two first met. They’ve been making music together since 2008 and we’re in love with not only their unique sound but their amazing site and Wazala online store!

We caught up with Louis this week to get the 411 on Augustine:

How would you describe your sound for someone who has never experienced your music before?
We describe our sound as a combination of Electro-pop and acoustic folk. We have our simple and melodic acoustic songs like “Silver Moon” and we also have our fast driving electronic tracks like “Heartbeats.” We just write whatever feels right at the moment. If you proscribe to one genre it limits what you can do and where you can take a song.

What prompted you to start your own online store?
Having an online store has always been on our radar but It wasn’t until our first college tour that we really understood the significance of it. After playing a show we’ll usually sell to about half of the people who are interested. The other half either don’t have cash, aren’t sure of what to get or just miss us. It’s so important to be able to offer an alternative to buying at the show.

How has music sampling affected online sales?
It’s hard to say… we haven’t really been online in a world without Sampling. I can only hope its been positive for us.

Do you have any tips, tricks or strategies for other musicians who are trying to sell online? Be it music or merch?
Always offer something that iTunes cant. Whether that be signed merch or a video of you singing happy birthday. Fans want something special.

Check out Augustine’s site for upcoming tour dates, music sampling and amazing merch: www.augustine-music.com

Posts Tagged ‘sell music’

Augustine – An interview with the band

Categories

Tags