Recently I attended a festival that is completely free for the public. They bring in bands from all over the state and usually one who is nationally known. This year a big radio sponsor was not involved, they were the ones who brought the big talent so to speak. As I ventured around the festival I noticed a few other things lacking from previous years, and thats when the rumors started popping up about the corrupt festival director who was double dipping and knew she was resigning so she sabotaged the whole festival. Guess what, rumors can be complete lies, in this case they were true so listen to what your fellow bands have to say about a venue, promoter or festival. They are going to give you some of the best advice, but make sure to ask questions, don't just let your friends vent, they could be venting about an issue they actually caused.
Tip #1:
Never pay to play. This goes for buying tickets up front and getting reimbursed. Pay for gas, and equipment just never pay a promotor to play a show. Many nation wide promotions companies make deals with big venues to book their small concert halls during slow days. They charge bands to play or charge them for tickets up front then give them a dollar per ten dollar ticket they sell. You do the math on that, after gas, drinks, food, etc., are you making money or did you just pay to play to a room full of only your fans because the other band couldn't sell any tickets.
Tip #2:
Going back to my intro, some venues and festivals get a reputation for being shady or corrupt or just doing a horrible marketing job. If last years festival had a bad turn out for a national act, we are talking number one song on the radio and only a hundred people half of who don't know the band standing there and watching. Do you want to play if the same people are doing the marketing for it? What if they offer you a slot at 11am when your band caters to a drinking audience that is still at work at 11am on a Friday. If you can justify playing to a small audience who statistically will have no interest in your music, go for it, otherwise negotiate with the event coordinator to find a more fitting spot for you.
Tip #3:
Last minute gigs can be great opportunities but if your band is at the level of requiring a paycheck for every gig ask questions first. I always say, take every gig you are offered as long as it is legit but make sure you aren't going to hurt your reputation with a new venue by taking the gig. Some venues have built in crowds some don't, if the venue expects you to bring a crowd it could be hard for you to rally your fans at the last minute to attend. Some venue owners only look at the sales numbers and not the situation you were put in. Be up front a voice any potential concerns you have with attendance, be proactive and book a follow up gig with them for doing them a favor. That way you can make sure to have an opportunity to show them what you can really do with time on your side.
Be wise with every gig you book, ask questions. There are tons of middle men out there trying to make a dollar off bands. The more you know the less likely you are to work hard for nothing or be put in awkward situations.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Analyzing Your Bands Potential For Profit
Last blog we discussed how to get funding for your band in the form of a business plan. We discussed little pet peeves investors have with business plans, and what you can do to get yours read.
In season 3 of Shark Tank, a band called Cab 20 and their manager did just what the last blog discussed, they asked the investors for money.
In season 3 of Shark Tank, a band called Cab 20 and their manager did just what the last blog discussed, they asked the investors for money.
The manager starts out his business plan pitch with a short introduction of the band and then presented the product--the band playing. Unfortunately the manager was not a cut throat aggressive business man and the sharks picked up on that, some dropping out because of him. Kevin O'leary, the shark mentioned in last blog, did step up to the plate and made an offer for 50% of the band for the $200,000 they were asking for despite him describing the music industry as"The crap shoot who the hell knows business". The band smartly declined.
What we've learned from researching investors and watching countless episodes of Shark Tank is that it is all about the money, especially when pitching to Kevin O'Leary. The manger discussed what the investors would get out of the deal which would be 20% of all revenue streams except publishing for $200,000. The manager never discussed the sales and financials the band was making. There were no talks about recent tours, number of albums sold, what makes them unique in the industry that would allow them to sell thousands of records.
The most important piece of your business plan is going to be the financial statements showing how you intend to make money. Had the manager showed that in the six months he had been working with the band, show sizes had doubled, sales were up 80% and their YouTube videos were monetized and getting thousands of hits, Kevin O'Leary may have jumped on this band for a negotiable percentage of the band that they all could of agreed to. O'Leary thought it would be cool to have a band in his portfolio, had he seen the potential for profit spelled out to him in his language of dollars and cents, he may have offered more money to the band and taken the deal at a lower percentage of control.
One thing you can learn from researching investors is what to change in your own business plans. Prior to doing research on O'Leary, my plan was filled with ideas of money isn't everything and it is all about the music and the community. Hugs and kisses do not get financial backing, numbers and percentages do. Scatter your mission statement throughout as a binding agent that makes it uniform but discuss profit potential or loss prevention.
A band is a unique business, but you still need to analyze your bands potential for profit. Keep track of how many people come to your shows, Reverbnation has a tool to keep track of your concert history, how many attended who you played with and an assortment of other details. Always track merch sales, and how much venues are paying you. These numbers help determine bands worth to an investor. Having this value could just seal the deal with a huge investor like Kevin O'Leary or land you a record deal with one of the big boys.
Side Note to Bands: Do NOT try and replicate Cab20's website, this is a horrible example of how to present your band to the Internet world. Auto playing music is one of the must annoying widgets a viewer has to endure. An About tab should discuss the band as a whole, not as individuals. There should be more color and pictures than texts that is plain and seemingly goes on and on. Show where your band is from geographically or where you will be right away so viewers know right away if they can make it to a live show, because live music is the money money maker these days. A website sells your band to fans, venues, and investors. With tools discussed in previous blogs you can produce a quality website with little to no web design experience.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Funding Your Music
We all know the saying, it takes money to make money, and sometimes it is true. Every business has start up costs, be it for overhead costs such as rent, insurance, or inventory. A band has the same hurdles to overcome, merchandise, instruments and parts, and travel expenses. For most of it the band pools together money or saves up money from gigs, but what about bigger purchases. What if your band was offered an opening slot on a world tour but pay was not given till after the first show...overseas. Or your band wants to record a ten track album at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, but you only saved up enough for a bathroom recording by your wanna be engineer friend. These are times when you may want to look for an investor.
Investors come in many types with much small print to understand but when it comes down to it, besides a family or friend, they will require a business plan to even consider loaning you money. The Music Industry is a very risky business for an investor and a business plan lays out all the elements of your band. From your mission statement to your sales figures and projections. Before putting in even a few thousand dollars into a project an investor basically wants to know his odds of recouping his money and the potentially return on his investment. Is it a simple loan with interest or is he getting a portion of you business in return for his money. How long is it going to take for the money to be returned and does he have a say in how your business is run after the investment.
Some bands who are established are able to go to a bank and get a loan, these are generally ones who have established a bank account in the bands name, have a good paper trail of income and can prove it can be repaid in a given period of time. More than likely this will not be the case so you are going to want to turn to professional investor capitalists who will demand a well thought out business plan.
Mark Zwilling is a contributing writer for Forbes. He specializes in content to help entrepreneurs be more successful in a competitive world In a recent article Top Ten Investor Turnoffs Around Business Plans, Zwilling walks us through the worst things to do or send to an investment firm. As stated, the Music Industry is a hard sell to any investor which is why I believe Zwilling's second tip is the most important for a band.
"Send the plan without a summary. An Executive Summary is a one page elevator pitch of the whole plan (may be separate from the plan), which gives an investor a net perspective on the key business parameters. Too many plans don’t have a summary section, or the summary is all you get. You lose in either case.?" (Forbes, 2011)
Zwilling also talks about how not showing the financials can lead to an immediate no, and how bugging the investor will lead to him probably not reading it. Some investment capitalist are obligated to review your business plan, well maybe on four of them. The show Shark Tank on ABC has a line up of investors who hear your business plan in a verbal and visual pitch. The business owners start out with an executive summary that hooks in the investors with the plans benefits and a summary of the companies sales and value. Then they ask for an investment for a percentage of their company. Kevin O'Leary is one of those investors and is known for being a little bit of a hardball player.
O'Leary sold his software company for billions of dollars and since has invested in hundreds of companies and products. He has no problem putting owners in their place when they have a stupid idea or are over estimating the value of their company. One of his questions always will revolve around the price point and the size of the market. In his blog on his website he listed Five Business Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs, one of the lessons was to know what your audience wants.
"Business is fundamentally about creating things that people want. But to do that, you have to know your customers inside and out. Do they want simplicity? Lower pricing? A better experience? More convenience? The answer is different for every business, but every business has to know the right answer for itself." (O'Leary, 2011)
As a band your product is generally music or merchandise, but you still need to know what they want. In a previous blog I talked about creating the correct merchandise for your audience and knowing how to price it as well. Take those tips when developing a business plan and the words of wisdom O'Leary has to offer. For someone like O'Leary, funding your music isn't about if it is good or not, its about the money. Can you get your audience to pay ten dollars for a CD rather than just seven, can you make those CDs more cost effective. Do you have the ability to expand to other geographical markets and there for raise your potential for profit. The market analysis portion of your business plan will need to include information like this. Luckily this is not hard to do, Facebook Insights and Google Analytics help track geographic information of who is checking out your band. Keeping a tour history that includes turn outs at each venue is also helpful. Back Zwilling's list of things not to do is to say "see attachment" throughout your business plan. Include the basic info but go ahead say see attachments for the break down of markets. Again, funding your music is going to be more difficult than any other business, do what is necessary and include the selling points to help make an investor feel confident in what they may be giving a large chunk of money to.
A final comment is to play off an investors likes, research each investor to know these things. For instance O'Leary calls him self an eco-investor, meaning he loves going green products. So for him maybe push your ideas to tour eco-friendly, and produce recycled CDs, or how you rigged your equipment to run off a bicycle generator your road hands power. A business plan that has a hook is going to make you unique from other businesses looking for an investor.
References
O'Leary, K. 2011. Huffington Post. Five Business Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs. Retrieved
from: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/kevin-oleary/steve-jobs-business-lessons_b_1001669.html
O'Leary, K. 2011. Kevin-Oleary.com. Five Business Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs. Retrieved
from: http://kevin-oleary.com/posts/mentor/five-business-lessons-from-steve-jobs/
Zwilling, M. 2012. Forbes. Top Ten Investor Turnoffs Around Business Plans. Retrieved from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2011/02/04/ten-top-investor-turnoffs-around-business-
plans/
Sunday, April 22, 2012
How to Get More Likes
Every band, company, and organization out there asks themselves how to get more likes on their Facebook pages, blogs and other social media outlets. The answer varies from spamming current followers to spread the word, to adding tags and keywords that will attract everyone, despite not having the content they are looking for. Be ethical in your attempts, provide relevant content and push it to an audience you think will truly enjoy it.
For a band you will want all your fans to follow all your outlets and that can be done by giving previews of special content from all your sources. Leave a link and a few lines from a new blog, on your Facebook. Or direct blog followers to a video only hosted on Facebook fans only page. Be creative in pushing people to other sites and then pulling them into a committed relationship such as pressig the like or follow button. Make sure you offer ways for them to share or easy buttons to other sites. For instance you can use a Twitter button on your blog that will automatically Tweet a link to your blog to that persons followers. It is easy to install just by going to here. You can do the same things with Facebook buttons and other social media sites. Having these follow buttons available makes it as simple as a click to become a follower on other sites. It takes five minutes to add to your blog and can result in hundreds of effortless new followers.
As a new band you will have a lot of people searching for you the first time on a site like Google. You want to make sure to use keywords effectively so that all of your sites show up on that first page. What are Keywords? Good question, without giving a detailed speech that goes into SEO marketing, keywords are simply a phrase people plug into Google to find webpages with relevant information. So for your band you'll want to use your band name but maybe something extra to draw in people looking for live music in the area which I will go into a little further in a minute.
Everyone has their preferred type of resource site, some use Facebook, others websites, and some like Blogs or profile pages on Reverbnation or videos on YouTube. Make sure all your sites use keywords that will push them all to the top page of Google. So if your band is named Magnus Pym, it might be beneficial to add the word band to your keyword phrase. People searching for the band will initially search for Magnus Pym until they realize they are getting results for a detective show. Instinctively they will add the word band or music after Magnus Pym. Putting this in the title section of websites, and use it for tags will result in getting the search results you are seeking.
I've discussed this in past blogs but you can also use keyword phrases to attract new fans. Use Googles Adwords tools to discover good keyword phrases to use in things like your bio, blogs, and descriptions. A few years ago I was designing a website and writing a biography for a local band who had great appeal to the general music lover who goes out just to see new live music. I wanted to capitalize on that, so using the Adwords tools I was able to discover that several thousand people locally searched the keywords 'Milwaukee Music" each month. At the time few sites were using these keywords together, so it was implemented into the bands biography and website title. The trick is to make these keywords feel natural in your content, you can't just throw it between sentences, you must work it in. For example: Band X is a great addition to the Milwaukee Music scene. The band dove right into the competitive and diverse Milwaukee Music scene.
It is important to maintain your keywords, if one big company starts using the same keyword it could easily push you pages away on a search engine. Prime example, Summerfest finally started to use SEO and yanked the example keyword phrase and now dominates the top search results with it.
The best answer I can give to someone on how to get more likes, is to create a good foundation online. Utilize the one click buttons to share and follow, think outside the box when construction keyword phrases to incorporate into your content and make sure to include discriptions and tags to everything you post. Don't just supply content that tells fans what you did that day, talk about the lighthouse in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin you visited after playing at Ziggy's Corner Pub. Or take a photo of Loveless Cafe' outside of Nashville Tennessee, and a video of you failing at wake boarding at La Jolla Beach in California. Tagging these videos and pictures and using the long tail keywords in your blog will attract people who might get side tracked from their original search to check your music out. Capitalize on things that interest you and your band, you never know who else is searching these things because they sparked interest in them. It is just like a normal friendship, it usually starts with a common interest.
For a band you will want all your fans to follow all your outlets and that can be done by giving previews of special content from all your sources. Leave a link and a few lines from a new blog, on your Facebook. Or direct blog followers to a video only hosted on Facebook fans only page. Be creative in pushing people to other sites and then pulling them into a committed relationship such as pressig the like or follow button. Make sure you offer ways for them to share or easy buttons to other sites. For instance you can use a Twitter button on your blog that will automatically Tweet a link to your blog to that persons followers. It is easy to install just by going to here. You can do the same things with Facebook buttons and other social media sites. Having these follow buttons available makes it as simple as a click to become a follower on other sites. It takes five minutes to add to your blog and can result in hundreds of effortless new followers.
As a new band you will have a lot of people searching for you the first time on a site like Google. You want to make sure to use keywords effectively so that all of your sites show up on that first page. What are Keywords? Good question, without giving a detailed speech that goes into SEO marketing, keywords are simply a phrase people plug into Google to find webpages with relevant information. So for your band you'll want to use your band name but maybe something extra to draw in people looking for live music in the area which I will go into a little further in a minute.
Everyone has their preferred type of resource site, some use Facebook, others websites, and some like Blogs or profile pages on Reverbnation or videos on YouTube. Make sure all your sites use keywords that will push them all to the top page of Google. So if your band is named Magnus Pym, it might be beneficial to add the word band to your keyword phrase. People searching for the band will initially search for Magnus Pym until they realize they are getting results for a detective show. Instinctively they will add the word band or music after Magnus Pym. Putting this in the title section of websites, and use it for tags will result in getting the search results you are seeking.
I've discussed this in past blogs but you can also use keyword phrases to attract new fans. Use Googles Adwords tools to discover good keyword phrases to use in things like your bio, blogs, and descriptions. A few years ago I was designing a website and writing a biography for a local band who had great appeal to the general music lover who goes out just to see new live music. I wanted to capitalize on that, so using the Adwords tools I was able to discover that several thousand people locally searched the keywords 'Milwaukee Music" each month. At the time few sites were using these keywords together, so it was implemented into the bands biography and website title. The trick is to make these keywords feel natural in your content, you can't just throw it between sentences, you must work it in. For example: Band X is a great addition to the Milwaukee Music scene. The band dove right into the competitive and diverse Milwaukee Music scene.
It is important to maintain your keywords, if one big company starts using the same keyword it could easily push you pages away on a search engine. Prime example, Summerfest finally started to use SEO and yanked the example keyword phrase and now dominates the top search results with it.
The best answer I can give to someone on how to get more likes, is to create a good foundation online. Utilize the one click buttons to share and follow, think outside the box when construction keyword phrases to incorporate into your content and make sure to include discriptions and tags to everything you post. Don't just supply content that tells fans what you did that day, talk about the lighthouse in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin you visited after playing at Ziggy's Corner Pub. Or take a photo of Loveless Cafe' outside of Nashville Tennessee, and a video of you failing at wake boarding at La Jolla Beach in California. Tagging these videos and pictures and using the long tail keywords in your blog will attract people who might get side tracked from their original search to check your music out. Capitalize on things that interest you and your band, you never know who else is searching these things because they sparked interest in them. It is just like a normal friendship, it usually starts with a common interest.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Increasing Traffic to Your Bands Content
Facebook has been the leading place for fans to interact with bands for a few years now, but some fear with the Timeline template being put into place will make it more difficult for fans to navigate through a bands page. Facebook also limits what bands can put up, they can't sell items on the actual page, and there many rules revolving around content and contests. Avoid the hassles and start giving fans a nice alternative with a good old website. This is also a great way to attract new fans using the science of SEO, Search Engine Optimization. It sounds scary, but you do it with a little reading up.
If you have a band name that is borderline trademark infringing on another product or company, you are going to be competing to be at the top of a Google search. For example the band Sunday Sunglasses. Working with them, one big challenge was utilizing SEO while still using a flash based point and click designer. The reason for SEO for this band was to get above the Sunglass Company with the same name. Luckily that company is not very active online, so using the keywords of Sunday Sunglasses in the landing page header was all it took to get up in the top five search results. Same with tagging YouTube videos, now they show up in searches so its important to put tags on all your videos.
Most of the time you want to try and attract people who may be searching for you or something, but they don't know your band name. For example with Sunday Sunglasses, they are near the city of Milwaukee and of course they play music so we did some research and at the time thousands of people were searching on Google "Milwaukee Live Music" so we decided to use that as our main keyword phrase. That way when people search that phrase, our site would be on top. We put it in the bands biography, put it in the header, and other places as naturally as possible. At the time, we made it to the front page. Sadly it has been a year since working with this band, and Summerfest found the keyword useful to them as well and now they dominate the search results. Which is why SEO is not just a one time thing you do to a website, you have to stay active with it, get other websites to link to your website as much as possible. Keep up on the frequency of the searches for your keywords and update them as necessary. Click here for a great site to teach you more about SEO techniques to get you started.
If a website really isn't a priority for you, you need to maximize your YouTube channel. Remember only your fans will be searching for your name, so broaden the words that define you. If you are an acoustic artist, putting that definition in your title, description and tags could increase your views. Cover songs are also great ways to get new fans, but do the audience a favor and clearly put that it is a cover song and not the original artists. I've worked with artists who have done this, and the actual band discovered it and put it on their favorites list. How great of an honor is that, and the traffic impact is amazing. Here is a video about a publi speaker who goes around discussing SEO for bands, he gives some great tips in his video.
If you have a band name that is borderline trademark infringing on another product or company, you are going to be competing to be at the top of a Google search. For example the band Sunday Sunglasses. Working with them, one big challenge was utilizing SEO while still using a flash based point and click designer. The reason for SEO for this band was to get above the Sunglass Company with the same name. Luckily that company is not very active online, so using the keywords of Sunday Sunglasses in the landing page header was all it took to get up in the top five search results. Same with tagging YouTube videos, now they show up in searches so its important to put tags on all your videos.
Most of the time you want to try and attract people who may be searching for you or something, but they don't know your band name. For example with Sunday Sunglasses, they are near the city of Milwaukee and of course they play music so we did some research and at the time thousands of people were searching on Google "Milwaukee Live Music" so we decided to use that as our main keyword phrase. That way when people search that phrase, our site would be on top. We put it in the bands biography, put it in the header, and other places as naturally as possible. At the time, we made it to the front page. Sadly it has been a year since working with this band, and Summerfest found the keyword useful to them as well and now they dominate the search results. Which is why SEO is not just a one time thing you do to a website, you have to stay active with it, get other websites to link to your website as much as possible. Keep up on the frequency of the searches for your keywords and update them as necessary. Click here for a great site to teach you more about SEO techniques to get you started.
If a website really isn't a priority for you, you need to maximize your YouTube channel. Remember only your fans will be searching for your name, so broaden the words that define you. If you are an acoustic artist, putting that definition in your title, description and tags could increase your views. Cover songs are also great ways to get new fans, but do the audience a favor and clearly put that it is a cover song and not the original artists. I've worked with artists who have done this, and the actual band discovered it and put it on their favorites list. How great of an honor is that, and the traffic impact is amazing. Here is a video about a publi speaker who goes around discussing SEO for bands, he gives some great tips in his video.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Why it is Still Important to Publish Physical CDs.
Many bands and artists now days are cutting their expenses by leaving the physical CDs in the past. They rely on iTunes sales, YouTube plays, and AmazonMP3. Which is not a crazy idea to go with, digital music outsells physical music sales now. Sales is the key word, people buying music, what about the people you show your music to who aren't buying it, but may be buying you so to speak. Many people in the industry still live in the ancient ways of listening to a physical album, I'm one of them. While working for a management firm, we would only send out physical albums to radio stations. that was 2010, and it is still their practice.
It isn't all about the men in suits that you should make some physical copies of music, its for your fans. Not everyone has a computer to download music on, and if they do they may not be ones to do it the legal way that financially helps you. At shows giving them a physical option to purchase, listen to right away, and love, will save you from them stealing the music later digitally where you can't detect it.
As discussed there are ways now days to make low quantity copies of an album through self publishing websites like CreateSpace. Take advantage of this and try it out, if your music is good people, despite being internet savvy will want to buy the music right away at your show. Its the music version of POP sales, you know, where despite not wanting it initially, you walk out of the store with a candy bar because it was there where you were checking out. Same idea applies to having a physical CD, you have the customer there, they love'd your music, paid to see it, not pop in there and get one last little purchase out of them. Unlike a candy bar this is an item that not only satisfies their needs but helps you. It is promotional material, it says your name on it, it can be shared, and it is physically right there for them to touch and play.
You can charge more for a physical CD because it holds art work that many music lovers appreciate, by offering bonus tracks and digital download options free with the physical CD you can easily overcome those price hurdles.
Always remember not all fans are tech savvy, they wont all download the legal way, so offer a solution that is mutually beneficial.
It isn't all about the men in suits that you should make some physical copies of music, its for your fans. Not everyone has a computer to download music on, and if they do they may not be ones to do it the legal way that financially helps you. At shows giving them a physical option to purchase, listen to right away, and love, will save you from them stealing the music later digitally where you can't detect it.
As discussed there are ways now days to make low quantity copies of an album through self publishing websites like CreateSpace. Take advantage of this and try it out, if your music is good people, despite being internet savvy will want to buy the music right away at your show. Its the music version of POP sales, you know, where despite not wanting it initially, you walk out of the store with a candy bar because it was there where you were checking out. Same idea applies to having a physical CD, you have the customer there, they love'd your music, paid to see it, not pop in there and get one last little purchase out of them. Unlike a candy bar this is an item that not only satisfies their needs but helps you. It is promotional material, it says your name on it, it can be shared, and it is physically right there for them to touch and play.
You can charge more for a physical CD because it holds art work that many music lovers appreciate, by offering bonus tracks and digital download options free with the physical CD you can easily overcome those price hurdles.
Always remember not all fans are tech savvy, they wont all download the legal way, so offer a solution that is mutually beneficial.
Self Publishing Your Content
It is so crucial to have content available for your fans to purchase, but don't forget about content for potential fans to to uncover. We will cover some inexpensive ways to cover both types of content by publishing the content yourself.
Digital Distribution Options
There are many ways to get your music on all the major online outlets like iTunes, Spotify, AmazonMp3, and hundreds of others. My first choice is Catapult Distribution. Low cost, low share of profits, and best of all super quick. I've seen a turn around of less than 24 hours to all the major online storefronts. You will need a UPC for this process, just pay the extra amount they offer to do it for you. There are ways to go around this and save a few dollars, but it really isn't worth the time and effort. If you already have a physical album done, you can use the UPC from that but it is better to have two different codes because it is technically two different products.
CD Baby also offers similar services and a nice storefront to send fans to but it is becoming a little outdated and not as quick as the up and comers. For physical CDs, you can do both, and getting out and making a presence in every distribution outlet is important.
Self publishing isn't just all about getting your music out, you still need to take the steps to copyright your material and decide which PRO you want to be a part of and register your songs with. There are also things like Gracenote to make sure your final songs are inputed into, this allows devices to recognize the song and provide information like artist and song title. This can be done as easily as clicking a few buttons in iTunes. Check with your digital and physical distributor to see if these little details are taken care of or learn how to do them yourself.
The most important part about self publishing is to read the small print, double and triple read the royalty calculations and compare the features distributors offer. It truly does come down to the details on what is right for you and your band.
Digital Distribution Options
There are many ways to get your music on all the major online outlets like iTunes, Spotify, AmazonMp3, and hundreds of others. My first choice is Catapult Distribution. Low cost, low share of profits, and best of all super quick. I've seen a turn around of less than 24 hours to all the major online storefronts. You will need a UPC for this process, just pay the extra amount they offer to do it for you. There are ways to go around this and save a few dollars, but it really isn't worth the time and effort. If you already have a physical album done, you can use the UPC from that but it is better to have two different codes because it is technically two different products.
CD Baby also offers similar services and a nice storefront to send fans to but it is becoming a little outdated and not as quick as the up and comers. For physical CDs, you can do both, and getting out and making a presence in every distribution outlet is important.
Self publishing isn't just all about getting your music out, you still need to take the steps to copyright your material and decide which PRO you want to be a part of and register your songs with. There are also things like Gracenote to make sure your final songs are inputed into, this allows devices to recognize the song and provide information like artist and song title. This can be done as easily as clicking a few buttons in iTunes. Check with your digital and physical distributor to see if these little details are taken care of or learn how to do them yourself.
The most important part about self publishing is to read the small print, double and triple read the royalty calculations and compare the features distributors offer. It truly does come down to the details on what is right for you and your band.
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