Costs?

This is where your money goes …

The Price of a Piece

When you buy a piece, the costs are divided as follows:

• Royalties — composers and lyricists receive up to 50% of the revenue.
• Variable Costs — includes printing costs, transaction fees, license-related fees on certain pieces, and other allocable costs.
• Fixed Costs — includes the costs for running this website, labor, software, debt, and other fees not allocable to each piece.
• Profit — anything left over goes to profit, which will never be more than 5%.

Shipping

We try to keep shipping down as much as possible, but as a small business, we must currently charge close to full price on shipping. As business picks up, we will be able to take “economy of scale” advantages and charge less. You will then see these costs decrease gradually. We currently ship only to the US, but will expand this to other countries by the end of 2023.

• Standard Shipping (US) — You will receive your music through Media Mail. We use a sturdy envelope to help prevent folding, which adds about 50 cents to the shipping cost. We usually ship the next day, and then you will receive the music up to a week later.
• US Priority Mail — This is a more expensive option that will get you the music faster. It likewise prevents folding. It will ship the next day, and then you will receive it in a couple of days.
• Free Shipping — those who subscribe can provide a code for free shipping on orders over $30.

Taxes

Because revenue for Melkim is still relatively small, we only collect taxes in our home state of North Carolina (which is required to do business). However, when we reach a certain threshold of annual revenue, we will be required to charge taxes from all 50 US states. Until that happens, those who live outside of NC can benefit now from tax-free transactions.