I got an email alert from BzzAgent about TheTrackShack.com the other day. It’s an interesting spin on the buying and selling of audio samples and loops. In a nutshell, TheTrackShack enables musicians to monetize their songs in a new way — in pieces. Slice ‘n’ dice…mute ‘n’ unmute…and you have another track you can sell or license for use in other media.
While that sounds strange, it makes sense. CreativeCommons.com, SpliceMusic.com, JamGlue.com, and other sites like them already offering free ways to download, mix, and mashup audio loops. People are becoming accustomed to piecing together audio on their own. Creating a portal for premium loops is a natural next step. Here’s the thing — it’s not a new idea from a buyer’s perspective, since there are plenty of audio sample CDs and ecommerce sites…it’s new from a sellers perspective, since musicians and bands are now being invited to pimp out existing song tracks. And therein lies the business model — TheTrackShack charges musicians $24.99 to upload tracks and all "slices" of said tracks, or will do it for musicians for $44.99. I.e. charge for setup upfront, and leave the selling to the buyer. Sellers keep 80% of revenue generated by loops sales, which is good. (I can see sales performance being dominated by people who are already in the business of creating loops and sound samples…)
The site itself could use some work. Aesthetically, it’s all over the place, and feels like one giant mozaic mashup of ad space, modules appealing to musicians, and modules appealing to fans. In my humble opinion, the site should determine upfront if you’re a musician or a music fan, and adjust the site content accordingly.
There isn’t really a critical mass of musicians using it yet, so some of the page modules are simply blank, or empty. We’ll see how active the site is in a few months. All said, if you have songs which have been gathering dust, now may be a good time to jump on the site and make a name for yourself by becoming a "top seller" early in the game.
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