Make a Sweet Jump
SongRamp.com Can Launch Your Music Career
by John A. Accardo
There are so many websites that allow you to post your music and sell it to the public. But not all of them can connect you to your audience like SongRamp.com can.
SongRamp.com is a music community that not only focuses on the creative aspects of music and the industry, but it also allows you to form a strong bond with your fans through several features, including an Open Mic section. Since the Internet gives you access to a virtually unlimited spectrum of people in the industry, from fans to record labels, SongRamp stresses the importance of creating and maintaining these relationships.
The Open Mic interactive area gives site members the ability to browse music uploaded by other members and provide feedback and support. One of the ways they keep it current is by setting up a chart system, where votes that accumulate in the last seven days are factored into the "Hot 20" list.
Artists also get their own homepage in the SongRamp community. This includes an artist bio, press releases, booking and contact information and, of course, a showcase for your best songs. If you choose to use it to sell your music or other products, the page actually becomes your own private storefront. And the best part is that this section of the site is completely managed by you.
You are also given the option of Web logging, or blogging, which is basically an online diary. They are much more personal than forums and give you a great place to communicate with your audience. SongRamp also works with iPods. If you choose iPod as your primary player, it will list SongRamp music in the music library, and from there you can set up playlists.
There is a feature on the website based on a rating system that includes all of the artists on SongRamp. The first thing you need to remember is to first put your webring code in an easily visible location on the page. This is of fundamental importance since the webring calculates your relative placement based on the weighted sum of three other factors.
The first factor, and probably the most important, is the number of SongRamp members that are referred from your website to SongRamp in the last 30 days. This factor receives a weight of 1. The next is the number of members that you have referred to SongRamp all time and receives a weight of .01. The final factor is the number of visitors you send to SongRamp from yours but that do not become members. This receives a weight of .001.
After the numbers are calculated, the member with the highest value will be number one in the webring, and the rest come thereafter. This is how SongRamp creates revenue. Not only are they affected by the success of your music, but they also encourage you to create traffic on the website and bringing in new members. That's why SongRamp rewards the artists that do so by giving them a high placement on their webring charts.
Pro members, $6 per month or $59.95 for the year, are entitled to sell their CDs and mp3s with ease. SongRamp sells CDs on a consignment basis, which means the online store keeps track of your sales, your inventory, your customer information and the payments due to you. All of this information is found in the vendor control room. SongRamp pays artists 70 percent of the money that is received from album sales. Each time you make a sale, you will receive an e-mail. Payments come on a monthly basis and are sent at the beginning of each month. You also receive online reports that analyze your sales and current activity.
SongRamp is owned by a larger software company called Bondware Inc. and is based in Nashville, Tenn. If you would like to contact them, e-mail them at admin@songramp.com. You can also reach them at 615-333-7775 or visit the site at www.songramp.com.
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