music, marketing, media, management, magic
music, marketing, media, management, magic
Traditionally, musicians made deals with their managers and publishers, who made deals with record companies, who made deals with record stores, who sold to the consumer. There was a plethora of middlemen, all taking their slice of the pie. The musicians wound up with a percentage of what was left over after everyone else had taken their cut - if there was anything left over.
We don't work that way.
We operate on what we call the art-gallery model. We don't buy and sell CDs (etc) - we sell on behalf of the owner of the product (usually the musicians themselves these days), and charge them commission on sales (and a very low rate of commission at that). As musicians ourselves, we're trying to put control back in the hands of the artists. Our success depends on having the same agenda as the musicians: i.e. to sell lots of CDs.
Buying from us is absolutely the best way of supporting artists. Compared to other online vendors, we are not always the cheapest - but the largest proportion of the sum you pay here is paid directly to the artist, by a very wide margin. By buying from us, you are effectively buying direct from the artist, with the absolute minimum of middlemen. We just provide the ordering/fulfilment service, to you and to the artists.
Our credit card payment system is provided by ePDQ (Barclaycard), and is handled entirely securely using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) pages - i.e. it's strongly encrypted. Your browser will (probably) alert you when you enter the secure site at ePDQ, and will (probably) show a closed padlock while within the site.
Furthermore, all credit card details are requested only on the ePDQ site - we don't see these, and we certainly don't store them. In the (extremely unlikely) event of our own systems being compromised, there would be nothing here for an Internet villain to use.
We take security very seriously. We run the most secure operating system available (OpenBSD), and employ a variety of measures, both on our servers and in our methods, to ensure that your transactions and your credit card data are safe.
We are PCI DSS compliant. Our compliance certificate may be viewed here.
When you place your order and have paid via ePDQ, we will send you a receipt immediately - this is an automated process. For this to work, it's important that you've provided your email address correctly. Please take care to do so.
In most cases, we hold stock, and process your order from order receipt to delivery. In a few cases, the artists do their own despatching - we pass the order across once received, and chase it to ensure you receive product without undue delay. In either case, fivetrees takes responsibility for the transaction - should there be any problem, it's us you can talk to. You don't have to go chasing.
We normally process orders within 24 hours of receipt of order. If we can't despatch within 7 days for whatever reason, we will contact you to offer you the option of cancellation (see below).
We despatch using 1st-class mail within the UK, and airmail abroad. We use only the best packaging materials.
Should you need to cancel an order or part of an order, please try to do so as soon as possible - ideally before we have shipped goods, or 7 days (whichever is latest). If we've already shipped, please try to return our package unopened. Failing that, please leave CDs/DVDs in their cellophane wrappers. We are unable to accept cancellations for CDs/DVDs which have been opened. (Note: some CDs/DVDs are provided to us without such wrappers. We are very understanding in such cases.)
Should you receive goods that are faulty in some way, please contact us. Very occasionally a certain CD or DVD is a bit fussy about the machine it's played on, and - very rarely - there may be a manufacturing defect. We have a no-quibble exchange policy in such cases.
In most cases, VAT (sales tax) is not chargeable on goods we despatch, since we are not the vendor, but purely the agent for the vendor. VAT is payable on shipping charges, though, since we supply this service. However the total cost you see at checkout time is the total cost you pay - all shipping charges and taxes are included.
Should you require a VAT receipt for your purchase (bearing in mind the above), please contact us. (A future version of this shop will provide this automatically, but we're not quite there yet.)
We operate in the UK; our prices are shown in pounds sterling (often shown as "£" or "GBP"). This is also the currency used when you pay by credit card. We strongly advise you to check your total cost with a currency conversion site - we cannot provide prices in non-UK currencies since they change constantly. Furthermore, if your card is not provided by a UK credit card company, please note that the company may add a commission charge for currency conversion.
We do not share our order and/or mailing list data with any third parties. Your order is seen by ourselves, the ePDQ payment system, and by the artist. If you've signed up to one of our mailing lists, we may occasionally contact you with news which we hope will interest you; but we will not bombard you with emails. If you wish to be removed from a mailing list, please contact us, and we'll comply immediately.
fivetrees ltd
33 Poplar Way
Midhurst
W. Sussex
GU29 9TB
United Kingdom
phone: +44 (0)(1730) 814091
mobile: +44 (0)(7899) 847346
email: sales@fivetrees.com
http://www.fivetrees.com
Registered Company No. 4905868
VAT No. GB 475 6373 14
