New Australian-based digital distributor Musicadium launched in its hometown Brisbane Feb. 13 with a showcase of three of its signings at the Zoo club. One of these, Ranger, is made up of past members of Brisbane bands the Go-Betweens and Regurgitator.
Muscadium will focus on helping independent artists and labels worldwide get their music into online stores like Apple’s iTunes, eMusic and Amazon mp3.
Its distribution agreement allows the artist to retain 100 per cent royalties – a first for an Australian company, claims business manager Nick Crocker. Funding comes from its charging $39 Australian ($34.84) per album upload and an annual renewal fee of $20 ($17.80) per release which covers transaction and admin costs for royalty payments.
“It was a decision we made early on in the process,” Crocker tells Billboard.biz. “Obviously, short term, it would be a smarter financial choice for us to take a cut of our artists’ royalties. But, in the long run, we want to be recognized as a true supporter of independent artists worldwide. To do that we have foregone short term profit and developed a business model that works by giving back to our artists all the royalties they earn.”
Crocker says they are distributing for “hundreds” of acts around the world, and looking at signing up its 1,000th act by June.
