Online Promo Distribution

FAQ

What is Digital Servicing?

Digital Servicing is the method of using web technologies to deliver promotional audio material to radio, press, and other music industry and media contacts.

It replaces CD-based promo (and, looking back further, vinyl promo) and is the delivery method of choice for an increasing number of major and independent record labels.

Digital Servicing is a sensible application of internet technologies to address a costly problem. Packing CDs and promotional material into padded bags and sending them to media all around the world suddenly seems antiquated when digital delivery is faster, cheaper and environmentally neutral, and the ability to track access to audio demystifies exactly who is supporting your work.

What is EatDigital?

EatDigital is a fast, secure and easy-to-use web-based system for record labels to promote their music.

Labels upload audio files together with release notes, artist biographies, etc., and also upload their contacts' email addresses.

EatDigital then creates a customised email to each recipient, each with an individual download link. Recipients download their promo and leave feedback.

Labels have access to real-time, in-depth reporting on downloads, popularity and feedback. The label's Control Panel allows them to create and tailor new promo lists giving them unprecedented flexibility in controlling who gets access to their music and when.

Who Are You And Where Are You Based?

EatDigital is headquartered in Australia with offices in Melbourne and Sydney.

Our founders come from a mixed background that includes music journalism, marketing, net radio, digital download stores, audio production, sync licensing and, naturally, web application development.

EatDigital supports flexible working practices and is a firmly dog-friendly company, with three canine co-workers.

How Much Does EatDigital Cost?

EatDigital is far cheaper than sending physical CDs: prices start at €1.00 per full-album promo download, and get cheaper the more you buy.

If you send a promo to 200 people and only 100 choose to download it, we only charge you for those that download.

There are no setup fees associated with EatDigital, nor are there any monthly subscription fees, excess bandwidth charges, or hosting restrictions.

All promo emails and download pages are professionally formatted with your label's logo and branding at no cost.

Is There a List of Media That You Service?

EatDigital maintains no servicing lists. We operate a delivery system for sending out your music to your contacts.

Maintaining our own promo lists would make us a PR company, and there are too many of them already (as a quick google will tell you if you weren't already aware!)

Are Media Happy To Receive Digital Promos?

Generally yes, although a lot depends on the genre of music we're talking about.

Electronic and Dance Music were early adopters of this technology, and it's not hard to see why. The ability for DJ's to play music in clubs on the same day that the label releases them was an attractive proposition for an industry that was relying on dubplates and test pressings only ten years previously. As soon as the technology became available, DJ's began to demand digital delivery.

Economic factors, together with a desire to streamline promotional procedures, have carried wider genres across to the digital medium. This means that digital promo servicing is, for the majority of the industry, label-led as opposed to recipient-led.

While digital was initially sidelined by media for not being a "real" product it has gradually become accepted, first as a 'necessary evil' but increasingly as the de facto.

If you're currently sending out CD's, don't expect the switch to digital to happen overnight, particularly in Jazz, Classical and Country spheres. However, for every audiophile demanding a physical product, there is at least one technophile who will prefer digital.

What about Radio?

If you're thinking of sending digital promo out to radio, we advise you check with them first. Most stations currently still require CD copy for their physical libraries, but with more stations starting to digitise their libraries you may find that you're doing them a favour in sending music digitally, rather than make them have to import a CD before they can play your music.

Do My Media Contacts Need A Login And Password To Access EatDigital?

EatDigital does not require a username or password for media to access promotional material.

Our service has been designed from the ground-up to be as simple and as usable as possible, and it's a sad reality of our online existence that remembering yet another login/password combination directly impacts our willingness to use a service.

A cornerstone of the EatDigital platform is the idea media are busy enough as it is, so any digital delivery solution needs to be as simple and straightforward as possible.

For this reason, media are served with your full promo package (audio, artwork, onesheet, and other supporting documents) in two clicks of a mouse.

How Does EatDigital Track Downloads And Feedback?

One of the key problems historically faced with physical (CD or vinyl) promotion is that it's blind: you send out a thousand CDs, you followup as best you can, and it's all for that one review in Rolling Stone. It's worth it, of course, but naturally if you could reach the same result and keep the other 999 remaining CDs to go to retail, you would.

Digital takes out the guesswork. The EatDigital Control Panel allows you to see in real-time who is accessing your promo, which allows you to followup straight away with the people that matter.

As an example, if on Thursday you see a reviewer in Huston has downloaded a promo of a band playing in their hometown on Friday night, you can drop them an email to let them know their name's on the door. This level of interaction is a key benefit to digital servicing.

Release feedback is collected and made available to you in one central point, which you can use to manage and monitor the effectiveness of your campaigns.

What About The Security Aspects? Does Digital Promo Mean My Album Will Get Leaked?

Every promo we send out is unique to each user: so if someone tries to share their download link, you can make the decision about what to do about it. Some labels may want to talk to the person directly, some may want to remove them off their promo list, some may want to request to have the person blacklisted so that other labels are protected, and some may want to send the boys round to break some legs. It's up to you.

Ripping a CD into Mp3 format takes about as long as downloading an EatDigital promo, so digital promo doesn't mean that it's easier for music to leak. If music is going to be leaked, it's going to be leaked. By sending the leaker a CD copy, you're giving him something he can sell on eBay for ten bucks to support his crack habit.

What Audio Files And Formats Are Supported?

EatDigital supports a wide range of formats, so you can send whatever you like to whomever you like.

Supported formats include mp3, aac, wav, flac, wma, ape and ogg audio files.

Onesheets and supporting documents can be supplied in pdf, doc, rtf or other standard formats.

Artwork and artist images can be supplied in any format required by recipient media. We recommend that both print and online media are catered for with image files in the appropriate resolution.

Can I Send Video?

We fully support video files and have found this to be an effective delivery method, particularly with video for mobile platforms.

The key issue given the current makeup of the web is the size of the download. Packaging up a high-quality video file along with some audio and supporting documents is likely to lead to a large final download for media - and the larger the size of the download, the more likely recipients will think twice before clicking.

As a general rule of thumb, 300MB-500MB is a good maximum size for a download. Until the internet evolves and large files can be sent anywhere in the blink of an eye, flash hosting sites like YouTube are probably the best way of circulating video.

Will Digital Promo Completely Replace CD Promo?

It might, but not for a while yet. For every journalist who mutters under their breath every time they receive a CD because they have to import into iTunes and sync it to their iPod before they can check it out on the way to work, there's at least another one who won't give you the time of day unless they get a shiny, sealed CD for them to play on their ludicrously expensive hifi system.

Since EatDigital launched in 2007, we have seen a measurable shift in opinion among recipients of digital promo delivery.

If you believe - as many do - that digital is poised to become the de facto format for purchasing and storing music, and that CD will gradually become relegated to specialist niches in much the same way that vinyl has, then yes - CD promo will eventually become a thing of the past.

There's no need to jump the gun; many labels using EatDigital maintain concurrent digital and CD promo campaigns. You can use EatDigital to establish a pre-reaction, and use that pre-reaction to determine who really needs a CD. The two delivery methods do not need to be mutually exclusive.

Will EatDigital Work On My Computer? What Software Do I Need?

EatDigital is completely platform-independent and requires no software - the entire application is stored on our servers, and is operated through your web browser.

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