Digital Distribution is Going To Get One Step Easier for the DIY Artist

Digital distribution is going to get one step easier later this summer for the DIY artist. As you probably know here at Make It In Music we completely advocate 'direct to fan' marketing and love the facilities that Topspin have to offer artists, a comprehensive tool kit that help them to promote their art, connect with their fans, and build a solid business.

Well now we hear that Topspin are teaming up with Tunecore. Tunecore is a digital distribution company that has deals with iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, simfy, iHeartRadio and a whole bunch of other services around the world.

The two companies compliment each other perfectly, meaning you will be able to have your music auto-delivered from Topspin to TuneCore or from TuneCore to Topspin without having to re-upload.

This takes the pain out of numerous uploads in different formats and re-entering metadata and codes for both companies. And the data from your direct to fan sales at Topspin are merged with the data at Tunecore so you can see where you are with sales in a single glance.

Check out what Topspin has to offer the DIY artist here.

For more information on this merger you should go here.

Links

www.topspinmedia.com

www.tunecore.com

 

How to get your music on iTunes

Thanks Mashable!

Simple 'How To' post on getting your music on iTunes.

Back in the day, it used to be every musician’s dream to see his CD on the racks of the local record store (raise your hand if you’ve ever sold your own disc to a shop in order to see it in the “Used” bin). Now iTunes is the place to be when it comes to hocking music.

If we’re talking about the paid digital download market, iTunes easily outpaces its competitors. And while Amazon just dropped its download prices and launched a cloud-based locker, iTunes still reigns supreme for now. That’s why we’ve taken a look at how to get your music up there as easily as possible — and it’s pretty damn easy.

Read it here.

 

How to use iTunes to promote your music and get sales

I just saw this article on the DIY musician and I realised that I'd never posted about it before.

But it's a killer little technique for getting your music genuinely heard and purchased. It's something that you should be doing to promote your music.

As Cameron Mizell says in that post:

I’ve stumbled across a way to sell my music on iTunes to hundreds of people that otherwise have never heard of me without getting any page space or paying for advertising. This has become quite successful for me, and I hope it can help you, and we can all help each other. All you need is an iTunes account. Here’s the deal:

iTunes allows you to publish playlists that you create (on the left side of iTunes). The playlists can be rated from 1-5 stars by other customers, and top rated playlists appear on the page for every album that has a song in the playlist.

Read the whole post here.

However, Cameron had already gone into lots more detail when this function of iTunes was called the 'iMix', on his own blog.

Read this post for the full 'how to'

And, that reminded me that the first time I read about this technique was on Ariel Hyatt's blog - and you should definitely check this out too.

The most profitble place to sell music online

David Rose posts some amazing in depth information on his blog. It's well worth regularly checking it out.

If you promote music online on your own website, shouldn't you look at selling your music online direct to your fans from your own website too - and is this more profiatble than selling through itunes et al?

The answer might seem obvious but David's analysis is there to back up your hunch.

For those of you who just want to know the bottom line of this post here it is: musicians can make more money selling their music directly to fans online versus selling their music through online retailers like iTunes or Amazon. Utilizing direct eCommerce solutions like the ones offered by companies such as Audiolife, Bandcamp, CD Baby, Nimbit and TopSpin indie musicians can sell music directly to their fans and keep more of their hard earned cash in their own pocket at the end of the day.

Read the post here.