Frequently Asked Questions

Are you a record company?

No, the American Independent Music family of sites is a distributor of CD-based and downloadable music from independent musicians.  We don’t have exclusive contracts with any of our artists.  We do, however, offer services to a select group of musicians to help them get their music onto CD and duplicated.  We also offer compilation CD’s, under our addiliated Shindig Records label, that include the works of selected musicians in order to promote their CD’s.

I know you have a secure website, but I prefer not to purchase with a credit card.  How else can I purchase your products?

Purchasing from our website is very secure.  We use the finest 128-bit, industry standard encryption for all of our transactions to ensure the security of your personal information.  If you still wish to order by mail, just email us at mailorder@americanindiemusic.com and let us know what you wish to purchase.  We will email you back with the exact amount to send, including shipping, handling and sales tax (if applicable).  Then, send your check or money order along with a copy of the email that we sent you to:

American Independent Music, Inc.
Mail Order Department
P.O. Box 355
Antioch, TN 37011

Your purchase will ship within 48 hours after payment is received.  If you’re purchasing downloads, once we receive your payment, we will email you an access code for you to go online and retrieve the downloadable files.    All downloads must be retrieved by 12:00 midnight Mountain Standard Time on the day following receipt of the email or the links will deactivate.

What is your shipping policy?

We generally ship by the U.S. Postal Service.  We’ve found that this is the least expensive way for us to ship to you and we want to save you money.  For example, a single CD from some other online sellers can cost more than $6.00 for shipping and handling by UPS Ground.  From American Independent Music, a typical single CD costs $3.79 for shipping and handling by First Class Mail. We give you the option of regular First Class, Priority Mail (2 Day) and Express Mail (Next Day).

All in-stock items are usually shipped within 24 hours except on weekends and holidays.  If an item is out of stock, it will usually be noted on the product page.  Sometimes, however, if we’ve just run out of an item it may not be noted and you may have purchased it.  In that case, we’ll make every effort to get more in-stock as soon as possible.  We’ll email you to let you know that the item is backordered and give you the opportunity for a refund, which we’ll gladly provide.  If you’ve ordered other in-stock merchandise, we’ll ship that to you immediately and ship the backordered product when it arrives at no extra cost to you.

Currently, our online system is only set up to ship to U.S. and Canadian customers.  Plans are underway to ship to other destinations in the near future.  International customers are always welcome to purchase downloads of both songs and entire CD's.  All payments must be made by credit card in U.S. currency.  If you're an international customer and want to purchase CD's, email us at sales@americanindiemusic.com and tell us what you wish to order and the address that you would like it shipped to.  We'll get back to you with a price including shipping.

What is a “Pre-Buy” item?

Sometimes, we may list an item as a “pre-buy”.  This means that we anticipate a new item in stock within a few weeks.  The approximate ship date will be listed on the item page.  If you purchase a “Pre-Buy” item, you agree to wait for the item to come into stock, at which time we’ll ship it to you using the method that you’ve chosen.  All “Pre-Buy” items will be charged at the time of purchase.

A CD that I'd like to buy has been "Out of Stock" for a while now.  What's the deal with that?

Occasionally, an artist will give us a CD to sell that is either out of print or they don't have enough left for us to stock it.  In this case, we'll list the CD and offer downloads of the individual songs or a download of the entire CD.  If the artist gets us more stock in the future, we will make the CD available for sale.  Feel free to email us at sales@americanindiemusic.com to check the status of any product.

What type of equipment do I need to download songs or CD’s?

If you have a computer and access to the Internet, you’ve got all you need!  All of our song files are sold in .MP3 format and are downloadable to your computer as such.  From there you can play them on your computer using any of the available computer-based players (RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, QuickTime, etc.)  You can get most of these players and plenty of others free on the Internet.  Once a song is on your computer, you can upload it to your portable player using the software included with the player.  Note, some players require the song file to be in a different format, but generally there’s conversion software included with the player’s software.

I lost my connection in the middle of a download.  What do I do?

Don’t worry.  We’ve got that covered.  Occasionally, you might lose your connection for any number of reasons.  Maybe your modem reset, maybe you lost power, maybe there was a problem on our end.  Or maybe you ordered from a computer that has a really, really slow connection and you want to download onto a computer that has a faster connection.  Every time you complete an order for a download, you can either download your songs immediately or use the access link that we will email to you to go online and retrieve the downloadable files.  All downloads must be retrieved by 12:00 midnight Mountain Standard Time on the day after purchase or the links will deactivate.

Is Nashville Independent Music a country music website?

While Nashville Independent Music features some of the best independent country music available, we encourage independent artists of all genres to submit material.  Our goal is to have the best country, Americana, rock, hip-hop, blues, jazz and any other type you can think of available on our site.  Even comedians and spoken-word artists are encouraged to join.  The key word is quality.

I’d like to sell my music on American Independent Music sites.  How can I do that?

The American Independent Music family of websites features some of the best unsigned, independent music available in all genres.  We feature #1 songwriters performing their own songs and artists on their way up.  We welcome submissions from any type of artist from anywhere in the country.  Click here or on the “For Artists Only” link above for more information.

Why are some songs downloadable and others aren’t?

Every time you download a song, a royalty is paid to the songwriter or publisher.  This is called a mechanical royalty and it’s a standard, government-stipulated amount.  If you buy a CD, that mechanical royalty is paid by the artist or record company before they duplicate the CD’s, so we have no part in its payment.  But, for downloads initiated from our website, the responsibility is ours and the artist's to pay the mechanical royalty directly to the songwriter or publisher or to an agency that contracts with certain publishers to collect the royalty amounts.  Therefore, if we are not able to locate the songwriter or publisher or if we have a problem contracting with them, then, so as not to violate the law, we will simply make the song unavailable for download.  You'll  also notice this with some compilation albums.  We'll only allow download of material from artists signed to an American Independent Music site, so some songs on the compilation will be available for download and some may not.  In either case, you're still welcome, of course, to purchase the song on a CD.

Some CD’s come in jewel cases and others don’t.  Why is that?

Every product on our verious American Independent Music sites has been produced by an independent artist who has complete control over music content, artwork and packaging.  As a result, the CD’s come with a variety of different packaging and artwork.  Our music evaluators only focus on the quality of the music.  So, while most CD’s will come in traditional jewel case packaging, some of will arrive in non-standard packaging such as slim-line cases or even a paper sleeve.  CD's may range from professionally-manufactured to computer-duplicated CD-R's.  This in no way means that you’ve been shortchanged on the product.  Remember, it’s the music that counts and the artists on American Independent Music are some of the best artists and songwriters that the country has to offer.

Why are some songs available for download but not on a CD?

Independent artists, particularly songwriters, write and record many songs that don’t make it onto a CD.  Some have never even produced a CD.  However, they play their songs at local writers' nights and other performance venues and perhaps some of their songs have even been recorded by a “name” act and you’ve heard it on the radio done by someone else.  The American Independent Music family of websites is one of the few online services making these songs available as download-only products without the artist having a CD.  That offers a particularly valuable service to the artist / songwriter as well as allows the fans to own a copy of a song that they’ve heard and like but can’t get on a CD.

What is your return policy?

At American Independent Music we stand behind the quality of every product that we sell.  If you receive an item that is defective, damaged or incorrect please notify us by email at returns@americanindiemusic.com.  Specify your order number, the item to be returned and the reason for return.  We will email you a return authorization number (RAN).  Write this number on the original box and return it to:

American Independent Music, Inc.
Returns Department
P.O. Box 355
Antioch, TN 37011

Upon receipt, we will immediately ship a replacement.

If only the jewel case arrives damaged (and the CD is ok), email us at returns@americanindiemusic and let us know.  Include the name of the CD that was damaged and your order number.  We will immediately send you a free replacement jewel case.

Under no circumstances will we make refunds for downloads.  If there is a problem with receiving a download, we will make every effort to make sure that you get your purchased download.  Remember, that download links are only active for 24 hours following purchase.  After that time, American Independent Music holds no responsibility for providing you with replacement files.

I see that you have banner ads.  How do I get one?

Banner ads are available to all national, regional and local businesses.  They display on a rotating basis on practically every page throughout the entire website with a frequency based upon the number of ads that we have in rotation at a certain time.  Click here to get more information, pricing and to purchase banner advertising on an American Independent Music site.

I keep seeing the name American Independent Music, but I'm on a site with a different name.  What's that all about?

American Independent Music, Inc. is the parent company of the website that you're on.  We started with our Nashville site in early 2006 and are in the process of linking our Nashville site to other “Independent Music” locations around the country.  A total of sixteen locations are planned by some time in 2008.  We've already opened New York, California and the Southern and Heartland regions with Chicago, Texas and Canada to follow shortly.  Each location will highlight its own local sights and sounds and their own home-grown roster of artists without any one location becoming too large or unwieldy for easy use.  Of course, from any location, you will always be able to search through our full national roster of artists and songwriters or search by music genre and see all of the CD’s of one music type from all over the country.  Check back on this site or, better yet, join our mailing list and we’ll keep you updated by email as we add new locations.