[Update: See Closing] Chamillionaire is going straight to fans with his upcoming EP release Ammunition. To do so he's using Moontoast, a "social commerce platform" that recently raised $6 million. Ammunition drops digitally March 20 with physical bundles released March 27.
Plus, his song Ridin' is currently appearing in a Volkswagen commercial.
Though a post at Paypal, the Moontoast payment partner option chosen by Chamillionaire, says that he's selling Ammunition via his site and Facebook, he's actually directing all Facebook traffic to his website.
2012 Tiguan Commercial: Safety Sacrifice ft. Ridin'
Interestingly enough, Chamillionaire is selling both the digital download and the cd with digital download for $5.99. He's also offering a bundle that includes a t-shirt that he's stated will only be available to preorders. He's including a new single that's not on Ammunition with all three packages.
Also of interest, Chamillionaire will not be releasing via iTunes, only via Moontoast using their Distributed Store. It looks like his current option is the Popup Store. They also offer a Social Store that can appear in Facebook's News Feed and an Ad Store that's a standard 300x250 pixel ad unit both of which support direct sales. The Ad Store can be used in ad networks and affiliate programs as well as on one's own site.
Moontoast has a more elaborate store for Facebook called Moontoast Impulse that has its own website. I can't find the pricing for the Distributed Store but Moontoast Impulse is free to set up and takes a 15% cut of revenues.
Moontoast also has launched a Social Analytics Suite with both free and premium offerings.
If you check out Chamillionaire's Twitter account, you can see he's pretty open and communicative with fans. Hopefully we'll be able to check back with him and see how things go, especially how happy he is using Moontoast.
Update: So I got a confirmation that the Distributed Store is indeed what Chamillionaire is using. Here's additional info:
"Our Distributed Store software has a one time setup fee of $1500.00 and a monthly minimum service fee of $500. Here is an overview of the Distributed Store - http://mnt.st/jgANK9"
As I noted in the post, the Moontoast Impulse option for use on Facebook has no upfront fees and they take 15% of revenue.
Obviously I would not normally cover the Distributed Store given the price point except for the Chamillionaire connection.
Hypebot Features Writer Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and music industry resources at Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
