Recorded Track for Charity - Does anyone know where I can upload / arrange paypal

cooky43

Hi

Apologies if this is the incorrect place to post but I hope someone can help.

My cousin - Seargeant Major Michael "Mark" Williams -of 2 Para was killed in Afghanistan in June of this year. http://www.militaryforums.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=208917

In order to do something in his memory, a friend (who is a professional singer) has recorded a Christmas song that we would like to put up onto a website as a downloadable track with all proceeds going to Help for Heroes. The singer and recording studio gave their time free of charge as Michael was a local man and gave his life for his country and what he believed in. Help for Heroes has given us the go ahead to use their logo, etc but I am looking for somwhere to load it, etc. I have tried to google this for napster,itunes, etc but I am not getting very far.

Any help would be gratefully recieved and if this is not possible then thanks anyway.This is done with the full support of the family.

Regards

Sharon

ahai1

The first thing you should do is contact the charity and tell them what you are doing as they maybe able to help.

Good luck and I am sorry for your loss.

cooky44

Hi
I have contacted Help for Heroes and they have said that they would put up a link on their website when I have found somwhere to load it and paypal account, which I have finally done - but i have searched all day in trying to find out how you load to napster and itunes so if anyone has any advice, all will be gratfully recieved. As soon as the web page is live (tomorrow) I hopefully will be able to post the url and let people know. Still all advice gratefullt accepted.

vetfred

Hello, I'm very sorry to hear of your loss.

I'm a musician myself and beyond being signed to a record label, one of the ways to get onto iTunes and the various other downlaod sites is to use, in essence, a broker.

For example, there are sites like Tunecore.com amongst others (this is not a site I earn money from other than through my own sales so nothing to do with advertising!) where you upload music along with any information and an album or CD image. It then takes up to 6 weeks to get the song on iTunes although some sites may get the song on quicker (like amazon mp3).

Because we're only a couple of weeks away from Christmas, I wouldn't be optimistic that any song could really appear on any major platform for download though you could always get in touch with Tunecore (or such company) and state the situation but they are at the mercy of the actual download sites themselves.

Beyond that, you could always try iTunes directly but again, there may be no joy with doing that. There will also likely be a set fee for the person downloading with no option to donate so that's something to think about if that's important.

If it becomes impossible to get the song on a major platform in time, an alternative would be to create a free webpage with a link to pay for the song via paypal or donate. Then on payment, the "customer" could be sent a URL link to the song; a song could be uploaded into a free !!!!!! account for example which will give you a specific URL to send to people. It's longwinded and a bit manual but would work if there's no better alternative in the time frame.

1. Visit website
2. Click link to pay by paypal
3. Get sent e-mail containing direct URL link to the song
4. Click link and download song

ahai1

How about coming up with another alternative time to Christmas if yu cannot get it on by then like his birthday?

vetfred

The main issue with doing a Christmas song is it 's likely only going to get much attention in the 4-6 weeks preceeding Christmas. Even though this is clearly not a commercial or standard Christmas release, unfortunately it's always going to be difficult to release any song aimed at the Christmas market in the spring or summer for example which I take is why the OP is wanting the song available asap.

Hopefully, something can be done this year but I assume (for maximum donations) it would be possible to re-release the track for download next Christmas through the major channels so long as enough notice is given and then it gives more time to also promote it.

Whether it's a charity release or a commercial release, the major factor is promotion. Even on a small level without going into any costly promotion, local newspapers and radio would most likely run a story, plenty of music websites would probably help out with a news story etc. Plus, you may also find someone in PR willing to donate a few hours to getting the message out.

Being on iTunes etc only works if people know what to look for so that's the key thing; you can be available to millions but if only visitors to two or three websites know about the song, only a small number of people stand the chance of buying the song so I would definitely look ahead to next year and getting maximum impact whilst doing what you can this time round.

cooky44

Thank you to all - excellent advice - We will try our best on this and then if we do not succeed for Xmas then we will try again after Xmas .

Cooky 44

ahai1

Good luck.

ThomasTanker

Try this website, it allows you to sell digital goods

https://www.payloadz.com/

cooky44

Thanks for all the advice - we are finally starting to get somwhere - the song is up http://www.intomusic.co.uk/PeterEdwards , Helpfor Heroes are getting it on their Website, the Welsh First Minister, Mr Rhodri Morgan, is endorsing this tommorow , we have an interview on http://garrisonfm.com/ being played as from monday next week , its on large Elvis forums, we have even been contacted from people as far afield as Spain, etc.
Once I have the official written wuote from Rhodri Morgan, I will be posting a new link on here regarding the download.

Thanks to all who have posted excellent advice to help the Charity.

Sharon

ahai1

Well done Sharon.