Startershop and market your own music
NEWS RELEASE
6 March 2006
STARTERSHOP AND MARKET YOUR OWN MUSIC
Low cost way to sell CDs online
Startershop Ltd, have announced the launch of an ecommerce web shop product for £199. A Startershop can hold up to a thousand products, with descriptions, prices and pictures. Significantly, Startershop owners require no web design skills or understanding of any technical terminology.
Startershop is the company’s initial offering and comes to market at a time when people are comfortable buying things, including their music online. The latest Government statistics show that over half the UK’s households are spending in excess of £18 billion through the web on goods and services. Music sales on the web have always led that trend with both CD and MP3 sales increasing year on year. Startershop has been designed as a way for small businesses and individuals to claim a share of that income, not least local bands who depend on the income from CD sales made to their live audiences.
David Yates, Startershop’s founder, explained:
“There are a lot of good local bands out there who have spent time putting their music down and want to sell it to a wider audience. Typically they take a box of CDs to gigs with them and maybe sell a few. Unfortunately these sometimes run out, or people leave without remembering to buy the CD or, by the time the gig ends, so has the audience’s spending money. This is where a Startershop can make a difference. For an outlay of £199, you can get a complete website with a store and credit card handling facilities. All you have to do is print the web address on your posters and catch the missed sales.”
The idea of trading online is nothing new to established bands and there are stories of bands that have been able to revive their careers because of the web. However, the cost of selling online has previously been prohibitive to smaller bands. The available research points to costs in excess of £2000 to acquire this sort of ecommerce capability.
David went on to explain, “Until now, for any small business, trading on the web has either been prohibitively expensive, totally confusing or both! At £199, we have made Startershop cheap enough to be affordable to just about anyone. We have also designed it so that, if you can turn on a computer and use the keyboard and mouse, you can run a Startershop”.
While Startershop is a new product, it has already been picked up by a range of organisations. Startershop has already attracted bands selling CDs and Tee Shirts. These have been joined by a range of other ventures including an international commercial rights organisation, a site selling Fair Trade goods from South African community projects and a group of students selling tee shirts.
Further information can be found about Startershop on their website at www.startershop.com
– Ends –
Contact details
For more information, photography of the launch or Startershop success stories, please contact:
David Yates
Tel: 087 1234 3434
Email: david.yates@startershop.com
More information about Startershop available at: http://startershop.com
RSS Newsfeed available at: http://news.startershop.com/feed/
Notes to editors
Startershop Limited
Startershop Limited was formed in August 2005. It was set up to design and market products that provide individuals and small companies with robust and easily usable tools to help them to compete with bigger companies.
Statistics
Online Music Sales
IFPI released the “…definitive statistics on global market for recorded music” on August 2 2005, stating that:
2004 was a landmark year for the growth of digital services. Over 180 legitimate music download services were launched globally in 2004. There are now well over 300 sites in total, with at least 200 in Europe.
Music catalogue available on the major services doubled in 2004 to over one million tracks, while subscriber figures now top 2.2 million. Sales of digital music players continue to increase, spurring growth in online music. The launch of 3G services by major operators has given a boost to the download music to mobile market.
In addition, sales of physical product over the internet are growing rapidly reaching 15% in Germany, 10% in the UK and 6% in the US. The internet was the fastest-growing retail channel for CD sales in 2004.
Full report available online from:
http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/publications/rin_order.html
Online purchasing
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on 4th November 2005 that:
The value of Internet sales to households rose to £18.1 billion in 2004 from £10.8 billion in 2003, a rise of 67.6 per cent.
6.7 per cent of businesses sold over the Internet in 2004 (5.4 per cent in 2003) while 35.3 per cent made purchases over the Internet in 2004 (29.4 per cent in 2003).
32 per cent of businesses with 1000 or more employees sold over the Internet in 2004 and 70.3 per cent purchased over the Internet in 2004.
Internet purchases by businesses rose 64.6 per cent, from £37.9 billion in 2003 to £62.4 billion in 2004.
33.8 per cent of businesses had a website in 2004, compared to 30.7 per cent of businesses in 2003. Of businesses with 1000 or more employees, 98.1 per cent had a website in 2004.
For businesses with an Internet connection, the use of broadband as the primary connection method rose from 25.7 per cent in 2003 to 42.3 per cent in 2004, an increase of 64.6 per cent.
Detailed results of the ONS reports can be found online at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STatbase/product.asp?vlnk=6645
Verdict Research report that in the UK, online shopping accounts for half of retail sector growth:
The online market is the fastest growing sector of UK retail at present and this is increasingly occurring at the expense of the high street. Consumer confidence and expectation is increasing as one in four consumers now purchase goods over the internet, meaning continual development of online presence is essential to maintain and increase market share.
A new report from retail analysts Verdict Research, part of the Datamonitor Group, reveals the true strength of the online retail sector. Last year online retailers accounted for almost half the cash growth in retail spending, with sales increasing 15 times faster than the retail average. Though online’s share of retail is still small, its meteoric growth is sending shock waves throughout the wider retail sector as shoppers of all ages transfer their purchases online.
Full version of Verdict report available from: http://www.verdict.co.uk/
Costs
In 2004, the ecommerce software company Actinic reported that the average price charged by a web designer to build an online store for a client was £2293.
Full Actinic report can be downloaded from: http://www.actinic.com/resources/actinic_webDesignReport2004.pdf
Background to Startershop
The founders and directors of Startershop Ltd are David Yates and Simon Wheatley. David and Simon have worked together in designing industry leading web sites in the Financial Services sector for organisations such as Bank of Scotland, Sony, Clerical Medical and Egg.
David and Simon have individually designed for organisations including The Ministry of Defence, BP, The Princes Trust, BAT, Jaguar, Deawoo, Ricoh Cameras, Sharp Electronics, Rohan, Karrimor and others.