Couldn't have done it
without the fans
On the UK's side of the pond, Amazon is hooking up with music community site SellaBand.
SellaBand will have a dedicated retail site on Amazon, in addition to an affiliate sale relationship, and broad promotion to the 50 most active reviewers on Amazon Vine.
Amazon Vine is a reviewers program that pre-releases books — and apparently music — to the site's most active reviewers, reports the Guardian.
With 150,000 unique users, SellaBand operates as a user-powered record label. MySpace and RCRD LBL, an online "music label," share in this aspiration to more democratic music.
Sellaband users listen to tracks for free, but can choose to "invest" in the band, much like its younger American counterpart, Slice the Pie. When a band reaches $50,000 in donations, SellaBand gives them a recording deal, with fans getting a cut of the profits.
Albums from SellaBand sell for 8.99 GBP on Amazon, and will be split between artists, fans and SellaBand.
