Digital Distribution

[Pinky]

Aside from CD Baby, is there any means of getting your songs on itunes or the like? I'm not even concerned about selling them as much as having them available as promotional material.

As a FYI for the few on the forum that follow our stuff, our CD release is officially tomorrow. Did a music video and have myspace buzz going too. Not likely to get anywhere fast but at least we tried. Last cog is to get our stuff on itunes or a similar download site.

[pandamonk]

Originally Posted by Pinky

Aside from CD Baby, is there any means of getting your songs on itunes or the like? I'm not even concerned about selling them as much as having them available as promotional material.

As a FYI for the few on the forum that follow our stuff, our CD release is officially tomorrow. Did a music video and have myspace buzz going too. Not likely to get anywhere fast but at least we tried. Last cog is to get our stuff on itunes or a similar download site.

You want online aggregators. I can't remember any specific names, sorry

[Sir_Matthew]

One way to get some attention is to make your music podsafe, i.e. license it for podcasters to use without paying royalties. It's a good way to get the word out if you're largely unknown, though it does carry the side effect of not making you any money off of that exposure, except for residual iTunes sales. It's double-edged, but it can be worth it. Here are a couple:

http://music.podshow.com/

http://www.podsafeaudio.com/

Creative Commons is a similar idea, allowing people to use your tunes as part of other creative endeavors. That's where I got one of my songs picked up to be the soundtrack on a lonelygirl15 YouTube video, and it's gotten nearly half a million views since. Not bad exposure for very little effort:

http://creativecommons.org/

[Sir_Matthew]

Also, if you want alternative means of getting songs onto iTunes besides CD Baby (although I love CD Baby), I've had a couple of friends recommend TuneCore:

http://www.tunecore.com/

Unlike CD Baby, they don't require a disc and UPC number. You just pay a fee per tune to get it onto iTunes. Good for singles without albums, one-offs and the like.

[pandamonk]

Originally Posted by Sir_Matthew

Also, if you want alternative means of getting songs onto iTunes besides CD Baby (although I love CD Baby), I've had a couple of friends recommend TuneCore:

http://www.tunecore.com/

Unlike CD Baby, they don't require a disc and UPC number. You just pay a fee per tune to get it onto iTunes. Good for singles without albums, one-offs and the like.

That's the one i was gonna suggest, i just couldn't remember the name. Thanks

[Pinky]

Thanks a bunch folks. I'll let you know how my expeience with free podcasting and tunecore goes.

[Pinky]

Your suggestions were very useful. Tunecore appears to be a fantastic offering. For $30 (after a $5 guitarcenter coupon discount) I got my entire 10 track album posted on 5 digital download sites (Napster, Rhapsody, AmazonMP3, and iTunes USA and Canada). I uploaded wave files of the songs rather than have them encode from a high quality MP3, which means there would always been some loss in quality. Took longer but the results should be better.

I also added several songs to both of those podcast sites. Been a productive and hopefully rewarding morning.

Thanks again. This forum is the BEST resource around for us unsigned artists.

[pandamonk]

Originally Posted by Pinky

Your suggestions were very useful. Tunecore appears to be a fantastic offering. For $30 (after a $5 guitarcenter coupon discount) I got my entire 10 track album posted on 5 digital download sites (Napster, Rhapsody, AmazonMP3, and iTunes USA and Canada). I uploaded wave files of the songs rather than have them encode from a high quality MP3, which means there would always been some loss in quality. Took longer but the results should be better.

I also added several songs to both of those podcast sites. Been a productive and hopefully rewarding morning.

Thanks again. This forum is the BEST resource around for us unsigned artists.

Glad it all went well, and I'm very glad you think that about the forum. It is a great resource for many things, just one of them being homerecording,

Hey, Pinky. Check out this thread. Although the purpose was to list ones that were for selling music, you can put your own on there for free just the same. I think it has become a good list.

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=248638

[Sinistah]

ya'll already know i'mma check out all these damn links to all this great shit for the unsigned....


thanks for not being stingy with the info.....