VibeDeck has been putting its investors’ money to good use. Having raised $2 million in June, the ecommerce platform for DIY musicians just got approval for its new SoundCloud app. Consumers can now purchase music by VibeDeck users without leaving SoundCloud, the social sharing and networking service based on audio, and musicians can expand their outreach to the SoundCloud community.
The app and VibeDeck are free and the company does not take a cut of sales. Lior Shamir, CEO of VibeDeck, told Digital Media Wire that pricing is at the user’s discretion, including the option to give the music away in exchange for fans’ email addresses if the artist prefers. Premium options and features will be added to the platform some time in the future, Shamir said, including analytics and greater personalization.
The VibeDeck SoundCloud app is designed so artists can easily create a package of their songs as 320 bps MP3s, complete with artwork and metadata tags, which is then delivered as a single zipped file. It’s then a three-step process for any user to sell directly to fans, with the money going directly into the user’s PayPal account. “It’s free, and we made it easy to get started,” Shamir said. “Artists shouldn’t have to worry about digital, technical, website things. We make it dead simple for them.”
VibeDeck helps musicians create simple, customizable landing pages that include basic information, images, and an embeddable player. Users can drag and drop tracks to reorder them, and they can export all of their sales data as a .csv file. It already offers integration with Facebook and a band’s existing website.
Other companies competing in the space include Moontoast and DIY Media, the latter of which charges a 25 percent commission on sales. SoundRain, a SoundCloud/Minno mashup that also enabled sales, is no longer live.
