Selling Your Music

Top Five Websites for Streaming Your Music

By NationWide Source - Jan 24, 2014 Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Streaming music is becoming more and more popular. Fans love it, since they can listen to music when and where they want for free or practically nothing. Streaming companies love it, since they make money off of subscriptions, streams, and ad revenue. And many artists initially love it, thinking it increases their exposure and income. (This often isn’t the case; read this for more information.)

For those considering streaming music, we’ve assembled a list of five music streaming services and what it takes to get your music on each.

Spotify

Spotify is arguably the most popular service at this time. With its premium service, the website allows users to create playlists and save them offline, letting them listen to their music without wi-fi or cell service. The site also offers pre-made playlists and radio stations, and it suggests artists similar to those that users like. To use the service, artists must go through a third party. Visit this page to learn more.

Pandora

Pandora is a radio-based streaming service. They have heavily invested time and money on their Music Genome Project, which finds songs similar to each user’s musical tastes by analyzing every song for over 450 characteristics. Their instructions for music submission are pretty particular, though.

ReverbNation

ReverbNation is almost like a social media site that offers streaming. It allows you to put a plug-in/page on your Facebook page or website, which is a really useful tool. It’s very easy to sign up, and the basic profile is free, although upgraded accounts and additional services cost money.

Rdio

Update: Rdio is no longer available.

iTunes

To keep up with all the other streaming services, iTunes—the most popular service for purchasing and downloading tracks—recently released iTunes Radio. It works very similar to other radio-based streaming services; it takes note of what you listen to and plays similar music. Check out how to submit your music and more details here.

Signing Up

As an artist, you can sign up for some of these sites individually; there are also music distribution companies that can push your music to all of these services. Generally, the distributors collect your royalties from these services (taking their cut), but you keep 100% of the rights to the songs.

A Final Word

If you’re an artist considering music streaming, we encourage you to consider it carefully and proceed with caution. Unless the system changes drastically, streaming music is not a reliable source of income for artists, even with thousands of streams. Putting your music out there for free (or almost free) might seem like a great way to gain fans… but if you make everything free, those fans will never need to buy your music, thereby supporting you. And, most streaming services won’t provide you, the artist, with the data on who is actually streaming your music… which means you can’t contact or track those fans.

On the other hand, choosing to ignore streaming might be harder than you think, especially if you are trying to make it easier for fans to discover and access it. Your best bet as an artist is to strategically select a limited number of songs to stream, and keep the rest of your catalog available by album sale only (ideally through your own website and retail platform).

Have you made your music available on a streaming service? Why or why not? How did you choose which service to use?

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Can Affiliate Marketing Help Musicians Make More Money

By NationWide Source - Jan 22, 2014 Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Musicians are creative people. To be successful, though, they need to learn how to apply that creativity to the business side of their music. Blogs, forums, and podcasts can be a wealth of information and inspiration for those not inclined to understanding royalties, copyright law, or marketing strategies.

One creative business strategy available to musicians is affiliate marketing. Below, we’ll explain how it works and whether or not it’s a good idea for you.

Where to Sell Your Music

Companies such as iTunes and Amazon are big businesses, and their business is to sell product (like music). As large companies, they have the ability to reach large audiences. These large audiences might not know who you are, might not know your products are available, might not trust your small website, and might not care to visit dozens of independent musicians’ various websites to buy music… but making your product available on the larger site could remove some of those hurdles. In fact, the large companies are counting on it.

Your business is selling your music. You could sell your music on your own website, but the large audiences of the big businesses make it awfully tempting to sell your music on their sites instead. To tempt you further, the big businesses might offer an affiliate marketing program.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

Here’s how it works: instead of selling the music directly on your own website, you can link from your site to your music for sale on the large companies’ sites. When your fans click the link and buy the product on the large companies’ websites, the companies track that incoming link and give you a percentage of the sale on top of the income you’re already making from it being your music. The more people you refer to them for sales, the more money you make on your music… or so the large companies argue.

While it sounds like a great concept, a closer look suggests otherwise. The traffic you’re sending to the large company was already on your site or profile; they could have bought from you directly. By selling through a third party, you won’t make as much off of each sale as if you sold the music yourself. If you’re able to sell your music yourself and already have the fans on your site where your profit margin is higher, wouldn’t you want to capitalize on that opportunity? We’re not saying you should ignore the third party options altogether, but we are saying you should not send your fans there. (Read this for more.)

If, for some strange reason, you aren’t able to sell music on your site and you absolutely have to use a third party store, affiliate marketing can help boost your income (albeit minimally).

Where Can I Find Out More?

Retailers like Amazon and iTunes offer affiliate programs with varying profits for the seller.

Making money as a musician is tough; but with the right tools and knowledge of how to use them to your advantage, there are a lot of things you can do to make a little bit of extra money. It may start out as pennies, but as Ben Franklin said, “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” He may not have been in music marketing, but he was a smart guy, right?

Have you joined an affiliate marketing program? How did it work for you? Was it in addition to selling the music yourself, or did you only sell through the retailer?

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Five Websites for Selling Your Music Online

By NationWide Source - Jan 21, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

For better or worse, the music industry is not what it once was. For example, with the internet securely in their toolbox, independent artists no longer need to rely on major labels to get their music out to fans. If you’re in that position and are hoping to get your music up on retail sites, here are a few online music distribution channels:

Bandcamp

Unlike the below distributors, who connect artists to retailers, Bandcamp allows artists to become their own retailer. With a free account, Bandcamp users set up pre-orders, sell merch, and sell music in physical and digital format. Artists do pay 15 percent of music sales as royalties, although this drops to 10 percent once revenue exceeds $5000. On merchandise sales, artists only pay 10 percent as royalties. The site boasts expert mobile and search engine optimization. Bandcamp sends sales reports to Nielsen SoundScan, the company behind Billboard’s charts.

MondoTunes

MondoTunes claims over 750 retailers as partners. By choosing a basic sign-up package, artists pay one-time fees of $7.99 per single, $24.99 per EP, or $37.99 per album. Other services vary in price and include marketing, registering a label, mastering, etc. After partners deduct their respective shares, MondoTunes forwards the remaining royalties, approximately 63 percent of sales, to the artist.

CD Baby

With CD Baby’s Basic Album Signup, users pay $49.00 per album or $12.95 per single. The package includes physical distribution (vinyl or CD). There are a la carte options users can choose, with a separate charge for each. With CD Baby Pro, users can take advantage of ASCAP and BMI affiliation. There’s also a service that enables users to license their music through various channels.

TuneCore

Artists can gain exposure through Spotify, Google Play, and others. The service charges a one-time annual fee for a single, album, or ringtone, and the musician keeps 100 percent of all revenue. TuneCore also provides cover art, if needed.

SongCast

Users sell on a variety of digital platforms including iTunes, Google Play, and Rhapsody. SongCast offers Facebook and Twitter linking, access to iTunes trending reports, and an opportunity to promote through SongCast Radio, a Facebook app. The cost for listing music through SongCast is $5.99 per month, with $9.99 per single and $19.99 per album. Artists retain 100 percent of all royalties on digital sales, and 35 percent on CD sales through Amazon Disc-On-Demand.

Music distribution, especially with the ease of online distribution, affords the independent artist a way to provide their music to listeners. That is, after all, what a musician dreams about—being heard.

Have you used any of the above sites for music distribution? How did the experience work out for you? If there’s another site that you’ve used and would recommend, tell us about it.

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Finding Music Distributors

By NationWide Source - Jan 21, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

As a creative type, you might not have an innate aptitude for business. If you want to make it as a successful musician, though, you’ll need to be on top of the entire process, including business details.

One important business element that you should consider is music distribution. Do you know what do music distributors do? Or how you find one? Or what type of distribution best suits your sound? If not, read on:

Are You Ready?

If you are just starting to build a fan base and get your name out there, you might not be ready for a distributor. However, if you have an existing fan base and rising demand for your music and are wanting to branch out to an even wider audience, it’s time to consider music distribution.

Finding The Right Music Distributor

The job of a music distributor is to distribute your music (obviously). This can be as relatively basic as listing you online or getting you in a store, or it can be full service and include helping you with marketing, rights, and much more. If you’re wanting to get signed by a record label, a good distributor may be able to get your music in front of the right executives.

Think about where you want to be and what you need help with, and find a distributor with a proven track record in those areas. Ask bands a step ahead of you which distributors they’ve heard of, both good and bad things. Be sure that the distributor you select has your back and is worth any and every fee they will charge.

Music Distribution Options

The music business is at an interesting juncture, offering physical and digital distribution options. Many consumers still only purchase physical music (primarily CDs, though many bands still put out LPs), but digital music is very popular and still rising. Your best bet may be to pursue distribution for both options.

When you’re trying to find a music distribution channel, you may want to find one distributor who can do both ends for you. Distributors like The Orchard and Redeye are experienced in both physical and digital options. If you are looking for just digital music distribution, you might want to go with distributors like Ditto Music or Create Space.

Have you used a music distributor? Which one did you choose, and why did you choose that particular one? Did you focus on physical distribution, digital distribution, or both?

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The Why and How of Music Licensing

By NationWide Source - Jan 16, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Your first big check as an indie musician likely won’t come from a platinum debut album. If it does, congratulations! However, you can still experience the satisfying results of getting paid for your music if you license your music properly.

Many artists shy away from the music licensing issue; it may seem a bit complex, and honestly, you’d rather work on your next great hit than rustle through paperwork. Still, it’s worth learning more about the subject so you can protect your work and reap the benefits of licensing your music.

You technically own the copyright of a song as soon as you write down the lyrics and music and/or record the song. That said, the easy access enabled by modern technology makes registering your music critical. Doing so provides grounds for defending your copyright in court if someone uses your work without permission. Registering your music also ensures that you get paid for agreed uses of your song by any radio station, television commercial, independent movie, and so on.

You can license your music through the U.S. Copyright Office by opening an account with them on their website. You then fill out a Form CO and upload your music (thus submitting it to the Library of Congress), or you can opt to mail both portions in. It takes from six months to a year for your registration to be processed, but your license holds as soon as you submit the information.

Using a performing rights organization such as BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC to license music has become increasingly popular due to their ease of use and the opportunities they offer. These organizations also take an active stance in tracking down usage of your registered works to make sure that you get paid. ASCAP charges a one-time fee while BMI does not; SESAC does not charge any fees, but you can only join by invite. Research each of these companies thoroughly before signing up with one; you can only join one.

The powers that be are making the music licensing process easier than it was before. Now that you know the benefits, put this on your “to-do in the immediate future” list. If you already knew of the benefits, hopefully now you are persuaded to stop procrastinating and start getting your just dues for your hard work.

Click here to read more about licensing and royalties.

Have you licensed your music before? If so, is there insight on the process that you’d like to share with other artists? Do you use a performing rights organization? If so, which one? Are you waiting to license your music? If so, what’s holding you back?

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Copyright Your Music: The Why and How

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

So, you’d like to register your band’s songs as intellectual property? This is a good idea, especially if your songs are good enough that people might want to use (or steal) them. Copyrighting your music is a simple and effective process for protecting your babies.

Why Copyright Your Music?

The copyright on your music protects you if somebody steals your idea and passes it off as their own. Should this happen, it is your responsibility to file a law suit; you can use your copyright registration to prove that you are the intellectual owner of the music.

A Copyrighting Fairytale

There’s a fairytale about copyrighting that goes something like this: Mail a copy of the CD to yourself before it’s available to the public. Then, if copyright issues arise, you can in court submit the post office’s date stamp on the package as proof that you are the original creator… all for the cost of one stamp!

While this is certainly clever, it’s also flawed. Just because you mail something doesn’t make it yours, and it is possible that you switched the contents of the package at a later date. In short, this method is ineffective at protecting yourself. So, what can you do? Go through the official channel.

How to Copyright Music

The cost of copyrighting an entire CD through the U.S. Copyright Office is just $35 (if done electronically). Processing the copyright application online immediately creates a time stamp, and it is a faster method of registration.You can also submit your application through the mail, but you’ll have to scrape up another $30; physical applications cost $65. While this is more than the cost of a stamp, it’s still enough of a bargain that most musicians can afford to do it.

The good news is that you can copyrighting several songs in a submission, as long as they are being registered to the same individual or group of individuals. You can copyright songs individually (if you really want to, or if the members of your band want each song’s copyright registered to the individual who wrote it), but each submission costs $35. While the most cost-effective way of copyrighting music is to wait until you have several songs or a whole album ready to submit, doing so can leave your songs unprotected in the meantime.

The decisions about whether or not to copyright, and when to do so, are those you’ll have to make at some point in your music career.

Have you already done this? Did you copyright each song separately as they were ready, or did you copyright several at once? If you haven’t copyrighted your music, what is holding you back?

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Make Money Selling Your Music

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The music industry is changing quickly and unpredictably, which leaves musicians in a familiar situation: living paycheck to paycheck. Fortunately, in the age of the internet, there are many ways to make money from your music. Follow these tips to get started:

Book Live Performances

Although there’s no such thing as a steady income for a musician, getting a regular gig is the next best thing. Finding a bar, club, restaurant, or other venue that regularly advertises live music is a reliable and surprisingly-easy way to earn money and gain new fans. Develop a press kit and email it or, better yet, hand deliver it to different venues around town. Most venue owners are primarily looking for reliable musical talent that draws a crowd. Generally, the better you are at bringing and entertaining a crowd, the better you will be paid.

Go Online

Digital services like iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon (among hundreds of others) are the new-age record stores. iTunes alone has sold over 25 billion songs. These sites are where the ever-growing computer-savvy masses browse and purchase music. Submitting your music to the dozens of online music sales platforms individually can be time consuming, but distributors can help streamline the process. Also, selling music directly from your website usually results in a higher profit margin for you.

Sidenote: listing your music on these sites doesn’t guarantee sales; you still have to get fans there.

CDs Are Still Cool

Despite the increase in streaming and digital sales, people are still buying physical CDs. They, along with other merchandise (t-shirts, posters, CDs, vinyl records) sales, are popular souvenirs for concert-goers. So, take care of business onstage, then man the merch table after the show to network with fans and sell your music.

Music Licensing

Could you imagine your original song in a video game soundtrack? Do you have a piece that would fit into a film score or television commercial? You might consider licensing, then. Nearly every industry uses music, most frequently for marketing purposes. If you have specific uses in mind, find the “music supervisor” of the show or outlet and contact them directly. Or, reach out to local advertising firms or independent filmmakers. Have a stellar 30 seconds of your selected song ready to win them over.

Keep finding places to perform your music, and keep your online presence strong on sites like Facebook, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp. If your music is impressive enough, the money will follow.

The most effective method for making music will vary for each musician. Which method works best for you?

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Music and Royalties: What You Should Know

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

When Vanilla Ice ripped off the Queen/David Bowie classic “Under Pressure” for his 1990 single “Ice Ice Baby,” there was an outrage. Vanilla Ice tried to tell Queen and David Bowie that his bass line was a little bit different from theirs, but many—fellow musicians, fans, critics—disagreed. Fast forward to today, when thousands of musicians upload cover songs to YouTube. It seems that we’re constantly repeating Vanilla Ice’s mistake… but we really shouldn’t.

To avoid a similar debacle, you might want to brush up on your understanding of licensing and royalties.

Who Gets Royalties?

In terms of music licensing, the original creator is paid royalties by the person wanting to use the music. The price of using it can vary depending on the song, the creator, and the intended use.

Getting Permission

If you are considering sampling anyone else’s work, you are responsible for getting permission first. Don’t count on your lack of superstar status to protect you. If you don’t obtain permission, you can face serious trouble. There is nothing more devastating than pouring your time, money, and heart into a song only to find out that you can’t use it because you didn’t obtain permission first.

Ask the Right People

With remakes and cover versions floating around, be sure that you get permission from the original creator. Either search online or pull out the original recording’s CD/album and check the liner notes. Then, reach out to the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) or EMI. These are two principal players in music licensing, and most professional artists work with them. These groups can tell you what’s required to get the rights to sample, cover, or otherwise use this song.

Flipping the Tables

If you have original content, you have the option of licensing it for use and being paid royalties. There are hundreds of sites that can work with you on this. American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) or EMI are both great sites to start researching this process.

Now that you know more about music licensing and royalties, head out and make your music with confidence, knowing that you’ve taken the steps to protect yourself.

Have you licensed your music for others to use? How did the process go for you? Do you have advice for those considering licensing their music? On the other side, have you paid to use someone else’s work?

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