Sell your music online with TuneCube

I'm currently selling my music with TuneCube and it's fantastic. They just started a whole new link exchange program and being a contributing writer to their blog, I thought it appropriate to share the link here and promote my own Marketing Blog in the process, killing two birds with one stone. Here's the link: SellMusic Online - TuneCube.com - TuneCube is the easiest and most effective way to sell music online.

Radio's Dark Secret: Payola and The Major Record Label

As an Indie Artist, when you submit your music to stations, who is getting played more, your music or you?

        
         When it comes to selling music, radio still seems to determine the hits from the strike-outs. It’s a dark and seedy world and who better to embrace it, then the Major Record Labels themselves. In the world of major labels getting played on the radio is still the key to the holy-grail when it comes to “breaking” an act. Even though the labels keep getting lawsuits thrown against them every decade or so for payola, the process never seems to change much, there’s always a lie, followed by a bribe.

      How does the process of getting played on the radio work? Getting a song added to a station’s play list and receiving a certain number of “spins” per week involves a rather under-the-table systematic approach that brings in various parties, called independent promoters, also referred to as “indies.” To keep the “indies” clear of “Payola” they are paid first by the labels. The indies then use this “cash” to pay the radio station money for various listener give-aways, bumper stickers and so on.  The highlight of this arrangement is these indies are often compensated a second time by the stations themselves as a consultant to advise the stations on what songs they should play. The cycle continues and the wonderful world of crappy radio still remains intact.

       This is the main reason why major labels absolutely dominate radio airplay and dictate to consumers the new “it” band. As an Independent, You could follow the same process as the Major Labels to sell your music, but you will not receive the same attention. Here’s what will happen:  Let’s say you, as an Independent Musician or Producer wants to get your music out there on radio to increase your sales online, give yourself a boost in media exposure and attract thousands of new fans inspired by your music. You find the promoters aka: “indies” that can make these type of deals. They ask for an upfront fee, you agree, and they may get you played once or twice during the times, “no one” is listening. But you’re most likely very happy. Your music was played. You now have a taste of what it’s like to be on radio and you want more. The ‘indies’ get back to you, knowing you’re excited and eager to comply they give you an even better offer:  “We just need a little more juice and we can get you played during peak hours.” You give them the juice and in the end you get little-to-no media exposure, zero albums sold online or off and you’re batting zero when it comes to cash-flow. You gave them the juice, and in the end you were the one who got juiced. Why were you unsuccessful when you followed the same pattern as Major Labels?

1.    You’re not a Major Label so your cashflow is limited.

2.    Because your cashflow is limited, you’ll probably be only doing this once. Major Labels provide consistent business/pay for the “indie” promoters. This streamlines into a very profitable working relationship between both the radio stations, the “indies” and the Major Label.

3.    Indie Promoters are more likely to work with their “Top Clients.” In some circles, an Indie Promoter who takes on you as their client could be considered a breach of contract. Going against their top clients and working with an Independent, might get them black-listed from working with Major Record Labels. The Indie Promoter is not willing to take that risk from a top client that puts a house over their head and food on the table.

       How long can a system like this sustain itself? Selling music online has already opened doors to a wider variety of opportunities, besides main-stream radio. This is why popular music blogs that carry music widgets and support internet radio, are being shut down weekly by Major Labels who are threatened by this grassroots direct-to-consumer approach.  Popular Hip Hop Blogs like hiphopbillboard.com are becoming “the new radio” for creating hits for the younger generation. Rather then depending on main-stream radio, these blogs are capturing their audiences with strong written content and a listener-friendly music experience to back it up. Unlike the dark world of radio and major labels, these blogs earn their consumers trust, one at a time. The once loyal customer of radio is now shifting over to something a little more pure, true and most importantly free of dictatorship.

       Major labels can’t control these blogs in the way they control radio. Forcing blogs offline and/or trying to significantly limit them is a pure power play by the labels going against hip-hop sites. When it comes down to brass tax: It is not an issue of copyright infringement or the new-release of a song yet to be heard by the general public and it’s exactly why the RIAA is out there demanding take-downs on music that a Universal Music employee purposely put online for free. Next time you hear that hit single on the radio, you might ask yourself, how many people were paid to get that piece of music played?
      
So do you, as an Independent need main-stream radio to get what you want out of your music career?

     Radio, like Major Labels is being directly affected by the online world today. Thousands of listeners daily, switch from radio to streaming services like Pandora and Spotify. Listeners are not complying with the rules of “Payola” and have a variety of options to choose from in regards to where and how they can listen to their music. As Independent Musicians and Producers, this is a key factor in gaining exposure and finding selective audiences across the globe. Now, more than ever before, Independent Music is becoming a huge player to millions of listeners around the world who are tired of being “played” by the corporate media. With a blog, easy-to-use interface for your fans and a tight group of tracks, you can easily find your niche group of listeners, sell them your music and attract thousands of new fans without the assistance of main-stream radio. Who is getting played now?

Courtesy Article written by DW – dwmusicmarketing
Information source provided by Techdirt.com

To sell your music, make a Plan!

                                                     “What’s the plan, Stan?”   

        When it comes to marketing your music it starts with a plan. Know your target demographic and stick with it. Don't be afraid of "No." No is a fantastic word for you as an Artist, it tells you who is not part of your selective demographic. Throwing your music out there and seeing what sticks is not a good approach to finding new fans for your music. Reason being, it goes against the most important piece of your business plan: Time Management. Make every second you work on your music career count. To start: Ask yourself, "Who listens to my Music?" Now that you've created an awesome piece of music, it's your job to create an awesome marketing plan so your awesomeness can be spread around the globe.  

How do you become awesome in everyone's eyes? You DON'T. Everyone, does not exist. The only thing that matters is your niche group of listeners. Everyone, will not like you or your music. Your goal is to sort out the likes from the un-likes. Once you have your group of likes in place, you can begin strategic marketing, a fancy phrase for catering only to the people who will buy your music. 

         Your most important job as an Artist is to create value. If you are too accessible, you are just like everyone else: Desperate for attention, eager to please. Your goal is to provide a strong social network presence, where your listeners can find you easily. When someone buys your music, thank them personally. Make that connection. This brings up a key-issue I have with iTunes, as a distribution service for my music. When someone buys my song I can't make that "final connection” with the fan. Sure, it's cool to make sales on iTunes, but to be honest I"d prefer to know my fan’s contact information so I can follow up with them, create a relationship and have a customer for life. With this key information, which iTunes does not provide, how valuable is the sale I made on iTunes really? When it comes to selling my music online, I always want two things: An extremely user-friendly interface and the opportunity to connect with my listeners quickly, easily and without too much hassle. By the way if you are interested in who I sell my music with it's TuneCube. I added this link because we're discussing marketing and TuneCube provides me with my fan's contact information. Now I have loyal customers coming back for my music repeatedly. Every time I make new music, I have a solid group of Fans I can depend on to Buy and distribute my music through "word of mouth."  That's what's so exciting about the online world. I don't have to play a Live show to cultivate fans, with the right interface selling my music, I can be anywhere and make sales immediately! How many fans do I really need to keep my Independent Music Career going? 5,000? 10,000? Sure, I always want more fans, but I'm just saying, statistically speaking, if you knew 5,000 people would buy your next album consistently, would you be happy? And that's a tiny number. You can make 5,000 strong connections easily. Think about it. How many fans/customers do you really need to make your small business (Your music career) work for you?

       Again, as mentioned in my previous blog, Free is for the Bees” use your social networks as tools to make this happen, but don't depend on just them, to make sales. This requires Follow-Up, Persistence and most importantly: A Plan of Action. To market a product takes a creative mind. After you make a recording, transfer your creative energy to creative distribution. When I’m about to work on a new marketing strategy, I like to work with a "let's just see what happens" mentality. I love the online world because it's fast, easy and for the most part: user-friendly. My strategy for Musicians looking to make sales is to think of the places your listeners hang out at. Go there. Make a connection. Don't sell your product, just get-to-know your listeners. Have a beer with them. Talk to them. Ask questions. Notice, there is no online involved here? That's the next step. Make the connection - then create a personal network.

       Lastly, since we’re talking about marketing ourselves here, I’d like to add a little shame-less self-promotion: I sell my music directly with TuneCube.com.  Why? Because with TuneCube I can target my niche demographic of listeners, know who is buying my music and make 100% commission on my music sales: Everything we talked about above. You can listen to and buy my music at: My Music Store

Send me your thoughts. How are you marketing yourself right now? Do you have a Plan of Action in place when it comes to selling your music? 

Are you giving away your music for Free?

                                                            Free is for the Bees!
          If you are giving away your Music for Free and not receiving anything in return, you are devaluing yourself as an Independent Artist. Use free only if it benefits you as an Artist. Sharing your Music for free doesn't guarantee any type of results. In fact, you are insinuating, "I don't think my music is good enough to buy, so I'll just give it away for free." You might think to yourself, "Well, if I give away one of my songs for free, I have more of an opportunity to expand my fan-base and have others buy my music." The problem with this mentality is you've already defined what your music is worth: It's Free! You not only defined this to your customer, you defined this to yourself and because of this, free has just put you and your music career in a very un-free situation. If you aren't receiving any compensation for your music, how will you quit your day job and make music your full-time career? Does it really benefit you to have 1,000 fans who have not paid a cent for your music? Your goal as an Independent Musician is to have those 1,000 fans support you, so you can be free and make a living doing something that does not require you to punch a clock for the rest of your life. Don't let your business falter because a few other voices are telling you how you should run yours.
       There's a lot of websites out there spewing the word, "Free." They want you to "Share" your music and "Like" your fan-page, but your goal as an Independent Artist is to sharpen these words and use them as tools to further your music career. It's important to remember: You made very strong choices and sacrifices to get to the point of releasing your music and you have an obligation and responsibility to yourself to give your product a value and hold to it. Success does not come from giving away things for free, it comes from knowing what you are worth and following through consistently. Your persistence will pay off, but first you have to define your objective and know where you are going. Free is a word the online world uses every day, but don't think for a second it's completely free. Do you think Gmail, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter is Free? You're a very bright statistic with glowing fields of information that can be sold to potential advertisers at any given minute. The more you network and socialize, the more you are worth to advertisers. Free is not Free. When you have websites or apps offering to "Share" your music, ask yourself: "How am I furthering my Music career by sharing my music for free? This question segways into the most important question of all: How can giving away something for free be a worthy investment?
      To make "free" work for you give free a value. Trade your fans a free song for their e-mail or give your fans a free song for every referral they bring you through your Fan/Band Page. There are millions of ideas, start thinking outside the box and having fun with your decisions. Make your fans work for their free. Your fans most likely will consider the work you assign them an honor. Remember: Your world is different than theirs, it's exciting, new and a breath of fresh air. Give your Fans the opportunity to play (work) in your world and in return show them how much you appreciate their work by giving them something for free. If you have your fans earn free they will appreciate you a lot more for it and your self-worth as an Artist and CEO of your music career will increase by leaps and bounds.

To Buy My Music please listen and purchase tracks from my TuneCube Store below. While iTunes, takes 30-35% of my Music sales, with TuneCube I receive 100%! Best part is, you don't have to click on another link to BUY. Your payment will be processed securely through PayPal. Thank you for supporting me and my music career. DW

                                                          My Music Store