Still have questions or concerns?

About Music Sumo

Music Sumo is run by Recast Records, an independent record, management, booking, marketing, and promotions company that is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Music Sumo is operated by myself, John Brown. I have a degree from Berklee College of Music in Music Business / Entrepreneurship. While in school I was an intern at Heavy Rotation Records where I gained experience in many aspects of the music industry including artist management, promotion, publishing, and web design / maintenance.

After returning home to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002, I decided to try and develop a way for local independent artists and Berklee Alumni to be heard by larger audiences. While finalizing my business plans for Recast Records, I furthered my experience in promotion, marketing, licensing, retail merchandising, customer service, and accounting while working for Bill Graham Presents / Clear Channel Entertainment, Cinder Block Merchandise, MP34U.com, and Rasputin Records.

Now, I have launched Music Sumo, an online independent music webstore! Music Sumo is aimed at assisting independent artists in further promoting their careers through distribution, marketing, and promotion on the internet. You are now able to sell your CD's online, read reviews about your music, advertise upcoming shows and releases, and be featured on Music Sumo's regular Podcast, which is on Apple's iTunes.

Buying music at Music Sumo

Listening to sound clips:

• If you click on a song title that is blue it will open a two minute clip of that song in .mp3 (128k) format, which should be able to play on all computers.

Money-back guarantee:

• If you do not like a CD, or it is damaged, just return it to us within 14 days of it being shipped and we will give you your money back.
  
  
• We do not refund your postage, so the cheapest way to get a CD back to us is to just write "RETURN TO SENDER" on the original package, seal it, and drop it in the mail. It will not cost you anything!

Payment options:

• Credit Cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and Diner's.
  
  
• Other: PayPal, check, money order, cash, other...?

Privacy Policy and security:

• We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone.
  
  
• We do provide the musician/vendor whose CD you bought your name and contact information so that they may add you to their fan club list.
  
  
• If you do not even want the musician/vendor to know about you please indicate so under "Special Instructions" while checking out of the store.
  
  
• For more information go here.

Delivery details:

• You choose your delivery options at the time of checkout.
  
  
• In the USA, if you choose to have your CD delivered first class, it should arrive in about 3 - 5 days.
  
  
• Outside the USA, if you choose Global Priority Mail, it will probably take about 5 - 6 days. However, sometimes it can be as fast as 2 days!
  
  
• If your order has not arrived within a week, please feel free to contact us and we will work with you to figure out what happened.

Sell your music online at Music Sumo!

What we will do for you:

• We will create a web page for you to showcase your CD at Music Sumo on our upcoming website so that you can sell your music.
  
  
• We will list your CD in our galleries and search engines at Music Sumo so that people can find your music easier.
  
  
• We will take all online orders for your CD and ship them directly to your fans.
  
  
• When someone buys your CD we will e-mail you their contact information so that you may add them to your fan club list (unless they specify to not have us do so).
  


• If you would like we will add you to our rotation of artists featured on our biweekly Podcast.

All that you have to do:

• Fill out our submission form so we know who you are and how you would like your album described.
  
  
• Mail us just five (5) CD's to start. You do not need a UPC barcode to sell your CD at Music Sumo, and you do not need your CD's shrinkwrapped. You can also sell CD-R's at Music Sumo, but make sure they look good please!
  
  
• Send us $25 as a one-time, nonrefundable charge to process and enter your CD into our store. This charge will soon raise to over $30. So, if you sign-up now you can save over 20% in sign-up charges!!

How the money gets worked out:

• You set your CD selling price at whatever you want.
  
  
• Music Sumo keeps $4 per CD sold, unless your CD price is $5 or less. Then, we only keep $2.
  
  
• You set your pay point, and we will pay checks to you as your CD sells and your balance with us exceeds your set pay point.

More things that you might like to know:

• One great thing about Music Sumo is that in a regular record or distribution deal, musicians only make about $1 - $2 per CD sold, but when an independent artist sells through us they can make around $6 - $12 or more per CD sold.
  
  
• We open the very first CD you send us so that we may scan the cover and digitize any free singles that you may want to include on your web page to further promote your CD. By doing this you will not have to upload or transfer anything to us, so there is less work for you.
  
  
• We reserve the right to place your CD's on sale at any time, for any reason. However, this sale price will be taken out of Music Sumo's earnings and will in no way affect the artists' royalties with Music Sumo unless previously agreed upon by the artist.
  
  
• You can choose to take your CD's back at any time.
  
  
• This is a totally non-exclusive deal. There are no contracts to sign.

Still have questions or concerns?

• Just e-mail us at info@musicsumo.com or call us at (510) 931-5171 10am - 4pm PST. There is usually someone in the office. If not, we will get back to you as soon as possible!



• Reach us for free via Skype. Currently the Music Sumo status is:
  
  
• If you are ready to start selling your CD then just fill out our submission form with five (5) CD's and the one-time sign-up charge. We look forward to working for you.