Revolver proudly announces Revolver Digital Store with Friend For Music

As part of Revolver’s longstanding commitment to music, we have always been at the forefront of new developments in the industry.

Be it Direct Metal Mastering and releasing music on the (then-new) CD format in the 1980s or our support of the first mass market music services in the early 2000s. Today, we continue to release CDs and make increasing amounts of our catalogue available for instant purchase or via one of the many streaming services, satisfying the shifting customer demand we have witnessed over the past decade.

Like many other indie labels, we have no illusions as to the state of the music industry – whilst revenues began to decline in the 1990s, that decline has no doubt been accelerated by the widespread availability of copyrighted music via the Internet. For all the inches of copy, coverage and layoffs in the “Big Four” labels, it has directly hurt independent labels to a far greater extent. And not only that, but artists have felt the pinch too – for labels releasing new material, it’s more important than ever to preserve the integrity of a release prior to its full release whilst still offering promotional copies to radio stations, journalists and selected individuals.

The ease of ripping, encoding and sharing digital music is a double-edged sword for music lovers. Releases that leak weeks or months in advance become trivial to duplicate and distribute. There has been limited success with individually identifiable promo CDRs, but what about people who buy a track and then seek to distribute it for free via the Internet? Up until now, there has been no cost-effective, simple way to identify these customers.

Revolver’s partnership with Friend for Music demonstrates previously unimaginable opportunities that can directly benefit independent labels alongside their artists.

The brand new Revolver Digital Store, operating on the Friend for Music platform allows labels to upload, automatically watermark (at their discretion) and then sell tracks in the industry-standard MP3 format directly from a completely customisable portal. Tracks are invisibly watermarked with a robust unique ID, allowing a label to simply and efficiently trace back any file found on a web site or P2P platform to the exact person who made the original purchase. For indie labels and artists, who can’t afford a court case to identify a potential filesharer, this is a real boon. The evidence is clear as day, with no ambiguity whatsoever… Any unwanted leaks can be eliminated once and for all.

For artists and labels, they can work together safe in the knowledge that where their work may once have leaked, wasting time, money and effort in prerelease promotion, they can be confident in the knowledge that unscrupulous people cannot take their hard work and share it for free any more. The end result? Artists and labels are fairly compensated, ensuring that there is money to reinvest into releasing more records! A true win-win situation.

• FFM offers us guaranteed traceability of unlicensed sharing, absolutely identifying the culprit if our artists’ music is leaked or shared.
  
• FFM offers our artists the opportunity reinforce their most loyal fanbase, guaranteeing that every copy of their music has been paid for. No need for stupid DRM restrictions on music, allowing enjoyment without limitations.
• FFM offers fans the ability to still enjoy MP3s of their music, with an absolute guarantee and proof of purchase. It removes the possibility for allegations of filesharing or piracy and if questioned they can prove their innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt with the very files they have purchased.

The only people who lose out? Those who don’t value quality music.

We at Revolver are very excited to be rolling out our new Revolver Digital store with Friend for Music as one of the first independent labels on the service. We’re actively increasing the catalogue available via our store on a daily basis so come back soon to find even more great music… With over a thousand releases from hundreds of artists you’re bound to find some music you love.