Why so hugely different prices for Bjorn Lynne music?

Today I received an email from a person who'd heard my music "Under the Sea" in a YouTube video and he had searched around a bit and found that this music track was available for about $8 (it's a whole single-track album of 60 minutes) from some places, but also available for $49.95 from another site. So he wrote to the "expensive" site (Shockwave-Sound.com) and asked why we were selling something for $49.95 when the same thing was available elsewhere for $8?

I found out about Bjorn Lynne's Under the Sea song via a video made of World of Warcraft (involving an underwater scene). I found it quite beautiful. The person that made the video told a commenter which song it was and linked here:

http://www.shockwave-sound.com/track_search.php?track=Under+the+Sea

Surprised at the $49.95 price tag for the 60 minute version, I did some searching and found the same 60 minute track on the composer's own website for only $8.00. Quite a price difference I just thought you'd like to know about the incredible price differential and how easy it was to find the $8.00 version:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q="Under+the+Sea"+bjorn+lynne
Thanks for reading.

My answer:

Thanks very much for your email. My name is Bjorn Lynne and I'm the composer of the music track you heard (and many others).

The difference in pricing is because of totally different rights you get with your purchase. To purchase the track just to listen to it, the price is around $8. It can be bought from my own personal website www.lynnemusic.com and other places like CDBaby, etc.

If you buy the track at Shockwave-Sound.com for $49.95 you get more than just the rights to listen to it. You get the rights to use this music in a public or commercial project. With this purchase, you don't just get the music download, you also get a License Document with your name and address on it, and this document shows that you have the rights to use this music within your own project, such as a film, Youtube film, DVD/game, broadcast, theater play, telephone on-hold music, etc. etc. (You can see all the rights you get, by looking at the License page at Shockwave-Sound) And you don't have to pay me (the composer) ANY royalties for this type of use. That's what you get for the one-time $49.95 purchase, and that's why we say that this site (Shockwave-Sound.com) is selling royalty-free music.

That's a huge difference from the $8.00 purchase which only gives you the rights to listen to the music on your personal music system.

- Bjorn

Scandinavian people love their holidays

Through my website www.Shockwave-Sound.com which sells music licenses for use of music in media projects, I'm able to see various "sales trends" throughout the year. I have customers from all over the world, including USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe/EU, and Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland) etc. etc.

One statistical phenomenon that really stands out to me is that during the summer period (say, late June until mid August), nearly ALL sales to Scandinavian customers dry up completely, whereas the sales to the rest of the world continues more or less as normal.

My typical customer is a person who works in an office, perhaps a small business. It would seem to me that whilst most of the world's offices continue more or less as per normal through the summer holiday period, Scandinavian people simply aren't working during the summer. To Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finnish people, holidays are sacred!

Personally I work straight through summer, but that's just one of the realities of being all alone in a one-man company in a hard marketplace. My business simply couldn't survive just shutting down for 2 months. If nothing else, they'd be nobody here to answer customer emails or do the accounting. That's clearly not acceptable.

I have to say that sometimes I envy people who just work 8-16 in an office and don't have any responsibility to the business as a whole (or even work in the public sector). They can take their 8 weeks of holiday and really relax without a worry in the world. And us (them) Scandinavians really know how to do that!

Have a great summer! :-)

My track "Mission Incredible" used in arcade dance game

Just some cool news, that my music track Mission Incredible has been used in the new hardware dance game "Pump It Up Pro 2" for arcade halls. (See picture). :-)

New track 'Spectral Waves'

Hi all,

Summer is here and I'm spending my time between working on my music licensing business, playing tennis, going on trips with my family, and working on some new music. Yesterday I finished a new track that I called "Spectral Waves". It can now be heard on my Facebook profile, under the "My Band" tab.



(For those who don't wish to use Facebook, the tracks can also be heard on my profile at ReverbNation.)

I'm pretty excited to be taking part in a real tennis tournament for the first time (it's about time, at the ripe age of 43!) :-) I'm going to play both in the singles 40+ and the in the doubles 40+ in Norway's largest tennis tournament, next week. I'll definitely get knocked out in the first round, but I'm thinking like this: HALF of all the players are knocked out in the first round. So there's no shame in that. :-).

That's all from me for now. I hope you'll like the new track "Spectral Waves". BTW, if you want to hear some other mixes/edits/versions of it (such as a "Minimalist Mix" etc. then you can hear those at http://www.shockwave-sound.com/track/7874