ARTISTS
Q: What does Choosik give me that I can’t get from selling my songs online via
my own site?
A: Choosik gives you exposure to fans who are otherwise unaware of your music.
In addition, Choosik links to various venues that can promote your live
performances.
Q: Is Choosik funded by any major company like Amazon or label entities like some
of the independent music sites?
A: No. Choosik is operated and funded by four relatives from the Kansas City
area. We were tired of the mainstream music process and wanted to offer
practical solutions for : 1) the time it took to find independent music, 2)
boundaries between mainstream and quality independent artists and 3) the high
cost of entry for new talented artists.
Q: What financial benefits does using Choosik give me?
A: As an artist, you have ZERO cost of entry and a great way to gain more
exposure online, at the venues you perform and you make money at the same time!
Choosik also covers credit card processing, technology, maintenance and overhead
costs! Choosik artists are only responsible for account registration, building
your profile page and uploading/maintaining the list of songs you want to
promote and sell on the site.
Q: So how does Choosik stay in business while offering this great service to
artists at no cost of entry?
A: Choosik receives $0.25 from every song sale to cover all operations,
overhead, bandwidth, technology, marketing, Visa/MC processing, etc. Unlike
other sites, Choosik ONLY collects when your music is purchased by fans.
Compared to other sites, our fees are much less. Again, no entry fees. No
reoccurring fees. No contracts. Just 25 cents per song sale.
Q: What’s the minimum and maximum price I can sell my music at on Choosik?
A: Your price per song can be as low as $0.25 USD (25 cents) and as high as
$0.99 USD (99 cents).
Q: So how should I price my songs?
A: This is totally up to you. On Choosik, you have COMPLETE freedom to sell your
music how you want. If your goal is to get maximum exposure and not necessarily
make lots of money, you can choose to price your songs at 25 cents. Selling at
25 cents per song will lend no profits, since Choosik takes 25 cents per song
when sold. So, for every penny you sell above 25 cents, you receive 100% profit.
Q: How often does Choosik payout artist’s profits?
A: Choosik allows the artist to choose how often they want to receive payment.
Other sites typically only pay their artists on a quarterly basis.
Q: How do I get paid for the songs I sell?
A: Choosik pays artists through PayPal. Artists will need to sign up for a
free PayPal account to receive their proceeds.
Q: Why do I need (or even want) to offer FREE songs on Choosik?
A: The rating system is the heart and soul of Choosik. This system is only
possible by offering free music for the rater’s time, effort and critique. The
more fans that hear and rate your music, the more sales you will see (e.g.
normal radio play). The free music offering creates the buzz for fans on Choosik
and thus creates more exposure and sales for the artist.
Q: What if I want to give away more FREE music to promote my song/band?
A: When you add a song to Choosik through the download process, you can add more
“free songs” through the promo process. By default, new songs uploaded are given
away free to the first 20 raters (e.g. 0 in the box, would equal 20 free songs
and
10 in the box would mean 30 free songs).
Q: What benefits do the venue listings provide to an artist?
A: Venue listings allows a venue to promote upcoming events to an artist’s fans
as well as others who may be interested in a particular artist or type of music.
The more venues an artist plays at, the more fan exposure that artist will get
on Choosik. With artists, fans AND venues all having a presence on Choosik,
everyone keeps connected and informed on the latest events and music. It’s
simply a win-win for everyone.
Q: How do venues sell my live recorded songs?
A: The venue (club, bar, festival) would add the live recorded song to Choosik.
The venue will receive the proceeds from the song sales. The venue and artist
enter into an agreement in Choosik for this process. We also recommend that the
venue and the artist have an offline agreement in place for the distribution of
proceeds. The live song will appear on the artist page and the venue page.
Q: What if I have cover songs that I’ve recorded? Can I upload those to Choosik?
A: Yes. The U.S. has a standard set of rules for such sales. Please
see our help document before continuing.
Q: It seems to take a substantial amount of time and technical knowledge to
register and upload my music. What is the easiest way for me to get my
information and music on the site?
A: Use iTunes or similar media to convert song into MP3. iTunes is a free
download from
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download
Open iTunes
Put your audio CD in your CD drive. (that has your music on it)
click edit
click preferences
click advanced
click importing
change import using to MP3 Encoder
change setting to higher quality (192 kbps) or higher
click ok
click edit
click select, then all songs or single song
right click highlighted area
choose convert selection to MP3
wait for conversion to finish
Login into CHOOSIK.com
My Home tab
view/edit my artist (create my artist if you are new)
click band name tab
click album
click new or add album
click browse song MP3
Windows user: Documents/music/itunes/itunes music/artist folder/album folder
Pick your song(s) to add
Complete all text boxes
Add another song or read agreement & ok
FANS
Q: Why should I buy music on Choosik?
A: Choosik provides access to numerous independent artists and allows for easy
filtering based upon your preferences. Whether genre, location or similar
sounding mainstream artists, everyone can find the independent music they
desire.
Q: Why should I spend the time to rate music on Choosik?
A: After rating a song, you receive that song for FREE. Rating music also allows
fans to obtain promo points which can be used to download free music of your
choice. When you rate music, you also are helping other fans find quality music
based on your ratings. Every song you rate gives you the ability to become
listed as a “top rater” on CHOOSIK.
Q: What is a venue?
A: A venue is an establishment that holds concerts or allows independent artists
to perform.
Q: What benefit do venue listings provide?
A: Venue listings helps you find venues where your favorite artists are
performing. Each venue also has the ability to offer live recorded songs played
at their location.
Q: I can’t find an independent artist that I’m interested in, can I ask them to
upload their music?
A: Absolutely. Choosik is a fan and artist driven site. Choosik strives to be a
conduit between artists, the venues they perform at and their fans. Artists will
be delighted to hear what you have to say!
Q: What does the Choosik rating system mean and how does it work? How is the
number calculated? What does this number mean to me as a fan?
A: Every time you login, you are randomly assigned new songs to rate from a pool
of most recent songs added on Choosik. The song is ranked on the site with a
score of 0-100 (100 is the highest rating). You also receives a “reliability
rating” and you are ranked by your rating consistency as compared to the other
fans that have rated the same song. So, the rating system prevents artificial
high or low ratings.
Q: How do I see all of the songs I have rated?
A: Go to My Home and look under “user” Favorite Songs
Q: How do I find a Friend in Choosik?
A: You can use the search tool to find people by username, email, or real name.
If you know the username of your friend, you can also go to their page with
http://www.choosik.com/users/username
Q: How do I add a Friend in Choosik?
A: Find their page through search or other means. Click 'send friend
request' at the top of the screen. You can also invite new friends to Choosik by
going to My Home and entering their email address.
Q: How do I Buy Songs?
A: First you need to see if you have enough Promo Points to purchase a song.
Look in My User Profile, then Bank. A song can be purchased with 10 promo
points. Second, if you do not have enough Promo Points, you will need to deposit
funds in your Choosik Bank Account. Go to My Bank tab, then Click Buy Credit,
then select your preferred option.
Q: How do I find a song that a group I know added?
A: If it has at least “20” ratings, you can locate the song on the “Songs” Tab.
If it is brand new song, you can locate the song by typing the name of the
artist, album, or song in the Choosik SEARCH engine (or by finding the artist on
the artists tab).
Q: How do I get the FREE music you advertise?
A: To be eligible for free songs you must rate songs. Simply click the “Rate
Music” tab. If you rate a song, you get that song for free and you also receive
1 promo point. Promo points can be used anytime to purchase music on the “Promo
Songs” page. Loading your Choosik Bank Account also results in promo points.
Q: Why so many types of rating categories?
A: In the near future, Choosik will begin utilizing all of the valuable rating
results you submit to analyze your past ratings to suggest other new songs for
you to try. The more you participate in the rating system and community, the
better Choosik will find the quality music you are looking for. Oh, and you get
free music too!
Q: How does a song climb the charts?
A: The default page on Choosik lists the top songs added over the last month.
So, over time, newly posted songs will replace older songs.