How can I sell my music online?

Apr 4, 2008

Money from music

When I go and give lectures and seminars, this is by far the most frequently asked question by the musicians in the audience. There are variations on this theme, but essentially it boils down to this very simple question: now that there’s this internet thing, where’s the money and how do I get at it? What’s the best way to sell music online?

I tend to start answering that question by taking a quick poll. It’s a little game I play, and I’ll play it with you now:

“Hands up, everyone in this room who considers themselves a professional musician.” Generally speaking the room is full of people with their hands in the air.

“Now, keep your hand up if you currently make more than 50% of your income from the sale of recordings.” I counted 3 people. At one of the seminars. Once. They were in the same band.

There’s a presupposition in the question “How can I sell my music online?” — and that is the notion that the way that you make money from music is through the sale of recordings.

It’s one way, sure. It’s an obvious one, too. But it’s not, typically speaking, the way that most musicians make their money outside of the internet — so it strikes me as odd that it seems to be the only thing that they’ll think of to try online.

Selling music online
There’s this weird notion that the internet is a shopping mall — and so if you want to be successful in that environment, you have to open a shop. Every artist and every record label who has a website suddenly wants to go into business as a retailer. The thought would never occur to them in the “real” world – but give them a webpage and they want a cash register.

It’s strange because for most artists and independent music businesses that I come into contact with (even, it has to be said, some of the retailers), the majority of the money does not come from the sale of circular pieces of plastic. And yet, the presence of the internet seems to make them believe that they once did.

And it has always struck me as odd that a group of people who spend more time training for their career than most brain surgeons, and who spend every waking hour of their day creating value from thin air believe that the little slice of time they spend in a darkened room fashioning idealised versions of their songs and turning them into things for sale is the only way through which they can earn a living.

This idea also gets us into problems when people start sharing music for free. If making money from music online is about selling songs, then sharing must therefore be theft. Now, of course I’m aware that there ARE musicians and people in the music industries who make money solely from recordings. My point is that they are in the minority.

So the better question might be: How can the internet help me make money from my music? And the answer, of course, is “it depends“. The internet can offer opportunities for promotion, distribution, business and communication efficiencies – even for the composition and production of music.

The internet is not a shopping mall or a marketplace. It’s a technology that allows for human beings to communicate and for information to be processed and moved around in new and accelerated ways. You can sell music on it, of course – and there are services that will help you do that. I’ll list them when I answer that specific question.

But for now, I just want to plant the seed that there are ways to make money from music. You can use the internet to enhance and expand upon these ways of working. And then you can use the internet to develop new ways of making money from music along the way.

Here’s what I suggest: if you have recorded music you want to sell online, then have a look at a few services and start the process. Either go with a digital aggregator like The Orchard or CD Baby — or submit to some of the bigger online music retailers through a service like TuneCore. Perhaps you could use one of the e-commerce platforms available to sell your music directly from your website. I’ll talk you through that process and make some recommendations later on. But feel free to just get started without me.

But once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to get that ‘how do I sell music?’ question off your mind so you can focus on the more interesting question of ‘how do I make money from music online?’

Because the chances are high that those two questions have quite different answers.

Table of contents for Questions

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39 Comments. Write a comment or link to this post

Sylvain

I try to set up a guide for all promotions, communications, information, selling subjects here: http://guide.neomusicstore.com

There are not so many details for now, but I always try to put the most relevant for everyone.

Apr 4th, 2008
Darren Nelsen

You could sell independently through:

AmieStreet.com
Snocap.com
BlastMyMusic.com

You could also raise money with:

Strayform.com
fundable.com
SellABand.com

Apr 4th, 2008
Jake

Reading your article made me think about some of my favorite artists and how they are able to make a living from what they do: I think about the local Philly artists whom I would spend $12-20 every time I’d go see them play, maybe 4 or 5 times a year. I also think about bigger acts like U2, who I’ll spend 12 dollars on a CD from but 100 dollars to sit in the nosebleed seats every time they come through town. It makes sense to me, then, that only 3 people in that room of professional musicians would raise their hands.

It is important to have music available to sell online – I work for TuneCore and I admit my positive bias toward the company – but having your music in iTunes (which just a few days ago surpassed Walmart to become the number 1 music distributor in the US) or other rapidly growing online stores is important. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that the buck stops there, and if you don’t play your cards right, chances are you’ll get lost in the racks (be they digital or physical).

So how do you get heard and how do you get paid? There is, as you said, a difference between the questions of “how do I sell my music” versus “how do I make money from my music online?” The internet opened the gates of communication for every person on the planet – blogs and websites like YouTube reward those who think outside the box, lots of times without the financial backing or marketing push of a major company. An artists ability to communicate with fans (or potential fans) is the greatest tool they have. A friend recently forwarded me a video made by singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey, who filmed a brief documentary of a tour where he rode his bicycle instead of driving his car from gig to gig. It was different, spoke to my values, and made me much more inclined to listen to him than if he had just sent me a message saying “For a limited time only, my album is only 8 dollars instead of 9!”

The sale of recordings (be it on CD, Vinyl, MP3, or whatever) should remain an important part of what artists try and push – For example, a friend of mine recently found great success with a song that went viral among young teenage girls around the world. Because of his worldwide distribution he was able to capitalize on the moment in countries he had never even been WITHOUT the support of a label or marketing team. However, those same people who are paying $0.99 for a copy of his song could potentially be paying $20.00 to hear him play it live, or $30 to wear a hoodie sweatshirt with his name on it.

It’s my belief that you have to use the tools at your disposal first to create, or at least help build interest and loyalty from your audience. At the same time, when people want to support you, you have to be ready to let them. I bet that almost every artist can tell you a story, that they’re still kicking themselves over, where they had the attention of potential money spending fans but weren’t prepared to follow up (be it with a record to sell, a mailing list to sign, etc.)

I’d like to thank you for the mention of our company and for the very well spoken article. I’d be more than happy to answer any questions about the TuneCore service (jake@tunecore.com). I will definitely be checking out more of your stuff!

Good luck and best wishes,
Jake

Apr 4th, 2008
Peter Blue

Waiting for more, Andrew………

Apr 4th, 2008
doubleagame

Great article, Andrew. I really appreciate the thought you put into this issue instead of reprinting what everyone else, well, reprints.

I’m looking forward to possibly hearing your thought on the online service IODA (http://www.iodalliance.com) and how it measures up to The Orchard and CD baby…and if there’s time, Echospin. I’ve yet to find a good article by a savvy insider on comparing the new dominant options in digital distribution of music.

Thanks.

Apr 4th, 2008
J Bluevibe

For those musicians and bands who read blogs like this, making money from music may not be a difficult concept and something we are all trying to get our heads around. BUT, for many bands this concept is just too far in the future for them, “what, put adverts on my website!!!!”
I think it’s the stepping stones between “old model – selling songs” and “new model – making money from” that I’m really interested in.
So Jake, can we look at “digital only” through tunecore as a viable option yet or do we still have to put our music on those shiny circle things?

Apr 4th, 2008
Jake

Do not get me wrong – I love the shiny circle things. I have purchased hundreds of them, countless blank ones have served as canvases for mix CDs both gifted and received. But are they still viable?

For a time, I imagine that they will be. Maybe this will begin to change, but if I’m at a show and I really like an artist who I’ve never seen before, I’ll probably go up to them and say “hey, do you have a CD for sale?”. I might inquire about their MySpace page, but if it’s something I really dig I will want to go home with that artifact from when I discovered them, listen in my car on the drive home, absorb the art work, etc.

Unfortunately, the way that music and movies are consumed has everything to do with convenience and not as much to do with what some people may argue is “quality”. When Sony invented the Walkman, the market share of cassette tapes shot through the roof, even though few would’ve made the argument that they sounded better than vinyl. MP3 players (be they your desktop PC or your iPod) have taken a huge bite out of CD sales for the same reason.

To me, the funny thing about the BluRay/HDDVD battle (to be honest, normal DVD quality was good enough for me) is that they both miss the mark on where technology is leading us – more and more, we are able to access the files we want from anywhere in the world. Internet connections are getting faster and FTP sites are getting larger, so when you think about it you’ll never have to worry about a hard drive failure ever again because all of your 300 gigs of stuff will exist safely in cyberspace. For some reason, I took personal offense when I saw that the MacBook Air did not have a CD/DVD player or burner. I mentioned this feeling to my boss, he said “I felt the same way when they stopped making floppy disc drives standard,” which i will admit kind of scared me.

So really, it’s not just CDs, but all hard formats that are on the way out. What does this mean for the future of the album as an art form? Do you show a girl you like her by making her a romantic mix flash drive? At concerts, will artists now scream “everybody take out your iPhones and download this next track!”

However, consider this – Even though we may all be listening to our favorite music through laptop speakers and crappy little earbuds, can anybody honestly say that they love music any less? Does anyone attend fewer concerts than they used to because now you can stream 6 low quality tracks for free on MySpace?

We are fortunate that music is both fine art and entertainment. Yes, as an audio freak I will mourn the loss of quality when friends ask me to send my songs over the net – Just as many of my art school friends will roll their eyes and sigh when I ask them to send me a jpeg of their 8 foot painting. CDs, Vinyl, Cassettes – these things will always exist for people who want them, which I couldn’t be happier about. That being said, it does no one any good to get angry at progress.

I apologize if that was meant to be a yes or no question. I will shut up now.

Apr 4th, 2008
Peter Blue

@Jake

I agree with you. It is the emotional content that is most important, although I really love high resolution analog audio. But that song that catches your attention on an am station in the middle of the night – even when it is distorted and fading – reaches your heart. That video I can watch online has such a poor quality compared to HDTV or even tv. But I can see it now! And if I really like it, I might buy the DVD.

About making money with music online:
In the days of mp3.com – I think it was 2001 – I made quite some money that was a share of the ads revenue that was payed to the artist for plays, not even downloads

Apr 5th, 2008
J Bluevibe

No apology necessary, if you said yes or no then I wouldn’t believe you anyways! I’m a big fan of vinyl and really like the fact that some of my favourite artists are now doing vinyl/digital only. I can buy the track online the day its available and then buy the vinyl when it finally makes its way down to New Zealand. I’m fully setup to record vinyl as a digital file too and still buy both?
Again it’s this transition and what affects it that interests me, the vinyl/digital release is very genre specific and totally aimed at it’s customer who are probably dj’s / producers as well as huge fans of music and fit in to that “true fan” bracket that got bounced around a while ago.
Find your audience and just ask them what they want?! Seems kind of obvious.

Apr 5th, 2008
david usher

@andrew and jake
thanks for the reminder andrew. ive sold over a million “records” but its always been about touring. its easy to get wrapped up in the million ways to sell online. and jake ive been using tunecore outside canada and its a great service.

Apr 5th, 2008
Ken Deifik

This is a very informative post, and should be an eye-opener for some musicians, but it is poorly named. I know this sounds nit-picky, but titling in a blog post – which you usually do quite well – can harm your credibility when the post is not spot on. I say this because I read ALOT of blog posts, most often selected by their titles in Google Reader, and have come to grade them on the relevance of the title.

I feel that the proper name for this post is “Can I sell My Music Online?” Or better “Selling Music Online: The Reality.”

Ã¢â‚¬Å“How can I sell my music online?Ã¢â‚¬Â should be the title of the blog post you write when you crack the code. I’ll keep reading you until then.

Thanks for your excellent posts, including this one.

Apr 5th, 2008
Dubber

That’s a really good point, Ken – and I appreciate the feedback.

I hadn’t considered the blog post title as such, simply because this is one post in a series of 100 questions I tend to get asked a lot, followed by the answers I tend to give on such occasions.

Those are certainly better blog post titles for an article such as this if presented on its own, but given the context, I think I’ll continue to break with blogging ‘good form’ on this occasion (and probably some upcoming ones) for that reason. It’s not a risk with readership I’d recommend to other bloggers, actually – but I think it’s warranted in these circumstances.

Apr 5th, 2008
Brad Parker

Grow your own market. http://www.muzlink.com.

Apr 8th, 2008
Walter Earl

Hi my name is Walter Earl i like what you talk about Myspace front page and too much artwork on the front page and other things you talk about.i need a little help with my website and my Myspace page.so please take a look at my website and my Myspace and tell me what i can do please.thank take care Walter Earl

Apr 8th, 2008
Carl Gethin

Jake,

I’ve got to say that my band have just used Tunecore to get on itunes and it’s an amazing service! A brilliant opportunity for unsigned bands to get their stuff onto such a massive platform as itunes

Carl
Voodoo Johnson

Apr 9th, 2008
Universal Indie Records

Can’t say enough about Tunecore. Got my first release up on Itunes and emusic. Just waiting to get on Amazon now.

Apr 10th, 2008
Chris

Interesting article from Dubber as usual. Here’s a link to an article which pulls together information on what different MP3 stores offer to labels looking to sell music through them. I’d say it’s relevant to self releasing artists too as they’re effectively artist, product, distributor and microlabel all rolled into one. Aren’t they ?

http://blog.fatdrop.co.uk/digital-download-store-comparison

I hope people find it useful.

Chris

Apr 10th, 2008
Barbara Freedman

Great information! I know this sounds like a plug but it’s really to get info to people as I have done a huge amount of research. As it turns out, I’ll be giving a talk at PodCampNYC 2.0 today and streaming on UStream at 2 PM EST. My talk is called Cashing in opn Digital Media Distribution for Public Schools or “The High Tech Bake Sale”. A lot of the information will be applicable to independent bands and musicians. I’ll have the handout with all the links available on my blog site soon.

The stream and video is here:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/musicedtech

my blog is:
http://musicedtech.wordpress.com/

Thanks!
Barbara Freedman

Apr 26th, 2008
Dan

I would have to recommend http://www.ejunkie.com over the ecommerce package from http://www.easybe.com. We used the 1-2-3 Music Store for a while but it was pretty frustrating. We were fielding a lot of support emails from people getting dead links or even links for stuff that they didn’t order.

E-junkie provides a hosted service, which is a little more expensive in the long run, but it only takes a couple of sales a month to cover the expense. Above that you’re making 100% of the profit (minus PayPal/Google Checkout fees). They have a shopping cart that integrates right into your site.

You can see ours in action here:

http://www.sinch.net/store

Apr 29th, 2008
RAMON

Great blog! The part that really got me interested was when you said that most musicians should be asking “How can the internet help me make money from my music?” Unfortunately this is the part that I wanted information. Perhaps a blog should be made about this.

Sep 1st, 2008
build an online shop

Even despite the current credit crunch, there is still remarkably a high number of shops that havnt taken the route to building a shop online.

Sep 28th, 2008
Pascal

I am using kiqlo.com services to sell my eBooks and it is free. I have seen a section for mp3s. It works for books I guess it works for mp3s.

Oct 1st, 2008
Michael

Ithinkmusic is a platform for running you own store and give you a 95% return….

Oct 15th, 2008
konweh chukwuka

Thanks.

Oct 25th, 2008
Mocazo Club

First step: U needs to log in our club

Second step: u will prove u r self i mean upload great stuff its may be any thing acting dance singers musicians etc……

Third step: U r content will be going to all over world mobile phone through videos or ring tones wallpapers, photos, music etc..

Fourth step: U will get commission from our side (% 25 total sale)

Fifth step: Why r u waiting come and participle our club members its already 1200+ talent members registered.

Six step: lets enjoy with our talent club members: http://club.mocazo.com/group/mocazokishaan

Nov 7th, 2008
Will

How about not selling the music, especially digital copies? The perceived value of mp3s is fairly low since it can easily be copied. Why not sell access to your band via a Backstage VIP Pass or ‘Insiders club’ via a membership site? These are now very easy to setup and the musicians can have full control of their community.

Nov 27th, 2008
Sammy Q

Anyone used Ditto Music? (www.dittomusic.co.uk) my band have used them for our past two releases and have had loads of success. They gave us a release date and we sold loads of pre-orders which meant we had broken even before we even released! They are pretty cheap too, only £25 for their basic package which includes iTunes.

Would highly recommend them.

S

Mar 9th, 2009
Norman from Malta

Dear Sirs,

Greetings and best wishes.
I was referred to this website as a place to sell Music and wish to explore the possibility of doing so, please.

Would you be so kind to guide me, please? Thank you.

Sincerely,

Norman Cristina (Malta)

Mar 21st, 2009
Nanang

thanks for the article which is very good and very useful for many people. I have your permission to show this article in my blog, without editing the original post, and I show link your blog post. thanks, good luck.

nanang, musician from indonesia.

Apr 25th, 2009
corporation records

we provide a very simple service for selling music and merch online.
we have no contracts, we do all the fulfillment of merch.

all you need to do is ask us for a shop and put a link to it on your website.

do get in touch!

Jun 20th, 2009
Alistair Johnston

Andrew, I have really enjoyed reading your articles and it’s completely changed my approach to selling music online. I have been composing music as a hobby for years and have only recently decided to publish it. My first thought was to sell it, and yes, set up a shopping mall and see who wanders by.

The logic of what you say is compelling and on reflection I’m sure it would have got me nowhere fast. Instead, I have tried to do something different to everyone else (if that’s possible? I don’t know yet.) Instead of just putting up an MP3 to play on my Web site, I show the music score scroll by as it plays. Taking your advice, I allow people to freely download the music, and even take a PDF of the manuscript. Why not?

Well before reading your articles I would have been horrified at the thought. Just give my music away? And show them the score! That’s my intellectual property…

Yes it is, and it will remain that way if me, as a complete unknown, asks someone to submit their credit card before listening to my music. That narrows down the size of my potential audience to something approaching zero.

You are absolutely right. Yes it would be great to make loads of money out of music but I set out to publish it. Why? Because what’s the point of expressing yourself via music if no-one gets to hear it. Asking them to pay is a sure way to keep the status quo!

Hence, I am converted. Maybe I’ll not even get a donation, but if I can use the Web to market my music and draw in an audience, then that will be reward enough.

Alistair

Jun 22nd, 2009