The process of transforming your musical ideas into a finished product you can share and sell begins with your audio recording sessions and continues through to the delivery of your packaged CDs or vinyl records. The choices you make at each step affect the quality of your final product, so familiarizing yourself with this process at the earliest stages will help you produce the best possible results. Read more.
When deciding how to prepare and submit your audio master for CD manufacturing, there are several format options to choose from. A complete body of work on a CD-R, individual audio files such as WAV or AIFF (with any variety of bit-depths and sample rates), and DDP 2.0 file sets are the most popular formats. An analog reel to reel master or DAT (digital audio tape) also provides high quality, though used less frequently with the advent of newer digital options. Read more.
You’ve heard the term “ISRC” thrown around, but what is it, and why do you need it? An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a 12-digit alphanumeric code that serves as a unique and permanent identifier for any sound recording or music video. So where a UPC is tied to the “carrier” of the track – e.g. the CD or LP – an ISRC identifies individual tracks. Read More.
As an indie, your plan should be to seek out social and digital distribution platforms that will cater best to you and your audience, but there is one platform that still dominates as the go-to for mass music purchasing. This platform is iTunes. As of 2013, iTunes accounted for 66% of all digital music sales. Read more.
With six words, “Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur,” Alina Simone gives voice to a nagging feeling many musicians and songwriters have. Sure, the social media platforms and music promotion tools available to any musician today form an impressive array of conduits to share your music, reach out to new audiences, and establish your “brand.” But what about the shy artist who is not comfortable displaying her entire life to the world? Read more.
Revised January 2019. Whether you’re contacting magazines, music blogs, radio shows, record labels, music distributors, or promotional services, you have to check their specific submission guidelines before getting in touch. This is the most fundamental rule of music promotion. Read the post.
Ben Sword interviewed Disc Makers and CD Baby CEO and President Tony van Veen (in which he reveals that Tony is his hero), and the two explore topics ranging from time travel (kind of) to digital music, music distribution, music marketing, and getting a music manager. Read more.
Mixtapes have been a staple in hip-hop culture for decades. Artists primarily use them to build buzz for their commercial releases in an effort to increase their album sales. As useful as mixtapes have been for the artists who use them, it wasn’t until relatively recently that their effectiveness as promotional vehicles surfaced in pop culture. Read more…
Face it. Music sales are being bastardized by “pirated” free downloads and the free will of consumers. Sure, the legal digital music market is growing but it won’t pick up the slack for declining CD sales because singles rule the market.
Analyzing the purchasing habits of the music-buying public, it is quite clear that they are much more interested in spending money on singles than on albums. Read more…
How indie artist Making April went from 0 to 1,000 sales a week on iTunes in one year.
I recently was having lunch with my dear friend, music attorney extraordinaire Dan Friedman, who was in town to showcase a band he represents who he mentioned was selling 1,000 singles a week on iTunes. Read more…