Sell Your Independent Music Online

There are a number of different approaches you can take to selling your music online as downloads on the internet. These can supplement the income of a musician. Apart from the obvious choices, there are other, potentially more attractive ideas being developed and evolved on the web.

The first traditional approach is to sign-up to a single website service who sell a artists music on their behalf and take a commission for each sale. They often hold the earnings for a period of time till they have reached a certain sales figure, before making payments.

One advantage is that they normally don't ask for any sign-up fees or monthly fees, so if the artist doesn't sell any music, they haven't lost any money. If they are smaller websites they may give you more promotion than the big boys.

The disadvantages are that the amount one can earn per track is a lot less than the retail price charged, because the service takes a percentage, the prices are often, but not always, charged at a fixed rate set by the web service. Also an artist won't get the money straight away and will invariably have to wait for sales to reach a certain figure before they get paid.

A more recent approach in the last few years is to use a digital distributor, who for a fee will place an artist's music in a number of large well known digital stores. This has the advantage of stocking music in all these stores in one fell swoop, placing music in all these services. The distributor will then collect all the money and from each service and make one single payment to the artist, normally each quarter.

The disadvantage is the artist has to wait many months after having paid, to get music on these services without any guarantees that they will sell anything. Also there is definitely no control over the price an artist's track is sold at, as this is totally dictated by the web services. Also again they have to wait for payments to be made, holding up cash flow whilst they wait. Again after commission the amount they earn is considerable less than via the diy method. iTunes is does have the advantage of hype and artist cling to the hope that if they're on there they will somehow sell music, many artists can't understand why once they're on a big music download service, they're not automatically selling loads of music.

With these big sites they are competing for attention with millions of other artists, the chances of casual browsers discovering and then buying their music is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It's only the known of artists with some promotional clout and a lot of backing from a label, who will get exposure and the vicious circle continues, even smaller independents have recently campaigned for equal exposure on these services, so as a totally independent artist the exposure is even worse and the odds stacked against them.

What invariable happens is the independent musician has to promote their own music or merchandise and send fans and customers to his or her page on these services, whilst the service gives the artist no exposure, unless by the sheer volume of sales the independent bands selling mp3s can buck the trend and rise in the charts, so listeners become aware of them.

Many artists have used PayPal to sell their own music CD's for this very same reason and been happy with the independence it brings and extra earnings it generates and the direct customer contact. The issue with selling digital music is it requires some quite sophisticated technology to deliver the music to the customer after the payment is made. This means delivering an instant download link once the payment is completed, which will expire, so people can't share the link, it means providing a dedicated fast download speed to the customer and also providing the customer with a password so they can download the file again if they loose it. For these reasons it's far most cost effective and convenient to use a specialist service.

Also the services often provide a music player so people can preview the music and also a mp3 music widget which can be placed anywhere to promote music with a link directly back to the artists sales page.

The only disadvantage I can think of is that if the artist's don't sell enough they won't cover the monthly fee, but with a 30 day free trial, there's no risk. If you're an independent musician, band or artist who's serious about selling your music online you've got nothing to lose from giving it a go.

Make Your Website Pay

Following on from a recent blog on establishing your bands website, it's now time  to get your music site rolling by understanding the machinations of your music website.


Let's say you are a great singer or you have a small band or even your own label. You have big ideas but only a tiny budget. Your father doesn't own a record company, like Sony BMG and your mother isn't a Hollywood actress like Nicole Kidman, so your network is confined to the local press writers and groupies.

Maybe you already have your own CD's and have made a few sales but you can't seem to find the time for promotion. The gigs you play bring in a little money but things don't seem to be getting anywhere. So how to progress?

One very realistic option is to exploit the potential of the internet with your band website. Of course, the internet has often been cited as the answer to everything, but in this case, it really can provide impressive results. And this is the key: it's a cheap and it's quick. It can even be free if your band is its embryonic phase.

The music industry is changing. We are in serious transition now. The discontent amongst music buyers has created a gap which the internet can adequately fill.

The internet music market is real. A survey by Georgia Tech found 41% of all internet users have purchased music from the web. Forrester predicted a market volume of $76 million USD for digital music downloads in 2003, rising to $541 million USD in 2005 and continuing to reach $2 billion USD in 2007.

The statistics suggest there is a genuine market for legal, modestly priced music.

The internet is a perfect platform for marketing your band website. Promotions, press releases and positioning are cheaper here than in the real world. Your audience is already here.

The internet's function as a communication medium gives you a direct line to your listeners, peers and even your critics. Email is the perfect mechanism for keeping in touch with fanclubs and sending newsletters and it's cheap.

That doesn't mean if you start a music website today and get busy selling music downloads online that you'll be able to give up the day job immediately! However, the internet can provide a lot of things you need to promote yourself as a musical artist.

This is what your music website will do for you:

1. Provide news to your fans when your latest CD is ready, read it here!

2. List gigs or concert dates (and any changes)

3. Sell your songs as music downloads to fans all over the world

4. Provide press information

5. Publish interviews, photos and biographies

6. Provide a communication center for dialogue with fans and other bands

7. Act as a "calling card" for getting new bookings or attracting the attention of major labels, getting contracts for incidental music etc.

A website can represent your music in multimedia, such as YouTube....much better than print or radio, and it is much cheaper than TV. And you can sell your songs as music downloads anywhere in the world!

mp3 downloads are emerging as a serious alternative to the CD. In an age where most modern kids burn their own CDs, it makes sense to adjust your strategy accordingly. Selling songs as moderately priced downloads means you have no production costs. You can even treat members of your band website with free mp3 downloads. It means you don't need a record deal and you are free to do what you want with your music. Package a CD cover along with the songs and your fans can burn the CDs themselves.

Buying mp3 downloads is potentially a more satisfying buying experience than traditional music shops. It provides instant satisfaction for consumers when they discover, download and play your songs immediately.

The internet is an amazingly flexible format. Theoretically, you could record a live show, encode and upload it later that evening so that the entire show would be available for sale the next day. Fans would love to have this as a reminder of a great concert. Better than a T-shirt!

Treat your music website seriously. Your music website is often the first port of call for people - fans, label managers and A&R to check you out. It makes good sense for you, as an unsigned artist to have one.

Internet Radio

The world is increasingly beginning to revolve around the power of the internet nowadays. It seems that people are always surfing the net for work, studies, information and even for their own entertainment; well, mostly for entertainment. For many years, the internet has been the medium for much music and video download, streaming and other forms of entertainment. One particular breakthrough is the development and popularity on the use of the internet radio. With its increasing popularity there came various radio music software sites that cater to such fun entertainment. With its improved features as compared from its traditional counterpart, the internet radio has taken the whole world by storm and is getting popular every minute. 

One of the greatest features of having this internet radio is its ability to broadcast data through the internet. This means that everyone in the whole wide world can access this new kind of radio and you are assured that the programs as well as the list of radio stations you are listening to are all automatically updated. The internet radio also has a large database giving users the ability to stream over 20,000 radio stations found in over 200 countries in the world. You’ll be presented a list of the top online music radio stations of the country you wish to listen music from. With so many countries as well as radio stations to choose from, you’ll never have to worry of boredom crawling in to your life ever again.

 

The internet radio also has an easy-to-use control panel wherein you can use to surf the endless lists of online music stations in all parts of the world. The control panel is created in a way that is easily understood by all. It is well organized too. For instance, some control panels have stations categorized by region or music genre so you’ll be able to locate your favorite radio station instantly. This is really convenient since the internet does have a large database, so by having specific areas or genre to choose from, you don’t have to search long for your preferred music radio station in the control panel. In addition to the well-organized control panel, you can also store favorite radio station as well as view your previously tuned-in radio station at the control panel. 

Lastly, the internet radio has been manipulated extensively by various users. Of

course, they do want to stay modernized; therefore, they always come up with new ideas and gadgets that can promote this well-rounded radio. One of these modernized gadgets is the use of USB devices in storing radio software. This USB radio software allows you to bring along your radio in a compact form anywhere you want to go. 

Truly the internet radio has served its purpose in giving quality entertainment to all nations. Being the latest version of the traditional radio, the internet radio has surpassed the boundaries of audio entertainment by catering its broadcasts to a global audience. This enables people to feel much closer to different cultures and traditions of other countries through the power of the internet.


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