Web Smackdown

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OK. You've got track(s)/album(s)/video(s), etc..

 

You wanna get some visibility, perhaps make some coin...even if it's only a pittance.

 

Which sites do you choose to put your material on?

 

Reverb Nation, CD Baby ,dMusic, Tunecore, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Vimeo, AritstData, your own web site...I could go on & on, but you get the point.

 

More importantly why? What criteria did they meet, or conversely, did the others fail to meet?

 

And if you chose the shotgun approach, why do you believe that is the best way of going about it?

[BlueStrat]

I went with Tunecore simply because they have access to get you on itunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, Music Match, and some others. Lots of different guys here use different sites, though. They all have their pluses and minuses.

[petermichael]

These sites you list pose different mediums and should all be dealt with on a case by case basis.

 

For instance, YouTube is the king right now of media in general, IMO, so everyone should have a few videos there. Facebook is a networking site, so it's got a different purpose, but you don't load videos there, just link to those on your YouTube page. CDBaby is a sales site primarily, so that's optional, if you are on itunes/amazon from some other means, or are selling directly from your website. Everyone should have a website, IMO, although myspace is used alot for people who don't have one, and it suffices for many, but it is really functioning as their website in that way, and that's why, well it may by definition be a networking site like facebook, it is different, and appeals to a different portion of the market.

 

See, you could go on and on. I would at minimum...

 

Have a main site for yourself. www or myspace

Have a main sales site for yourself

Have a youtube page (costs money to host video/audio streaming if you put it on a www website, but not embedded through youtube)

Use all the networking sites that you can keep up with on a weekly basis. They are all free, but don't join twitter for instance if you aren't going to do any tweeting.

Have a blog for the real fans. Also only if you can update new content at least weekly.

 

This may seem like alot, but this is your marketing scheme, 101. And as things go, these should be set up so that you can click any one to get to any other. This will cause through traffic, and increase your overall traffic, and google result ranking, getting you then, more traffic. At the end of the day, that's what it's all about, because just think, if your music is as good as it needs to be, then a certain percentage of people listening will enjoy, and a certain percentage of those who enjoy, support. So the more people getting to your site, the more money you make.

 

This is all for naught though if the music is garbage.

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I went with Tunecore simply because they have access to get you on itunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, Music Match, and some others. Lots of different guys here use different sites, though. They all have their pluses and minuses.

 

 

Hmm. TuneCore's service does seem fairly well thought out. Does anyone know if they're paying writer-publisher performance royalties, i.e., have they paid licence fees to the prs's? Like presumably YouTube/Google is?

[BlueStrat]

 

Hmm. TuneCore's service does seem fairly well thought out. Does anyone know if they're paying writer-publisher performance royalties, i.e., have they paid licence fees to the prs's? Like presumably YouTube/Google is?

 

 

No, they are merely a distributor, not a content provider. .

[BlueStrat]

Here's an interview with producer Tommy Silverman I posted on the music biz forum...it's edited and I highlighted and underscored the pertinent points.

 

___________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musician Coaching:

When I was at the New York NMS I noticed that a lot of the people in attendance were those at the many companies that now provide artist services. It seems to be there are lots of artist services businesses popping up. ReverbNation, Top Spin – there seem to be new ones every day. There are tons of services now where there never were before. I was wondering if you were fond of any of those companies and thought they had real value?

 

TS:

I am. I think they are replacing what labels and managers used to do or maybe never did, depending on what they’re doing. They’re also helping artists more simply bridge the gap between the online social world and search and all the things you’re talking about. It’s a complicated stew; you can be on 15 social sites, and there’s a question as to how important they are vs. the amount of time you spend, and how important the Web is to making your career go. I can’t think of many artists who owe their career to the Web.

When I think about the indie artists that are doing it themselves, like Sufjan Stevens or Bon Iver or this guy Corey Smith.. This is a guy from North Carolina who was a school teacher and about three years ago his manager got him up to about a million dollars in revenues, then the next year he got him up to four million in revenues. Really, the game is how can you build your revenues, not how can you sell more records. You may not sell records at all. You may decide to give records away to get your revenues up. If your revenues go up, that’s what you care about. ... We really have a big problem in our country right now in that so few artists are breaking through, with or without a label. The promise of the Internet was that all of us would be able to make great music and get it exposed. Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” article said that all you have to do is be able to get that record out, and they’ll come. But that’s not working.

 

Musician Coaching:

I think part of the problem is that everybody did that.

 

TS:

Well, that’s what he said, “Everybody would do it.” That’s why it’s called the “long tail.” But when you have 105,000 albums in 2008 released and 17,000 of those releases only sold one copy, and 80,000 of them sold under 100 copies, it’s a pretty depressing scene. You can’t just build it and they will come. You have to do more than that. I was going to say before that Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver and Corey Smith are selling a significant amount – above 10,000 units – a lot of which is at their shows, and they’re not active online. They’re not Twitterheads. They didn’t break from the Internet. They broke from touring, and they had a good story, and the good story spread like wildfire through traditional media like NPR.

 

...I’ll tell you the one thing that works: if you’re great live and you bust your ass on the road, that works. And it’s the one thing that has always worked and your social network is at the show. You come to the show and everyone who comes is into the band, so they all have that in common and it’s a social network. But you can actually see them and talk to them and scream with them. There’s an excitement that happens at a gig that never happens online. ... A lot of artists think if they do a big online push that’s enough, and it’s really not enough anymore. In fact, you could probably break without any online work at all; but you can’t probably break without any offline work at all. So that’s the big myth that’s being purported. You know where the investment money’s coming from in the music business now? It’s coming from venture capitalists that are investing in businesses like Spotify or any of those artist service businesses. There must be half a billion dollars in online investment in the music business over the two years. That’s more than all the labels in the world have spent on A&R in the last five years combined – a lot more – and probably on marketing too. That’s where the money’s coming from, so they’re leading the press. So of course everybody thinks {censored} is selling because of the technology, but it’s not. That’s the hope, and where the investment’s been, but that’s not the reality. We’re really not seeing any evidence that stuff is breaking off the Web.

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Good points all...

 

To the best of my knowledge, "Owl City" is the first "band" that "broke" online...or more accurately, was signed by UMG as a result of MySpace AND live performances. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

[RickGoetz]

This turned into a huge debate. Tunecore responded with a bunch of artists who broke in 08' that simply weren't registered with Soundscan.

 

The criteria for "breaking" has been called into question, the time they released their records / the time they were active etc etc...

 

Truth be told the bickering upsets me - it doesn't help address the problem which is the same regardless of which set of observations are more correct than the other.

 

Whether it's 12-14 artists who are breaking a year or 50-60... It does not seem to be enough to sustain the vast majority of existing and new professional musicians or the people who help them with their businesses.

[//()()]

 

Good points all... To the best of my knowledge, "Owl City" is the first "band" that "broke" online...or more accurately, was signed by UMG as a result of MySpace AND live performances. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

 

 

Wrong.

 

Owl City was found online, but Souja Boy was also found online way earlier. Arctic Monkeys were as well. NeverShoutNever can be added to that list too.

 

Funny enough, every band with the majority of their fame from the internet, really sucks.

[BlueStrat]

 

Wrong. Owl City was found online, but Souja Boy was also found online way earlier. Arctic Monkeys were as well. NeverShoutNever can be added to that list too. Funny enough, every band with the majority of their fame from the internet, really sucks.

 

 

 

Funny enough too, the if you dig deep enough, you find that every band with the majority of their fame on the internet started with a small record label or a management team or a marketing company or all of the above. The people who rose from obscurity to fame completely on the strength of the internet with no other backing or help are almost non-existent. Anyone who thinks they're going to start a band, record a few songs, play a few gigs and grow a huge fanbase on the internet alone are delusional.

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Certainly not a huge fanbase but definitely a pile of "friends" on your wall or myspace...for whatever that's worth.