how many outlets are there to digitally release a song?

prodeucer

New member
I can think of amazon mp3, spotify, rhapsody, itunes, etc. I'm sure there are others. I think Disc Makers has a service where you pay a fee and your digital song becomes available on various outlets. Doesn't the song or CD need to have an ISRC code before it can placed on those outlets for sale? I'm testing of releasing a song to "test the waters".
 
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ISRCs are usually created/provided by the CD maker/digital store aggregator. If you already have one, then you can let them know that you already have one.

In regards to your question, did you want an exact answer? There are probably more than 100. If you look at the aggregators like Tunecore, CDBaby, etc. they have a list of who they distribute your music to.
 
I understand nothing is free in this world but why does one need to go through those and not cut these middlemen and go straight to selling your own digital releases? So no one can go straight to amazon mp3 or itunes to sell their digital release but one must go through CDbaby and such? Isn't this like a TAXI A&R where you have to go through them (allegedly) before your songs get on the hands of the "right people".
 
I understand nothing is free in this world but why does one need to go through those and not cut these middlemen and go straight to selling your own digital releases? So no one can go straight to amazon mp3 or itunes to sell their digital release but one must go through CDbaby and such? Isn't this like a TAXI A&R where you have to go through them (allegedly) before your songs get on the hands of the "right people".

Taxi is way different. With Taxi, you go through a middleman for your CHANCE to be heard by a supervisor and land a placement. You pay CDbaby or Tunecore, and they put your music on all those sites - it's not a submission process where you have the chance to be rejected.

I don't know how much is involved with applying to sell your music on iTunes by yourself, but if you take into account the fact that these services put your music on dozens of sites... i mean, think about the time and effort it saves. That's worth money to me... and it's not an arm and a leg to do it, either.

If you have faith in your music and yourself, you should be thinking about how much money you're going to make BACK after your initial small investment to market your music properly.

If you'd like to sell your own releases.. just use Bandcamp or ReverbNation or something. They have purchase options for your listeners. However, those choices aren't as "sexy" as iTunes, but you're either gonna be a DIY artist or you're not. As a buyer, I personally don't care whether I get your music from Apple or Bandcamp. Just as long as it's good music.
 
iTunes & Amazon will refer you to an aggregator, as they don't GIVE A F*CK (< insert Hodgetwins echo)... Same applies for Spotify, and most major distributors.

P.S. that question was one of the key aspects to my record labels business plan lol...
 
iTunes & Amazon will refer you to an aggregator, as they don't GIVE A F*CK (< insert Hodgetwins echo)... Same applies for Spotify, and most major distributors.

P.S. that question was one of the key aspects to my record labels business plan lol...

so do you use CDbaby or Tunecore or go in alone to iTunes/Amazon???
I get a free CDbaby submission 5 times a year because I use hostbaby for one of my sites
 
Not sure if the masses even pay attention to other outlets other than the major ones like itunes or amazon mp3. I would think just sticking with a few makes your songs seem less like a "spam". That's just me. If people can find you on the big outlets, why go to the small outlets, you know?

Well TAXI is more of an A&R wannabe middleman. Enough about them. I just want to test the water how the digital release world works and go from there. Maybe release a few singles digitally.

I think there is a company that links with amazon.com that makes physical copies of your release as they are ordered. So you aren't forced to print 1000 copies that no one buys. I can't think of this company right now. I think it's nice to link with a major company like amazon rather than some small place no one goes to and makes your release look like a B music release.

By the way is the fee to get a few songs available digitally a one time fee or is it monthly or annually?

Taxi is way different. With Taxi, you go through a middleman for your CHANCE to be heard by a supervisor and land a placement. You pay CDbaby or Tunecore, and they put your music on all those sites - it's not a submission process where you have the chance to be rejected.

I don't know how much is involved with applying to sell your music on iTunes by yourself, but if you take into account the fact that these services put your music on dozens of sites... i mean, think about the time and effort it saves. That's worth money to me... and it's not an arm and a leg to do it, either.

If you have faith in your music and yourself, you should be thinking about how much money you're going to make BACK after your initial small investment to market your music properly.

If you'd like to sell your own releases.. just use Bandcamp or ReverbNation or something. They have purchase options for your listeners. However, those choices aren't as "sexy" as iTunes, but you're either gonna be a DIY artist or you're not. As a buyer, I personally don't care whether I get your music from Apple or Bandcamp. Just as long as it's good music.
 
so if I contact Amazon about putting out a single digitally, they'd send me to CDBaby to aggregate then I go from there? Why can't they cut the middle man out and let anyone pay a fee to upload a song for sale? How do I offer the song for free on amazon mp3 or any major sites? Amazon has a "Prime" service where sometimes the entire album is offered free to paying Prime customers. How does my song become free for Prime members but not free for none Prime members?

iTunes & Amazon will refer you to an aggregator, as they don't GIVE A F*CK (< insert Hodgetwins echo)... Same applies for Spotify, and most major distributors.

P.S. that question was one of the key aspects to my record labels business plan lol...
 
does 5 submission mean what, 5 songs or 5 albums? Isn't hostbaby cost about $200? I don't plan on getting a site right now as I have no "merch" or any relevant info. that a social media can't handle. I think a simple social media profile would make more sense to me right now.

so do you use CDbaby or Tunecore or go in alone to iTunes/Amazon???
I get a free CDbaby submission 5 times a year because I use hostbaby for one of my sites
 
does 5 submission mean what, 5 songs or 5 albums? Isn't hostbaby cost about $200? I don't plan on getting a site right now as I have no "merch" or any relevant info. that a social media can't handle. I think a simple social media profile would make more sense to me right now.

5 albums or 5 songs
 
is youtube the new mp3.com?

I remember a time when mp3.com was paying artists per song play or download. I don't remember how they operated or how income was generated but I think it was from ads. I've seen artists who were ranked higher in the "charts" of mp3.com to have generated lots of income. I think some highly rated artists made 5 to 6 figures if I recall correctly. Does anyone remember how mp3.com operated? Does youtube operate the same way in how they are generating income for people with "official videos"? So is youtube like the new mp3.com only that it is video plays and not mp3 plays? Are the income generated from ads as well then? While I don't really see much ads on youtube, so I could be wrong. There is no subscription fees either to generate income from.

I've heard of people making a killing on youtube. So how does it work? You put up an officially made video, people come to view it, if you rake in millions of viewers you get paid for all that? How are the income generated determined? I think mp3.com paid a penny per song clicked and played or per download, but I'm not sure. Let's say your videos got viewed on youtube 20 million times, how are the monies generated determined?
 
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Sorry, only just seen the replies.

so if I contact Amazon about putting out a single digitally, they'd send me to CDBaby to aggregate then I go from there?

Correct.

Why can't they cut the middle man out and let anyone pay a fee to upload a song for sale?

They probably consider it too much hard work to offer the service to the majority. Instead, the likes of iTunes deal directly with the major labels or any artist with a significant demand. The rest go through third parties.

How do I offer the song for free on amazon mp3 or any major sites? Amazon has a "Prime" service where sometimes the entire album is offered free to paying Prime customers. How does my song become free for Prime members but not free for none Prime members?

Not sure what Prime offers exactly, but I imagine they are a big name artists album... Amazon probably still pay out to the labels. If it's a streaming service, then they'll have deals in place with the labels... I imagine the contracts are similar to those of Spotify.

You can't put a song on Amazon for free. If you're putting it on Amazon, why are you going on Amazon? Why would Amazon benefit from putting an indie artists song which will get 10 downloads on there website for free download?
 
I've heard of people making a killing on youtube. So how does it work? You put up an officially made video, people come to view it, if you rake in millions of viewers you get paid for all that? How are the income generated determined? I think mp3.com paid a penny per song clicked and played or per download, but I'm not sure. Let's say your videos got viewed on youtube 20 million times, how are the monies generated determined?

Ad revenue.

The actual numbers are pretty much unknown. I do think that You Tube pay about 70% of the ad revenue they earn from your videos.

It's a bit like adsense in that if your video is directed towards keywords which have low ad bids then you may only earn a small amount compared to another You Tube user who has the same views as you but talks about a subject which the ads usually get high bids.

Have a look at some keyword search terms on Googles Keywords Tool to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
 
Ad revenue.

The actual numbers are pretty much unknown. I do think that You Tube pay about 70% of the ad revenue they earn from your videos.

It's a bit like adsense in that if your video is directed towards keywords which have low ad bids then you may only earn a small amount compared to another You Tube user who has the same views as you but talks about a subject which the ads usually get high bids.

Have a look at some keyword search terms on Googles Keywords Tool to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

shoot... when I open my browser

one of the pages

that I have setup for Chrome to open is
adwords Keyword Planner it's a great tool
 
I think someone here mentioned using CD Baby or Host Baby for their website. Wouldn't Go Daddy be also good or any of those website providers? Is Host Baby specific and has template specific for music artists/bands?
 
I think someone here mentioned using CD Baby or Host Baby for their website. Wouldn't Go Daddy be also good or any of those website providers? Is Host Baby specific and has template specific for music artists/bands?

If I were you, I wouldn't use GoDaddy (or HostBaby). I don't know any customers of theirs who are happy with what they offer. I certainly wasn't happy with GoDaddy.

I'd suggest using Wordpress which ever route you go.

I'd recommend DreamHost too. I've been using them for about 15 months, and I've never had a problem with them.
 
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I used to manage digital content for a lot of labels... and trust me, there are hundreds, if not thousands of digital outlets. The main ones (where you actually make 'some' money) are well known though: Youtube, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google, Deezer.. Unless you're a major, or a well established indie, they aren't even going to answer your emails. Youtube is big revenue generator for labels atm, eclipsing other outlets. I've heard of labels making 75% of their revenue on YouTube, but it's difficult to get right and again, there are services that'll happily handle all that for you (for a cut)

The way to go is through an aggregator, but here you have to be very careful about the cut they take, whether they're actually an aggregator (or just selling you on to another one and taking a cut for nothing) and how they deal with the actual stores (do they even have a deal... some major aggregators may not have an itunes deal or whatever).

I still know my way around so if you're serious about getting distribution going, feel free to contact me.
 
I think in the music industry, people don't know what streaming means.

In Spotifys case, it is monetised streaming of full songs/albums. Whether the user is on the free or premium accounts, they do payout money to the artists.

Pennies to the independents mind you. But that's because they rushed in to deals with the major labels for the big named artists, who have taken a huge stake of any profits made which in my opinion has rendered their business model useless...

Interestingly enough, I was having this discussion with someone at a networking event on Sunday, who was of the opinion that Spotify have been malicious. I disagree, they were thinking they were doing good business but made mistakes and gave in to the majors.
 
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