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Music Ripe and Ready For The Picking in The
Orchard
An Interview With The Orchard Senior VP Brad Nevin
By MuzikMan, MusicDish.com
 In
the not-too-distant past, aspiring musicians who wished to distribute
their music did not have many palatable options; they could either
sell their music at concerts, or beg independent shop owners to
stock their albums. Both options offered limited exposure, at best.
With the age of the internet, independent musicians could now post
their music on a website easily, but the problem of exposure remained.
That problem has been solved by The New Orchard,
which not only posts music on the internet for musicians, distributing
it to all the major online digital portals such as iTunes
and Napster, but offers physical distribution as well. Founded
in 1998, The New Orchard has undergone a rebirth in 2003, fueled
by new investors, new management, and a renewed commitment to fostering
and nurturing up-and-coming bands. Brad Navin, Senior Vice
President of Music & Programming recently sat down and talked about
the exciting happenings at The New Orchard:
[MusikMan] Why are you
calling it The NEW Orchard? What is new and different?
[ Brad Navin ] We took on some investment last
year from a private equity firm, and with that came new management,
new personnel, and an overhauled website. We've streamlined our
offering so that we have a digital-only distribution model, as well
as a Digital-Physical, which we've never offered before. We have
a new customer service division, complete with an email address
our artists can use to contact us with questions and issues, and
we will get back to them within 24 hours. We have a monthly newsletter
that keeps our artists up to date on developments within the company.
We are calling it The NEW Orchard because there are so many new
and exciting reasons for bands to check us out again.
[MusikMan] Why should
a band sign with you, and why should they do it NOW?
[ Brad Navin ] We are the only company of our
kind that is offering a non-exclusive physical and digital distribution
model. We have the means to get records into both the major stores
and the mom & pop stores, and we also have deals in place with all
the leading online retail partners-CD Now, Amazon, Barnes & Nobel,
etc. Nobody has the reach we do across the board for the actual
physical distribution and complete digital distribution. We are
doing business with all the major leading legitimate online services
in the country including most services across Western Europe, Australia,
New Zealand and Pan-Asia. It is not something that is hypothetical,
it is not something that we are planning on doing; it is something
we have already been doing for many months.
We use Loud Eye, the independent music industry
leader, for digital encryption. We are an exclusive preferred partner
of their organization, which provides us with everything we need
to get the job done. They are an industry leading Technology Company
handling the encoding and delivery of 80% of North America's music
and they work with all of the major labels. Having a technology
partner that is on the forefront of the latest encoding and delivery
specs allows The Orchard to deliver the highest quality audio and
release information across all services worldwide.
We have successfully delivered our music catalog to all US based services
far surpassing any other non-major label distributor. One Hundred
Percent of our catalog (over 120,000 tracks) is currently available
from iTunes, Napster, Musicmatch, MusicNet, and Buymusic.
Furthermore, 100% of all newly added releases will be available from
all services as they are received (as per the set uptake schedule
of each service, which varies across the services).
[MusikMan] Tell us about
the on-line accounting system.
[ Brad Navin ] It's something that hasn't been
out there before. We're building a completely integrated accounting
system in which you can take all of the information from all of
our partners-whether it's physical distribution or digital distribution-and
you'll be able to see what albums shipped to where, and when. With
our system, there will be a summary of your activity across all
the services, which is updated constantly, as well as particular
releases by track, detailing what type of activity have been going
on whether it is a stream or download. In addition, that will all
be available online right at people's fingertips.
[MusikMan] How much do
your services cost?
[ Brad Navin ] We offer three basic models,
and there is a special deal in place from February 15 through
March 15 for new bands and labels joining us:
(1) World Wide Digital distribution, which is $39,
down from $49.
(2) The Digital and Physical distribution is $79, down from $99,
which also gets you into the on-line retail stores, including
(3) On-Demand manufacturing is $99, down from $129, which gives
people both the physical and digital distribution, plus the ability
to manufacture CDs when they are ordered.
The New
Orchard gives musicians without the benefit of major label support
the chance to actually be heard on a scale that could not have been
imagined just a few years ago. Now, the company is putting out a
call to all Indie musicians to help open up the floodgates to all
the fantastic music that we know is out there, and to help make
music history.
 Provided
by the MusicDish
Network. Copyright © Tag
It 2004 - Republished with Permission
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