By Russ Suereth
This week’s article is a discussion about online music distribution.
There are dozens of ways to distribute your music
online. The tough part is figuring out
which is the best one for you.
Your music can be sold online a number of ways including
your own website, Facebook, online radio, satellite radio, terrestrial radio,
and online stores like iTunes, Amazon, or CD Baby.
Two of the main companies out there for music distribution
are TuneCore and CD Baby. These two
basically have the same features. The main difference seems to be that TuneCore
has a yearly fee, and CD Baby takes a small percentage of your sales. Some
people will argue that they are very different but I don’t see that.
I used TuneCore on my first EP, and now I’m using CD Baby on
my new CD. I changed just to try out CD
Baby, and they both seem the same to me.
Although I do like the CD Baby player that I can put on my web site, I
would definitely recommend either one of these two distributors.
I’ve also had my music played on college radio stations,
though I never really felt that it allows me to establish a connection with my
listeners. I always felt that my music
went into a black void.
I also have used Radio Airplay quite a bit, but I don’t any
longer. I started using it because it
looked like I could connect to listeners who liked my music. Radio Airplay does allow you to know who
liked your songs. But your communication
back to them, even something simple like, “Thanks for listening,” goes to an
area of Airplay that users never pay attention to.
So that takes me to my website, where at least I can set up
a newsletter or some form of communication with listeners who want to provide
their email address. And that’s a topic
for another day. Actually it’s several
topics because there’s a lot to discuss.