About this Sub-Forum

[Anderton]

We all know the music business is changing. The model of big record companies doing A&R, sending groups into the studio, marketing physical CDs, and providing tour support is if not history, at least in its twilight.

 

While some see this as the end of the music industry, all it really means is the end of the record industry as we know it. Music has never been consumed more, or more widely available: Just ask the people who fill up their iPods, listen to XM or Sirius, buy indie CDs at concerts, or have their computer set to listen to some hot stream over internet radio.

 

In this ever-shifting landscape, how do you get your music heard? One of the most powerful tools is online music distribution, and yes, it’s even possible to get paid for it. This thread is dedicated to the ins and outs of getting your music distributed; and because online distribution is becoming so important, we’ve looked for someone who really knows that angle to contribute to that thread. Fortunately, Peter Wells from TuneCore has agreed to be a regular contributor who can help answer your questions about the ins and outs of online distribution—what works, what doesn’t, what you can reasonably expect distributors to do, and so on.

 

But the main reason why we’re happy to have him on board is that he’s not here to hype TuneCore. We’ve seen his posts on other bulletin boards and he seems genuinely interested in helping to move this brave new world forward, and this is a world he knows inside and out. Nor is this thread limited to online distribution; if you have questions about burning post-concert CDs, or even about where to get the best price on memory sticks for distributing your music, we’ll do what we can to help.

 

Note that this is a strictly on-topic thread, and posts not relating to music distribution will be either deleted or moved to the appropriate forum. We’ll see what kind of response we get, but we suspect that as interest in this subject continues to grow, we may eventually need to split this off into its own forum—stay tuned.

 

So, ask away…I have plenty of questions of my own, and I’m sure you do too! -- Craig Anderton (Editor in Chief, Harmony Central).