This is one of the things that I have always had trouble with, getting my tracks out to the public and at the same time starting to receive some sort of income from any sales I make. I managed just that recently and thought that my story and experience so far should be shared with other musicians who want to do the same without the need for a record label…

As you may of seen I recently released my first ever EP called The Rhythm Creator EP. I had actually made this 3 track EP with the intention of it being a demo to send off to a few record labels. I went on the search for a few labels that might be interested in my tracks, only to find that my music doesn’t really fit any of the dance/electronic music labels, as they tend to release from a very narrow genre of music where most of their tracks sound the same on each label (Which I actually think is killing electronic music, but that’s another post).

So I skipped the whole getting signed to a label thing and thought to myself about what a label actually does for a musician today in the age of the internet and realised that the only thing a label does for you today is to promote your music (And it looks like they sometimes do a bad job at that too) and then take a large cut of any royalties. So I decided I’m going do this myself and release my tracks digitally on-line via the now many Mp3 stores such as iTunes.

So I went along to the mp3 stores web sites, went to their FAQs and looked for the question “I am a musician, how do I sell my music in this store”. Only to see the answer at all of these sites to be along the lines of “we only accept bands/musicians who are established/signed to a label” or that “you’ve got to fill out this hefty long form and then wait months” (With the possibility of not being accepted and I’ve even heard of people not even getting a reply just to say they are not accepted)

Surely this has got to be easier and that’s when I came across TuneCore . At first I was a bit sceptical because I have seen companies like this in the past who want to firstly charge you a hefty sign-up fee running into 3 figures, they then want to take commission on your royalties and then they also have the cheek to want to take ownership of your copyrights. But I’m glad to say that TuneCore does none of that and that’s why I’m happy as both a musician to use them for my own work as well as advise you as my blog readers to use them too.

Click here for TuneCore

So with my three Mp3 files and a cover I knocked up in GIMP (A free picture manipulation program), I applied to TuneCore to release my tracks on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic, and GroupieTunes on December 3rd. I uploaded my files and cover, paid the sum of $32 (about £16), they said that it would take about 6-8 weeks and so I sat back and waited.

As I post this my EP is still in the processing stage but I decided to write this post as I am pleased to say that all my tracks have appeared on both Amazon and Napster official site after just 5 days (They may have been there before this but I just didn’t look) which is way before the 6-8 weeks, I’m still waiting for the other stores and I can’t wait to see them on there especially on iTunes. The best thing about this though is that I keep any royalties made and TuneCore doesn’t take a thing and I get to keep copyright control. What could be better than that? If you decide to use TuneCore I believe you are making a wise choice, I also believe that this looks like we could be getting towards a good era for musicians where you will see more going it alone without record labels and anyone who decides this is the way to go after reading this, I wish you good luck.

There may be some other companies that offer the same services as TuneCore, but obviously I can’t comment on them because I haven’t used them. I’m going to be using TuneCore again definately. The only thing left to do is to promote my tracks to get some interest, which is probably where I am going to struggle so if anyone has any great ideas on how to do this I would love to hear them and if anyone has had anything to add about TuneCore, I would love to hear it especially any success stories.

Article written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation.

This is a question I have been asking myself recently, mainly due to me releasing some of my own music independently without a label behind me and also because there seems to still be a high percentage of musicians and bands that still want to be signed even though there are some great facilities in place which effectively make record companies obsolete by providing services to independent musicians.

I constantly see more articles on the internet that deal with getting a record deal rather than trying to go it alone. Articles such as preparing your demo, getting A&R people to notice you are flooding the internet etc. I also see musicians on message boards saying things like “if I ever get signed blah blah blah” and yet they’ve never attempted or even thought about going independent.

What Are The Benefits of Being Signed?
Obviously this answer varies a lot from label to label and depends on the contract that is signed but the main benefits are as follows…

• Distribution: Labels will have the ability to mass manufacture CDs and distribute your music in all the big stores.
• Promotion: Labels will have employees who are experts at promoting bands, these experts will have numerous contacts which can get you into magazines, web sites and also radio or television broadcasting time amongst other promotion tools.
• Financing: Lots of money behind them, they can pay for the manufacturing of CDs and promotion as well as possibly paying you up front.
• Tour Booking: They have the contacts and name behind them to get you gigs in the top venues.
• Help & Support: They will help you to develop your skills and provide knowledgeable people who can help to record and produce your music.

All sounds rather nice, doesn’t it. I mean who wouldn’t like to have all that done for them by the nice record company who wants to help you with your music. I believe that these points are what that high percentage of musicians who want to get signed see.

Back Down To Earth With A Bump
The reality of it… (Obviously depending on the sort of contract signed, this is a worse case scenario).

• Distribution: The label owns your recordings and takes a huge percentage of any profits, oh yes you will see your CD on sale in all the big stores but won’t see many royalties for your work. They will own any new music you write too.

• Promotion: To promote effectively they may require you to fit in. They could even make you change the style of your music to get you to fit into a genre they want you in and be marketable to a larger proportion of customers. They may require you to do things you wouldn’t normally do, all in the aim of selling more CDs to make the record company more money. They may even require you if you are in a band to drop members who don’t fit into their visions.
• Financing: Yes it’s their money therefore they are wanting good returns for their investment. They might pay you upfront but should your band in their eyes fail, you may actually end up owing the recording company money for all the promotion and the thousands of drinks coasters they produced if your music isn’t a hit.
• Tour Booking: They may also want a cut of any profits here for getting you the gig and owning the music your playing. More contracts are having this written into them. They may want you to play venues you don’t want to or too often with tours lasting months and playing every night.
• Help & Support: Will you get this if it all goes wrong, No. Who will they blame, You. You could end up no longer owning your music or any music you make in the future. You could end up owing the record company money and paying it off yourself. Where’s the help and support now?

As you can see not all is so sweet. Note to everyone thinking of signing on the dotted line: Record companies are mainly interested in you making them money, they are just like any other business and want to see returns for their money.

Record Labels/Companies Are Obsolete
There are loads of products and services available that can help you to achieve becoming an independent musicians or band. There’s one major difference - You are employing them to work for you not the other way round. I don’t want to make out that going independent is the solution to all the problems, I just want to point out that all the jobs a record label does can be achieved yourself and may be a better option for you and your music.

• Distribution: You can use companies like TuneCore to distribute your tracks to all the major digital stores such as iTunes and Napster official site, anyone around the world will be able to buy your music in digital format and you’ll receive all the royalties. You can also manufacture CDs yourself and sell them around the world via your own web site or in on-line stores which have facilities in place to sell independent music. You may not be able to get your tracks into the major stores on the high street, but you can certainly distribute them to your local smaller record stores and you can sell CDs after any live performances you do. There are distribution companies which will distribute for you to the larger stores, but many of these stores won’t stock you on if they don’t believe your album will sell, but realistically this method of selling music is starting to slow down as more people are going for MP3 files. The main benefits of independent distribution are that firstly you keep ownership of all your music and secondly you will get to keep all or most of your royalties, distributing your music has never been easier than it is today.
• Promotion: This I believe is the hardest part of going independent as you won’t have the necessary contacts or the upfront financing to promote like a record label can. But you do have some very good tools at your disposal. The internet can be a great tool to do things like set up your own site, use social networks like MySpace, get radio play on independent on-line radio stations and in podcasts or get your music reviewed by on-line magazines and music review blogs. The internet is a world wide tool that you can use for promotion and a lot of the time it can be free promotion too. To promote yourself in the real world can be a lot harder, your main way will be through getting gigs at venues.
• Financing: This will depend on your or your bands current financial situations and yes you will need some sort of financing to get started. You started music because you enjoyed doing it? So enjoy doing it and put any money earned through any gigs or other income sources from your music back in as investments for the first 6 months or however long it takes until you have earned enough to pay for services yourself. Today it is cheaper than ever to get started as basic home recording equipment is cheaper and a lot of these services available like digital distribution can be extremely cheap. You may not earn much money straight away but at least you won’t owe a record label money.
• Tour Booking: Concentrate on building a local fan base up. Once you have done this you can begin to play larger and larger venues as you can guarantee better that you will can fill the venue. You may not be playing at a well known festival straight away but it is possible to build up to that.
• Help & Support: The feeling you will get when you achieve things yourself such as seeing your music available in on-line stores will give you a great sense of achievement. If you feel you need the support of say a sound engineer to help you record your music then go and hire one, there are loads out there who may not be famous but certainly know their stuff and are looking for work.

So Why Are Musicians Still Wanting To Get Signed
Even though you can do all these things yourself or hire people to do them for you, why are musicians still chasing that elusive signing deal?

• Musicians are good at music and the realisation that they may have to learn to be good good at more than just music such as business skills can be a major psychological barrier.
• They lack the knowledge that they can do it themselves due to all of these articles and info dealing with getting signed and not explaining all the alternatives of going independent.
• Musicians believe that music listeners don’t want to listen to unsigned bands and that these listeners want to be told by TV and radio what to listen to. The reality is that these listeners just don’t know about your music yet.
• The current music industry in place makes it hard for unsigned bands to make it. For example radio stations will only play signed artists.

Hopefully this article has given you a bit of a insight into how it is possible to achieve going it alone and why record labels are starting to become obsolete. In the not so distant future I believe that we will start to see more and more services and promotional tools start to become available to musicians wishing to go the independent route, I think we will start to see bands becoming little businesses in their own right.

Why did you start writing and producing music? because it was fun and exciting? Going independent is fun and exciting too, doing work for a record label is like any other job, your working to line someone else’s pockets who believes you can make money for them. If your music is good enough and you’ve got the determination, why not line your own pockets?

Article written by Edward Cufaude for Rhythm Creation

You’ve made some great sounding tunes, now you want to get some people who aren’t your own family and friends to take a listen and start getting your music out there to be heard (That is why you created it right?). Well you could start off by trying my list below of 5 sites I believe can really help when it comes to promoting your music, getting some listeners quickly and best of all every one of these sites is free to use.

Reverb Nation/Facebook
Facebook has joined up with Reverb Nation and together can help promote your tracks as you can place the Reverb Nation players into your Facebook page. Listeners can comment on your tracks, you can post a blog or use your current blogs feed if you already have one. Reverb Nation also has some great widgets to place on your own sites. I also especially like the fan mailing list tools on offer too and it also makes it easy to find other musicians in your local area who you may not know about.

Visit Reverb Nation

MySpace
Originally just a social networking site, but musicians and bands can have their own page, upload some songs to show off their music, design the layout and look of their page and create a list of friends/fans who enjoy their music. MySpace is an essential promotion tool for bands and musicians even if you already have your own personal web site. Rhythm Creation has a MySpace profile so if you enjoy the site or need someone to start off your friends list, why not add us as a friend

Visit MySpace

Soundclick
Upload your tracks and get placed into the Soundclick charts, you can place your uploaded tracks on any other page you own using their widgets as well as sell your music through their pages. There is a very large amount of tracks on here and your music can get hidden away unless you have other pages to promote your music using the widgets. Note: Soundclick does have an optional subscription charge if you want to make use of the extra facilities. A basic account is free.

Visit Soundclick

TheSixtyOne
We recently placed this site in our Hall of Fame because we liked it so much. Listeners can bump up songs they like similar to sites like Digg and the listeners are playing a game themselves to gain points. The great thing about TheSixtyOne is there seems to be a good amount of users who are ready and waiting to discover the newest tracks that have just been uploaded. The other great thing is that if you are selling your music using Amazon MP3, listeners can go and buy your music if they enjoy it as a buy button will automatically appear if you disallow downloads of you tracks. If you haven’t yet got your music on Amazon, go to our feature about selling your tracks on-line.

Our longer review of TheSixtyOne
Visit TheSixtyOne

OurStage
OurStage is great site with a great concept which is different to the others in this list. Listeners get to judge you tracks against another track and choose which one they like the most. Listeners then get to see whether other listeners agreed with them or not and these votes determine the charts in the various genre categories. You can go on to win some great prizes if you music is successful. I think this site has got the best ranking system of all the ones on this list because it’s a system where the charts can’t be interfered with too much by the musicians friends with false votes or plays.

Visit OurStage

Hopefully this little list will give you some good sites to start getting your music out there, there are loads more sites on the net I just wanted to give you these 5 which have been my favourites so far for promoting my own tracks.

When I was looking for ways to promote Rhythm Creation over the internet I came across Seth Godin’s Blog and I noticed this facinating article today about lessons that can be learnt from the current music industry. It is a very interesting read and I thought I would point out this article because I think it brings up some very good points and also some ideas for us musicians.

I particularly like this following quote…

“Many musicians have understood that all they need to make a (very good) living is to have 10,000 fans. 10,000 people who look forward to the next record, who are willing to trek out to the next concert. Add 7 fans a day and you’re done in 5 years. Set for life. A life making music for your fans, not finding fans for your music…”

When you spread that out over 5 years it makes success seem very achievable? Also check out Seth Godin’s other articles because he does have some wonderful ideas towards marketing and promotion which you may be able to utilise for you music.

Music Lessons Article Link
Seth Godin’s Blog

Releasing your music on the bit torrent network for people to download can help get you some free publicity and I have a few tips for those who are starting to upload their own music through the torrent networks and sites such as The Pirate Bay that can help distribution and get people downloading your tracks.

• 1. Write a readme file and include information about any of your releases and where you can get them from, include web addresses, myspace accounts and any other way in which they can find out more about your music. Save this as a txt file so everyone can open it just by clicking on it.
• 2. Place a good track as the first one in the torrent by numbering them in the order you want them in. I’ve noticed that most people download the first track to see whether they like your music before downloading the rest of torrent, so make it a good one that shows off the style and quality of your music that you produce.
• 3. Make sure you can seed the torrent well and ask friends to help you seed it. Also encourage other people to seed for as long as possible in your descriptions and readme file. If you don’t want to leave your computer on over night, make sure you upload the torrents to these sites early in the day, so some other people can seed through the night to other locations around the world.
• 4. Describe your music to people by telling them the closest style of your music in the readme file and the descriptions on the torrent sites and even in the title of your torrent, try to go as broad a style as possible to get the most people downloading it. For example I used Electronica as my category. Also maybe give a few bands that your music sounds like, for example some of your musical influences.
• 5. Encourage people to distribute your tracks, tell people they can use your tracks for podcasts, youtube videos, radio stations etc as long as they credit you as the artist. Tell them that it’s legal to distribute for any free and uncommercial projects. You never know you might just get someone who wants to use your tracks on their popular podcast or radio station. It’s free exposure for your music.

Hopefully these quick tips I have learnt and thought about may go some way to helping you make the most of using torrents for promotion. If anyone has any other tips they think will be useful to others that should belong here, please add them to the comments of this post.

Article written for Rhythm Creation by Edward Cufaude