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did I miss the part of the picture that shows over 33% of the money goes to retail mark-up?
Yeah, and I know someone personally who operated an online store who ended up going bankrupt because he didn't charge a high markup on CDs. He was dealing with independent artists and figured he could live with half the markup most places did, and he went out of business. Actually his business was sold, they're now charging a typical markup and doing quite well.

When my CD comes out I'm going to also create a site where people can purchase it online. The only issue there is whether people are going to be willing to paypal money to buy music. So I'll be able to sell clean, non-DRM mp3 files (and possibly FLAC) without incurring the overhead costs charged by retailers.

That still doesn't address the issue of promotion, though. For so long the radio has been the only real way to get exposure out for new music, but in this digital age it seems there must be a better way. I suppose the first step is for independent artists to open the flood gates by doing what I plan on doing- selling direct over the internet. When there are too many to reasonably sift through it all on your own some method will evolve so the cream will rise to the top.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.