crunkbox is a service for independent artists.content is king.
Music and the articles are the content of this website.


The project is open to authors, photo/videographers, editors and schedule coordinators.
We are always looking to build relationships with these skilled people.


Many of us are in Austin, TX.
We also currently have coverage in CO, FL, PA.

The document below discusses writing assignments and some financial topics.

http://www.crunkbox.com/articles/authors/register is a registration page I have open while we are seeking candidates.

Submitting a story is the application process.


Convey to us your style with your articles.
Let us get to know you. So that we can assign accurately.
Music is an overall topic.
Reviews can be broken down into :
    Shows
    Bands
    Albums
    Venues
    Experiences
    etc, etc

Interviews are fantastic.
Crunkbox can provide you a photographer in most instances.
Pictures blow up an article.

How about informational stuff that an indie artist could benefit from reading.
From personal editorial to technical how-to stuff.

Read on, read on..


Articles

We need people to go to shows. Simple and plain.
Go to the show, take pictures, talk to people, gather an opinion.
Then come back and document the experience.
When available you will be paired with a photographer.
When not available - taking pictures is still a good idea.

Band and music reviews.
Artists read reviews like bankers read the Wall Street Journal.
Particularly when it's a review of their work.
Good reviews become ammunition in a young artists portfolio.
Even though reviews are relatively short - an author can really define a perspective to the reader.
Also a clever author can basically review anything.

Industry Advice.
Tips, information, facts, advice even.
Words on the screen that help artists learn the industry.
This is an interesting example of where reprinting some else's work (with permission) could be a great idea.
Reprinting is more of a director responsibility than a contributor. And this site needs both.

Topic Stories.
Perhaps an author has a passion for technology, music and writing.
And therefore wishes to express his opinion or commentary on the ramifications of file sharing.
There is a home for such documents in this news system.
What is the author passionate about? How can we support it?
Ultimately it our goal to get crunk off creativity.

Blogs

In some cases an author may prefer a re-occurring column that pursues a perpetual topic or character.
A weekly guitar lesson.
A bi-monthly review of punk rock in salt lake city.
Daily coverage of my life on the road with twisted sister.
That sort of thing.
Such would be a blog.
Call it a column call it a blog - just don't call me late for dinner.

RSS Feeds

RSS is a technique of syndicating stories.
Crunkbox is fully equipped for moving stories both in and out.
Therefore if you currently blog or write online and wish to expand your domain a bit.
I would be happy to set it up with you.


okay some financial explaining.

Adsense

We offer 100% of all ad revenue that author generates.
We allow you to run google ads on your articles and ALL profits generated by your articles go directly into your google adsense account. We don't touch it.
We dare you to find another commercial website with an offer that generous and simple.
Here is why we do it...
Adsense doesn't pay much.
The value of a google ad is directly related to traffic volume of a website.
Therefore if crunkbox as a whole sees 10k hits a month the ad may be worth a couple hundred bucks a month.
However, if it enters the numbers of a top 200 site now that little ad can generate a thousand bucks a week.
So in a way this setup makes authors stakeholders in the website itself.
We could have done 50% or 75%, but this way the adsense id belongs to you - any monkey business (like self clicking the ad) will go on you. Making it 100% aligns with our strategy of being straight up with everybody.
Plus we are going to run our own ads other places!
And we will put advertisements for bands on your articles!
Your contributions will help expose indie artists.

Salary

Consideration for full time salary positions including stock options will be discussed in private.
By that time the candidate and owners of crunkbox should have a relationship and can hash it out over the telephone.

Ecommerce

Crunkbox is a platform designed to sell stuff.
You know how some artists go out and pay six bucks a pop for their demo cd?
That's a rip-off. A more reasonable price is two to three bucks which we can produce professional duplicates in real time for these artists. So that's good. But the market is thick with cd duplication shops. Also I am web designer.
Therefore the only logical solution is to provide a storefront and the power of a music portal to try and actually move that merchandise. Those artists that go out and buy 100 copies of their cd and then just fade away..We are trying to get them over the hump into working musicians. And for the working musicians we are providing online solutions to make life easier for them. You may check out the artist article to learn more about this.

Agents

This is related to the ecommerce.
There is another crunkbox member type called agents.
Agents have the ability to promote the artist and resell the merchandise.
Here is where we get off the beaten path..
If a cd unit costs three dollars pressed, packaged and shipped (we are trying to figure out how to make it two).
Sells for 12 dollars.. There is a nine dollar profit.
The crunkbox system divides that profit between the agent and the artist.
To state another way.. The artist can buy and sell their merch business as usual with no idea that other people are out there pushing their cds in other markets. At least until they get the checks. We split the profit between them. Even steven.
If the artist originates the sale then the artist recieves both the agent and artist cuts.
Crunkbox takes only cents off the unit aka the slim profit margin of a duplication shop.

Other Revenues

Okay based on that profit margin with labor of distribution etc it would be impossible to support an enterprise level website. Much less journalists, studio time, touring costs and the growth that an online business requires to survive.
Crunkbox takes in revenue from three additional sources.

Crunkbox acts as an agent. Therefore sales generated online with no referral code not originated from the artist or agent - defaults back to the website. We feel this system is diplomatic and fair.

Also crunkbox once it it is rolling will charge a symbolic membership fee for a premium artist account.
We will charge less than a dating website membership but just enough to only attract serious musicians.
It does not help anyone to fill the site with bogus accounts (ala myspace).
A paltry membership fee is a barrier between the hordes of casual profile makers and serious musicians determined to advance a career. Also that's a steady profit stream. The kind that pays for accountants and shipping managers..
We did the numbers and yes it's annoying, but nessecary to make this crazy bird fly.
Seriously it will be around the cost of 2 packs of ciggarettes a month. Less if you're in canada where cigg prices are outrageous. None of that however is scheduled to go live until we have a respectable service that these artists benefit from.

Finally - someday, yes we will advertise stuff.



A couple other points

For Austin folks I would like to organize the occassional meet-ups.
We can discuss music and the internet etc. Consider it foreshadowing of staff meetings.
Also we have plans and the talent to begin sponsoring or hosting music events.
It's just a matter of getting some of this tech stuff off the table.

Speaking of tech..
None of the ecommerce stuff is active.
The reason is we are in bug fix and feature request mode right now.
We brought our venues directory online first and tested it thouroughly.
Next came the 100 artists currently in the music section itself.
Now we are activating the news and article management systems as you probably guessed.
I need to be sure this system is going to run strong and secure before anyone starts opening their wallets.

Also we need to be prepared for the potential explosion in traffic.
So far the site has laid low key only attracting members through myspace basically.
Once ecommerce goes live, we have a marketing budget earmarked to start getting our name out there.
Preparation is an obvious ingredient for success.

One more topic worth mention is using this website.
Our content management system is fairly feature rich.
You can link articles, setup multiple pages, there is a nifty wysiwyg (that I am using right now) with everything from spell checker and embed media to edit html source. There is some learning curve but we are here to help.
Suffice to say - after a few uses it becomes easy.

So that is about it that I can think of right now.
Please feel free to either post comments below or email/call me directly.
And if you read this whole thing, hey thanks!


The internet can be your big voice - if you choose to use it.

The crunkbox myspace page is:
www.myspace.com/crunkbox_dotcom
If you want to friend up with us there.