Selling tunes on the interweb thang ... ???

[woodman]

An old and trusted friend who happens to be an excellent mixer/engineer/producer has been prodding me to put up some of my tunes on CDBaby (hence to iTunes etc. etc.) ... I'm conflicted about it, but after giving my music away for many years, it wouldn't hurt to have a few nickels rolling in to augment the retiree budget. But wow, what are the odds of making anything, when there are tens of millions of songs for sale out there in cyberspace?

It's not a bad deal — if you submit multiple singles, CDB charges $10 each to get them in the pipe, then you get 75 cents on every 99 cent sale. I've got 10 decent songs: two professionally mastered, and eight from here in the Woodshed, many of which (especially the earlier ones) need lots of work tweaking up. So the question is, if I ante up with $100, will I die of old age before I break even by selling a whopping 133 MP3s?

I would imagine a lot of you guys have had experience in this arena, and wondered how this stuff works in the real world.

[Geoff738]

Woodman,

I'll relate a story about a guy I recorded, mixed etc way back in the 90s. (I'm listed as "producer" on the cds. At least a cd. Anywho.) His whole thing was that he wanted to get a distribution deal. Really was more interested in being a songwriter. Didn't want to get a band together and tour. But kept writing music, and putting out self-financed cds. Lots of good ideas. And, my recording and mixing chops,whatever they are, owe a large debt to the stuff we did together way back then before the kids, mortgages etc.

Pretty quirky stuff in a rootsy vein. I think he'd like your stuff and I'd hazard a guess vice-versa. But he thought that distribution was somehow gonna open up entire new vistas of opportunity for him somehow. But what record store is going to order an unproven artist? That isn't playing locally? And what record company is going to pick up an artist - even just on a distribution level - that isn't going to tour behind the record and basically be a door to door salesman. Selling songs instead of vacuums.

Well, the distribution deal that my friend so coveted is here - it's there for everyone for a price. And, he's still doing the same as he ever was (I suspect he has a lot of his cds in his basement). And, as was the case then, the songs don't sell themselves. Regardless of quality. Distribution is easier now - but publicity and marketing are perhaps more important for that.

So, long story short - how much marketing/ promotion do you feel up to?

You'll sell a bunch to folks here - I'll be right up there at the head of the line. But how to get the ears and dollars of folks you don't already have some kinda relationship with? That sounds like work. It is.

Then again, the price to jump in isn't too steep. I dunno. Put a few up and see how it goes?

Woody, this sounds pessimistic. It's not really. Just the realization that a bunch of different skills may be called into play. I strongly suspect you'll break even just from the folks here. And then some. I certainly don't want to dissuade you in any way - you've got your own thang going on. There ain't nobody else on this planet that does what you're doing.

So, yeah, go for it. But be prepared to put a salesman hat on if need be.

Cheers,
Geoff

[photoweborama]

I sold my CD on CD baby. Super deal!! I'm on every download site they have.

Strange enough, I've actually made money.. I NEVER expected anyone to want to buy my quirky, poorly engineered, odd ball songs with my nasaly irritating voice.

But I've made about $30.00. Mostly streaming of my songs, and at $0.00081900 a streamed song, that's a LOT of streaming!

And quite a few actually bought one of my songs on iTunes.

CD Baby, to me is the best deal out there for the little guy.

[woodman]

I don't mind doing some promotion/marketing ... guess I'll just follow my nose and see where this thing leads.

[Martin R]

We Disk Masters master and reproduce our CD. They threw in CD Baby, iTunes and a couple of other outfits I hadn't heard of.

Right now, we've sold a few songs through iTunes, some warehouses picked us up on CD Baby and we've paid to be on Amazon but it hasn't done us any good. Most of our sales come through local stores and at shows.

We're mostly interested in selling songs for others to cover so we want an internet presence more for credibility than income.

[Boundforglory07]

Does anyone here use reverbnation?

[woodman]

Yeah, I use ReverbNation as you can see by the link below, and several other guys around here do too. But I'm not on their store — I've always given my music away. But if it were for sale, would anybody buy it? A philosophical question, not requiring an answer.

[T Prior]

Woody, the one thing we absolutely know is that if it is NOT FOR SALE on the web it will never sell.At least there is a chance if it is ON THE web. Market thru as many web oulets as you can, link them all together.

t

[woodman]

Originally Posted by T Prior

Woody, the one thing we absolutely know is that if it is NOT FOR SALE on the web it will never sell.At least there is a chance if it is ON THE web. Market thru as many web oulets as you can, link them all together.

t

You're right, Tony — you can't sell from an empty wagon! I'm in the process of cleaning up my best 10 tunes and will give it a whirl eventually.

[tweeet]

CD Baby gives you the option of selling your songs on every digital distributor eg.Napster,ITunes,Spotify or choosing one.If you choose to sell your songs exclusively on ITunes then you'll get more money as they are the biggest payers.The mistake,if you can call it that, I made in my earlier solo stuff was to go for the former...and however overjoyed in selling 1000's of downloads (Spotify @ 0.001 per stream) I was, the reward was tiny.My more recent releases I've released on ITunes only and although not having as many sales,I've made 5 times the amount in dosh.
There's another however....however.I sold physically just over 700 CD's of the last album for £5 a time at gigs...and to make the same amount of cash on ITunes downloads alone you have to sell nearly 5000 !

[T Prior]

Woody, have you considered a YouTube presentation as well ?

A video link to all outlets including FBook can do some very amazing things.

Short experience thing here..

I write and produce Pedal Steel Guitar learning projects, which include a CD of tracks and full written TAB. My outlets are YouTube, my own website ( google finds it ) and a few music sites. I pay royalties for "others" songs and there are maybe 3 of my own which are under copyright. I have 14 or 15 different projects available where on any given month I may sell 3 or 4 and as many as 20 ! I used to send the projects by snail mail but now am offering them by email or download. Quite amazing. Wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, check the Email and find a couple of payment notices from Paypal..nice way to start a day !


BUT , from all this came E Sessions, as off late I have been commissioned perhaps 2 or 3 times each month for E Sessions, adding Pedal Steel to various tracks around the world. Pro Tools is getting a workout ! I have been working with an artist from Ireland on a 10 or 12 song CD...several from Texas ( ya think ) and and the most recent from Mexico . I am also working with some NC /SC artists as well...

I think this entire internet thing may actually catch on one day...

In your case, do it all I say....

[fendrguitplayr]

If you use SoundClick, you can set your price and link a paypal account (I don't though) for singles or albums.

The following is from Soundclick's Help section :

"What do I need to sell MP3 downloads?
All you need is an approved mp3 band account with at least one mp3. To get paid you need a PayPal account (see also below).

What can I sell? Only single songs?
You can sell single songs as MP3 downloads or multiple songs as MP3 albums

What's an MP3 album?
You can compile any of your songs and sell this compilation as MP3 album. Any song can be on multiple MP3 albums."