Quite simply, it's a guitar music download store. We sell full albums, not singles, of guitar music.

Typically, although not exclusively, instrumental guitar of all genres. Rock, fusion, shred, blues, flamenco, classical, jazz, country... By guitar music, we don't mean any band with a guitar or two, we mean music where the guitar is the feature solo instrument. If it's someone strumming a few chords, it's probably not in our catalogue, If it's a song with a seven-minute-long guitar solo, it probably is.

Not all, no. There's some beautiful classical and folk music in our catalogue. Blues and jazz and fusion as well. The shredders are there too.

We sell high quality MP3s, as well as FLACs. Our files aren't encumbered with DRM (Digital Rights Management), which is that technology that prevents you from copying the files or burning a CD, or limiting how many copies you can make, or which devices you can play the files on.

You can copy our files, play them on any device (I don't mean toasters, I mean iPods, MP3 players, CD players, computers, etc), and burn them to CD. Please respect our artists' copyrights though, and don't go making copies for all your mates.

FLAC is what they call a "lossless" compression format. It's a way of making audio files smaller, like MP3, but it preserves the data in such a way that when you uncompress it (your player does this in order to play it) it reverts back to the original exactly. MP3 files don't do this. They are "lossy" compression; they lose data. That's why you get high quality, medium quality and low quality MP3s. You only get one quality FLAC, perfect! If you uncompress a FLAC album and burn it to CD, it's an exact copy of the original.

The thing with FLAC files is that they are a LOT bigger than MP3s. They take longer to download, they use more bandwidth, they take up more room on your computer, and your iPod won't play them. They're for people who aren't satisified with the quality of MP3s. You can burn them to a CD and it's the same as a bought CD. You can "rip" them to MP3 or AAC for your iPod, so yes, you can play FLAC music on your iPod, by converting it.

No. I love his music, but we only have independent artists in the catalogue.

Ummm... That's not a question.

No worries. Take a look around the store. Browse the artists and genres and labels. They're available on the left hand side, but first you have to go to the home page.

OK, well first up, send a copy to Steve at Fret Net, the radio show that specialises in guitar music. You may have heard of it. By the way, it's me, Steve.

Then click on the artists link at the bottom of any page on Fret Tunes, and learn more about signing up to sell your CD here.

Oh, thanks! It's a passion. I love this music. Radio in general is in a pretty bad state at the moment. I'm just doing my bit. If you like Fret Net, there are some other cool shows on PBS FM 106.7 as well.

For that, you need to click on the submit CD link, have a little read, and fill in the form.

Yes, it'll cost you $25 to sign up a CD for the catalogue.No! Please understand that it takes a lot of work to process your CD. There are other digital distributors out there, but they're too generic.

I will spend at least an hour on your CD, maybe two. I'll type up all the info from the liner notes. Who played on each track, who the guests were, who wrote the material, who produced, engineered, etc. All that goes in the database. It takes time. I scan the CD insert. The whole thing. I rip the CD into FLAC format and MP3 format. It takes time. I have to gather the files, organise them and upload them to the server. It takes time. FLAC files are big, and slow. I listen to the CD, to each track, and choose 30 to 60 seconds and rip that to a separate MP3 file. That becomes the sample for that track. I do that for each track and upload them to the server. Database entries are made for all the files.

The web site is then checked, to make sure it all worked. All the files are listened to, to make sure they worked. The samples are listened to on the web site, to make sure they're ok. It's a lot of work.

Oh, and anyway, I'll give you the $25 back.

Yep, I'll give you a $25 voucher to use at the store.

Thanks

Good question. Important question. You get 70%.

MP3 albums go for $8.99, so you'll get $6.30.

FLACS are $9.99 (to cover the extra bandwidth), so you get $7.00.

Yep.

Once a month, if the payment amount has reached $25. If not, then maybe next month. It accumulates. If you sell five CDs, that's enough to trigger a payment.

OK. It's pretty simple. Anyone, even you, can sign up as an affiliate. It doesn't cost anything. Affiliates can earm money off sales.

Basically, as an affiliate, you get a little bit of code that you stick on your web site. It makes a link to Fret Tunes. If a visitor to your site clicks the link and then buys something off Fret Tunes, you, as an affilate, get a commission.

It's 5%. On a MP3 album, that's 45 cents. For a FLAC album, it's 50 cents.

It goes up though if you sell a lot.

It can go to up to 10%, or even 15%.

OK, it's awesome. The bit of html code you get can be put on your web site or myspace, of course, but you can also put it in your blog, you can put it in messages on forums, you can even put it in an e-mail!

Yeah! All these links all over the internet, all pointing to your CD on Fret Tunes!

Just register an account with us.

No problems. It's been my pleasure. You can always send an e-mail to me at:

Cheers,
Steve