Learn How to Make Money Selling Music Online – Like the Pros!
My Introduction to Selling Music Online
As a previous starving artist I have definitely been in your shoes. So that I could afford to buy new shoes I started to sell music online: My music. I didn’t do it just because I have terrible stage fright and was trying to avoid the crowds while still doing what I love to do. (Okay, maybe that was part of the reason.) I did it by accident actually.
Let me explain.
I’ve been around for a while…no I’m NOT old. I just happened to be around in that perfect moment, that transition between when music was sold one way, until the internet took over and now it is sold an entirely different way.
Can I see a show of hands out there of how many of you used tapes? And I don’t mean the sticky kind. How about when you started to see the music stores start to shut down and you began to panic? Not just because you are a musician, but because you frackin like music!
Well. You can stop panicking. Yes, things have changed. But guess what? They have changed for the better and in our, “the musician’s”, favor. So if you want to learn how to make money selling music online, I am here to help you out and show you many ways that you can do that and perhaps STOP being a “starving artist”, unless of course you like being nostalgic and ya just can’t part with the term. It is catchy.
So, How Did I Discover How to Sell Music Online by Accident?
I actually just wanted to create a CD for myself. I had composed 12 songs and thought it would be cool if I had a CD. So…back in the day when I had a little extra “play money” (you know, before the economy…nose-dived) I printed 500 CD’s. I think it cost me $1000. Yeah, that was probably a bit excessive when I just wanted 1, but back then you had to buy them in bulk. I still have some lying around, but I have given away and sold most of them.
At some point I stumbled across CDBaby and joined hearing that they could get you on iTunes, and I remember thinking how cool that would be. That was back in 2002! I’m not even going to do the math, but you can see that things have changed a lot since then. It was only just beginning.
Then YouTube took over, I decided to make some videos. Guess what? In addition to some iTunes sales, I was now getting a ton of free traffic to my website and gaining fans…without really even trying (or leaving my house.)
I actually want to leave my house now, the stage fright has dissipated some…some, mind you. One of these days I likely will, but it won’t be because I HAVE to in order to make money selling music, it’ll be because I want to which is why I started writing music in the first place.
And as a free spirit, an artist, I can’t tell you how awesome that is. Or maybe, since you are one too, I don’t have to. You already know.
So now that you know a teeny tiny bit about moi, let’s get to it.
So How Do You Make Money Selling Music Online?
First: Create the music (I’m going to assume you already have.)
Second: Join a program that can help you distribute your creations. I joined CDBaby, they aren’t necessarily the cheapest, but I love them and would highly recommend them. The other places I would recommend are TuneCore and SongCast. If you want to see a comparison of the three companies check out this article (will open a new window).
Third: Start Promoting!
Don’t be intimidated by the word promoting. You can think of it as marketing, “work” if you like, or you can simply think of it as networking and gaining and fans and followers based on your own efforts, be them small or large.
With the many avenues at your fingertips the ability to reach as many people as possible with the internet means, more fans, more sales and more time to do what you love…make music!
Sure, you can still go the route of trying to get a record deal. But that doesn’t always make sense anymore – it depends on who you are and what you want.
Social networking offers so many outlets at an artist’s disposal. You can get creative in the ways you choose to promote your music. For instance, some artists include offering their music for free with a purchase of a t-shirt. The more fans you gain the more money you can make from selling merchandise like cell phone wallpaper, getting endorsement deals or even appearing on TV and getting advertising offers.
And creative bands continue to change the paradigm. At Hot Topic stores artists include their music for free with purchase of a t-shirt. Other bands sell hundreds of thousand of copies of their music as game files to download and play on Rock Band. Fame from social networking outlets allow some artists to sell large amounts of cell phone wallpaper, get endorsement deals, appear on TV and garner advertising offers and licensing opportunities. Still others are “breaking” in other parts of the world and get flown in, all expenses paid, to play festivals to tens of thousands of people.
Here Are a Few Places to Start:
– build a free website (this place offers free websites and can teach you even more ways to sell your music online)
– join Myspace, Reverbnation and Soundcloud
– create a facebook page
– open an Amazon store and sell your stuff!
– get on Twitter, Google+ and even Pinterest
– create videos – Upload to YouTube and Vimeo
– enter free competitions* (I’ll explain that one below)
*Free competitions. Okay, from personal experience these drive me crazy! Maybe because I just don’t have the patience or time to “Vote” all of the time – or my fans don’t either. But that being said, I have gotten more exposure because of them and a few even pay you and I’ve also made some really great musician friends from around the globe. Here are a few I like: ArtistSignal, Beat100, Citizen.tv, ShootShareWin.
A Few More Tips:
Use Amazon and iTunes to gain fans and earn more revenue. When you sell your music on Amazon and iTunes you have the opportunity to “rate” and “review”. And with iTunes you can create an iMix, an iMix is a playlist that you publish and make available to others in the iTunes Music Store. Creating one or more playlist like this which includes a few of your songs as well as other music (9 or so other songs by other artists is recommended) will help your music to surface on the other artist’s album iTunes pages (and your own). Give your playlist a cool name like, “Perfect Breakup Music”, or “Music for the Ultimate Workout”. Catchy titles will capture peoples’ attention. The more iMixes you seed into the iTunes store, the higher the probability that you will be found. And don’t forget to rate and review your iMix and have friends, family and fans do so for you as well.
Find MP3 blogs and contact the owner, this can be a great way to find new fans that will embrace your music and promote you. For a list of music blogs, click here.
All right, I don’t want to overwhelm you. I know how easy it is to do, with so many options, so many social networking sites, just…it’s a lot. I get that. As with any business, focus is going to be the key to your success. If you want to sell music online, and you’d like to be truly profitable, there is a lot more you should learn that I cannot possibly cover in this short post. To learn how to make money selling music online and utilize the techniques I mentioned above, check out the place I learned with this link – it’s free!
I am also always happy to answer any questions you might have. So please feel free to leave a comment below 🙂
Thanks!!