I have been experimenting on Unsprung with simple ways for artists to generate extra income from merchandise sold by others; that artists don’t have to handle.

In other words, some other company does all the work for you!  In theory, you just push fan traffic to your website or profile page, recommend and display cool products and wait for the money to roll in.  

If you are getting a ton of fan traffic, digital storefronts could be a real moneymaker.  Setting up a web-based storefront up can be a chore, but unfortunately - in 2008 - digital storefronts may generate more revenue than your music.

In my opinion, today’s managers need to be able to setup digital affiliate programs and digital storefronts for their artists.  If your manager is allergic to the Internet, then make sure he’s finding the right people to help you.

My criteria for using and promoting digital storefronts and marketplaces are:
•    I don’t want to handle shipping or customer interaction.
•    I need to be able to feature my own merchandise.
•    I need to be able to choose the third-party products I sell.
•    The methods for displaying the products on my site have to be simple.
•    The merchandising widgets and interfaces have to be sleek.
•    It has to be economically worth it.
•    The storefront supplier has to be stable and trustworthy.
•    The storefront has to offer a range of relevant (to fans) products.
•    The storefront’s logo and branding has to be minimal or nonexistent.
•    The store or marketplace has to offer a variety of methods or widgets for merchandising products on my site.

If you are chaffing at plugging merchandise that’s NOT your own – that’s understandable.  Lots of artists don’t want to be overtly commercial.  Perhaps you can try (seriously) creating a link to a page called “Buy My Beer” or “Feed Me” or something that spells out to your fans what you are trying to accomplish – such as eating every week.

Music Met Capitalism 100 Years Ago
Music has been used as a tool to sell things forever.  Jazz clubs sold booze in the twenties; radio has been promoting advertisers and sponsors for eighty years; retailers pipe music into stores to create a better shopping experience; etc.  If you’re pissed off because people aren’t buying music then readjust.  

Now, today, this year, this decade – it’s the first time in history when ANY artist can easily become the entertainment, the radio and the store. 

In business this is called “vertical integration”.  The fact is: if you don’t vertically integrate and learn how to leverage your music to sell other things, you may have to go back to selling cars or insurance; so what’s the difference? 

Do what has been done for 100 years – use music to attract fans (consumers), or go back to selling things to customers (consumers) .

Record labels and music publishers have been making money by selling music to marketers for years; now’s your chance to do it independently.

Things will change for the better - but for now, you have to embrace the reality of the situation.