Lulu, the company I’ve used since 2009 for my on-demand Compact Disc sales, is dropping CDs entirely so they can focus on eBooks. I’m going to look at transitioning the CD on demand to Digital River (per Lulu’s recommendation) but it is possible that CD sales will be dropped altogether.

Therefore: If you’re intent on owning a physical copy of One Man Garage Band, best to order via Lulu before September 19, 2011. After that, OMGB will not be available at Lulu.

I’ve added a CD Baby widget to the One Man Garage Band page so that you can purchase directly from this site. It is, unfortunately, an Adobe Flash thing, so iPhone and iPad purchasing will have to happen through CD Baby directly or via iTunes or Amazon. Still, it’s a great way to get a preview of a song and learn about its history all on one page.

CD Baby continues to offer OMGB for only $4.99 and while individual tracks at CD Baby should see a price reduction to 89 cents within the next 24 hours, the complete 16 song album for $4.99 is clearly the best deal. Bear in mind that this pricing only applies to CD Baby—I don’t control pricing at iTunes or Amazon—but the tracks are 256-bit DRM-free MP3s, which means high quality and copy protection-free.

One Man Garage Band is now on sale at CDBaby for only $4.99. Individual tracks remain 99 cents, but if you’ve been at all tempted to see what in the world I’ve been up to musically and price has been a barrier, well, the cost has now been chopped in half. (Unfortunately, artists don’t control iTunes or Amazon.com pricing, so the album price remains higher there.)

One Man Garage Band business card

Featuring Marsha Minten’s awesome One Man Garage Band cover art, new business cards promoting the album are now available for distribution. Email me if you’d like a batch.

One Man Garage Band has only been sold via sites like iTunes, Amazon and CDBaby that pay me at least 60 cents per track for each song downloaded. I am changing the payment option today so that going forward the album is also available to other business models like streaming, ringtones, etc. I doubt whether this will result in much greater revenue, but I’m sort of flying blind, willing to give it a shot, and happy to report the results in another few months.

There are two other options which I’ve not yet pursued. One is called “Everything that pays” which is exactly what the name implies. It’s reportedly great for exposure but I’m concerned that it tends to undervalue the product. That may not be the case. It definitely is that case in the final option, “Do it all. Even unpaid.” I may ultimately put OMGB into this “bin” (so to speak) but I’d have to have a very specific reason for doing it. Giving music away is great for publicity, but not so much for revenue. I’m not seeking publicity, in case that wasn’t clear, so at least right now I have a hard time envisioning it. I hate to be mercenary, but “Everything that pays” is a much more likely final destination.

For those interested, album sales have been modest but consistent. Any revenue is better than no revenue, and though I’m not quitting my day job, I remain grateful to those who’ve supported my musical endeavors.

The digital download breakdown is roughly 66% iTunes and 33% CDBaby. This is about in keeping with what I expected, because I’ve been pushing CDBaby a bit (since artists are paid more). Ultimately, I think iTunes is simply a much bigger marketplace with much greater visibility so I anticipate the ratio may even be more pronounced the next time I check.

If physical album sales are included in the mix, the overall sales breakdown is 54% iTunes, 27% CDBaby, and 18% Lulu.com (physical CDs). The revenue breakdown is 53% iTunes, 31% CDBaby and 16% Lulu. Interesting, there have been no sales whatsoever via Amazon.com. Make of that what you will, but since iTunes dropped its Digital Rights Management (DRM) I’m not sure what distinct advantage Amazon brings to the table.

Just a quick reminder that One Man Garage Band t-shirts are available, and they look good! Click on the t-shirt image below to check out our online merchandise. Help support the indie artist!

To send a gift of my album via iTunes, you go to http://itunes.com/tydavison [link opens iTunes], click on the album, then choose the “Gift this music” link then choose the “Gift this album” link. (See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2687 for explicit instructions.)

If you prefer to give a physical CD as a gift, you can do that here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/compact-disc/one-man-garage-band/7358118

It didn’t dawn on me until the emails arrived, but apparently it’s not obvious how to listen to samples from One Man Garage Band. I’m very sorry about that, and I’ve taken steps to make it more clear. The website’s right sidebar now offers links where you can listen to samples and/or purchase songs.

If you like CDBaby’s 256-bit MP3s–and I do since that’s how I get the most revenue–click the CDBaby link. You’ll be able to listen to 30 second samples from each song, buy individual songs or (my favorite) buy the whole album. Because it’s in MP3 format it will load and play on any MP3 player be it iPod, Zune or what have you.

If you prefer using Apple’s iTunes Store for your music purchases–and I’ve got to admit the experience is fairly compelling–there’s a link for my iTunes page on the sidebar as well. Note that this link will open iTunes on your computer and take you directly to my iTunes page. You to listen to samples, purchase individual songs or the whole album at iTunes as well. Apple 256-bit AAC files are technically superior to MP3s but the difference is unlikely to be sufficient that anyone would notice. (I don’t.) The AAC files will run in iTunes, on an iPod or on any device that supports AAC. These are not copy protected files.

For you old school types who love your physical media, One Man Garage Band is now available for purchase on Compact Disc. I’m using Lulu.com, a publish on demand service, to produce the CDs which means that no CD is manufactured until it is purchased. This saves me from carrying inventory, and it seems to be the most environmentally responsible approach to content distribution for folks who’ve not made a transition to digital music files.