Make Money From Your Music Online

How to make money in the music industry is a lot easier than you think, however, people often complicate it till this very day. Too many people make the common mistake of beginning and never finishing in any venture that they try. I feel that when it comes to music, this mistake is too common. I'm going to briefly help you lessen your mistakes and make the most out of your music venture.

Sign Up for as Many Social Networking Sites as You Can
This is a very important step that many people fail to take because they feel as if they only need one website to market their self. You need to have as many social networking pages as possible because this creates maximum exposure. If I were to sell 10 CDs a day in front of my house, I would possibly make decent money. If I were to get 10 people selling 10 CDs a day in front of their house also, I will more than likely be more successful in the music industry. The same thing applies to social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and more. For one, it's less work that you have to do in the long run and two, more pages equals more people, meaning more money in your pocket. Another trick you can do is sign up for Myxer.com and Soundstation.com. You can use Soundstation to sell your albums directly to your fans and use Myxer to sell ring tones right on any of your social networking sites by embedding the code's onto your pages. So many people struggle trying to figure out how to make money in the music industry and one of the answers is as simple as the above.

An Extra Street Marketing Tip
As I said before, the more people you have to sell for you, the less work you have to do. Too often I run into people who have fans that are so into them, they feel it not robbery to enthusiastically tell the artist as if they were in love with the musician and the response the artists will give the fan is "thank you very much." This is the worst response you can give someone with that much enthusiasm from listening to your music. If you offer to pay them a percentage of sales for the number of records they promote and sell for you, they will more than likely take it because they love you that much. This is a trick that many musicians don't follow, therefore, now that you know about it, you have an edge on them.

Selling Music Online

For musicians, most of the revenues come from the rights to their songs and the albums that they sell. For an independent musician especially, money can come in very slowly if at all. However, the power of the worldwide web can help them to gain higher profits. There are more resources than you can ever use available online. Plus, you can reach new fans anywhere in the world quickly and easily and sell them your music. Here is a look at ways that you can use the internet to your advantage as a music artist.

First, you need to take advantage of the independent music resources that are available to you online. These are numerous, and can be used to spread the word about your songs and music, as well as assist you with album sales. Chat rooms, websites, online radio broadcasts, communities of music lovers, and even online stores that sell music can all be ways for you to get your name and music out there. Remember, the people visiting these sites are already interested in music, and many times specifically your genre, so you will have a captive audience to listen to, critique, and purchase your music.

Selling your MP3 downloads is a great way for you to get your music out there without spending a small fortune. Focusing on selling CDs works for some artists, but a lot of times the money will not come in quickly due to the costs of packaging, shipping, and other items associated with CD production. Selling MP3 downloads can allow you to save on the majority of these costs, making each sale nearly pure profit. Plus, there are plenty of ways for you to market your MP3s, from your own website to music communities. While you may have to pay a fee to the website, you still end up selling your music at a high profit. You can also ask friends or other website designers to sell your music as well. A flat fee or percentage of the sales can be enough of an incentive for other people to help you sell your music. Plus, you may find that using others can broaden your fan base and bring in fans from places you may not have even considered. Lastly, you can use the efforts of other musicians to teach yourself how to become successful at marketing music online. Watching other musicians that have had success can help you to get an idea of what works and what does not. You can find music interviews to study, picking up the strategies that have made other musicians money. You may also be able to avoid common pitfalls of marketing your music online.

The internet is a literal pool of millions of music listeners and the people that create the music. Musicians of all types and all skill levels are available for download, so expect some competition. At the same time, many of these musicians are finding ways to profit from the demand for independent music online. Now is the time for you to get out and share your individual music and talents with a captive and awaiting audience.

Musical Options

The only 'constant' in the world is change. This is pretty hard to dispute and why anyone would bother is beyond my realm of interest. I am finding, however, that people are increasingly bemoaning commercial music as all sounding the same. To an ever-increasing extent they have a valid point and it has been the subject of many an interesting conversation in the now global music world.


With an exhaustive list of genres of music, ranging from emo to disco, country and western, blues, rock and roll, heavy and ambient to name but a few one wonders how music can begin to sound the same. The obvious answer to this is that most music lovers only regularly listen to two or perhaps three genres of music.


Prior to the advent of the phonograph and radio people would listen exclusively to live music. This could be a neighbour playing an acoustic guitar or banjo, the local choir or a few friends having a singalong. Maybe even parts of all of the above. Irrespective, they were listening to live music without all of todays' glitz such as massive P.A. systems, screaming crowds, dazzling light shows and outrageous ticket sales. These small gatherings many years ago were simply part of life and no thought was given to the intimacy and 'realness' of hearing music performed live. There was also the option of not attending such gatherings.


As time and thus technology progressed people were able to listen to music on their phonograph or radio. A phonomenal advent at the time to think that one could listen to music that was not only from a different country but was also of a genre' that they had never heard before.


It was at this point, the point where people could choose which genre' of music that they could listen to, that musical commercialism in its' earliest form arose. Radio stations, record labels and record stores popped up left, right and centre as people sought out their favourite artist. This led to great anticipation of the next song to be made available by their artist of choice.

The next thing to occur was a flood of different artists and different genres of music from all over the world. Music has always been a global affair but it took technology to unite it. Again, this was an extremely exciting, creative and productive time for world music. In the grand scheme of things, however, it wasn't too long before music became a competition with every participant racing for the golden egg; namely money.


As music became more readily accessible this competition became rather vicious with lawyers and large corporations becoming involved. Large corporations and lawyers don't belong anywhere near music but the sad fact is that they have made themselves so.


When the internet began, the floodgates were open to all and sundry as people have access to so much music and are willing to pay through the teeth for it in droves. I view this 'syndrome' as the dumb leading the dumber. I am yet to fathom the necessity of a tiny device that can store more songs than can be listened to in a lifetime.

Music marketing became so 'in your face' and one-sided that it made me feel ill. It still does. Seeing the same names, images and song titles at every turn have numbed me to it all. Although my personal preference is rock and roll, I am in no way prejudicial to these ever present 'big names.' I have gone out of my way to listen to their material objectively and to be perfectly honest I think consumers are being roped in and robbed blind.


I have noticed, however, in very recent times music sites such as Nimbit which allow the artist to set their own price for downloads are increasing in 'searchability.' Despite Googles' latest venture in making artists searchable directly from their toolbar in conjunction with iLike I doubt very much that this will benefit independent musicians. I am uncertain as to how this will affect music sales and have discussed this topic in detail elsewhere.


Only this morning I received an email from ReverbNation saying that they had finally launched their much awaited webstore. On further investigation I noted that the software they are using is identical to that of Audiolife.


With the likes of Bandcamp, Nimbit, Reverbnation and Audiolife making it possible for independent artists to make their material available for purchase with no up-front costs things are definitely looking more promising for grass roots independent musicians. Promotion and growing a loyal fanbase, leading to music sales can now be placed firmly in the hand of the artist as opposed to the invisible people who have had too much control for too long.


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Come Gather Round People, Wherever You Roam.

Not many

musicians actually start off with the notion of making a career out of it but when the remotest of possibility of this becoming real occur, people tend to literally lose their minds. All of a sudden they begin to dress differently, speak differently, behave differently and worst of all treat people differently, depending on who they are. We perform music. That's all. Anything that happens either side of this is for the musician & the music enthusiast to opt to pursue....or not.

Primarily we're performing for people who truly enjoy our music and enjoy it enough purchase it and provide well-informed feedback that displays that they are actually listening. Some musicians, however, are 'performing' for solely for major distributors hoping that somehow, some major player will find their needle which is placed in a multitude of haystacks. This is no musical performance. This is when the seedy business side comes into play.

It is here that my grievances with so-called 'music distributors' begins.

Firstly, from a musicians perspective, these organisations couldn't care less who you are....and they don't. Keep paying your annual/monthly subscription and they'll continue on their merry way, oblivious to the fact that you're even there.

They have their subsidiaries telling eager independent artists the benefits of this, that and the other....ALL of which are at a cost and from what I've seen & heard, do little to further the musicians career.

Perhaps if independent musicians were shown the tiniest piece of courtesy & ALLOWED IN to this equation that, in theory, revolves around them & their followers, I suspect they would not be getting somewhat annoyed, as I am aware they are.

In 2009 this was highlighted when Warner Music Group finally managed to get iTunes to introduce their variable pricing scheme.

This allowed them to increase single downloads from their usual 99c as high as $1.29 and as LOW as 69c. The immediate result was a marked downturn in sales. It's infuriating to note that this was implemented during a global financial recession. Doh!

Interestingly the word 'musician' didn't feature in that equation. Hhhmmmm.

I found this news EXTREMELY heartening as music enthusiasts were able to make their displeasure known by not blindly following these price increases.

With the recent launch of the iPad, I am wondering if the same greed will hit such a tranquil activity as reading. It's common knowledge that the digital book industry has been working hard to increase THEIR prices. The great advantage that the ebook industry has is that it is early in the 'adoption cycle' which is a much stronger position to be in as far as securing financial flexibility.

With the book publishing industry having more flexibility than the music industry ever had, us consumers are left wondering which way the balance will swing. With Apple raising prices above $9.99 so early in proceeding, will this over-ride the other option of lowering prices & selling more ebooks.

Sometimes I just feel like just going out & buying an L.P. and a paperback.






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Accidentally Like A Martyr

For the purposes of this entry in which I shall be discussing the recording process measured against the end result, I'll be talking of my own recording escapades over the last two or so

At the risk of sounding patronising, which I'm not (I save that for 'real life'), most people who listen to music and have no connection with musicians don't give any thought as to how a song actually comes to fruition. I certainly didn't until my early teens.

I have been asked by countless people where a song comes from plenty of times and it's such a broad question that any number of perfectly reasonable answers could be given. My answer has been the same ever since I began writing. It usually stems from a line of an overheard conversation or, more commonly, when I'm sitting out the back thinking of nothing in particular.

This is the embryo of the song. It may only be a few seconds in length but it's more than enough to run with. I get particularly enthused if a part of a bass-line enters me. It's a cakewalk once that foundation is there. Words have always come easily to me, infact I've never spent more than 20 minutes sitting with a pen & paper writing lyrics.

This doesn't mean that they come instantly. I may have been sitting on a notion for days, weeks or months. Finding words to rhyme & make sense have never been much trouble either. I DO pay particular attention to phrasing, emphasising particular words & even half-speaking some. Let's face it, a song is a story put to music. Bob Dylan and the late Warren Zevon are the best two for this by light years that I have encountered.

Sometimes my songs are from personal experience but I often swap from singing in the first person to singing in the second person. I often swap the gender of the subject of a song. Why? I have no idea. I guess it's just how a song was meant to leave me. I'm rather fond of the notion that pieces of music are floating around everywhere and every now and again 'converge' within someone who is able to convey them.

Once written and firmly entrenched in my head, the next step is to record it. To do so, one must have instruments, recording equipment, a place to record & the time to do it. I've had a small mixing desk and all of the necessary instruments for many years. One also has to know how to operate the recording equipment. Initially this is very time-consuming but after a while one gets the hang of what frequency will suit what vocal best or what guitar effect will suit a particular song best. My effects are very limited as I prefer that 'pub sound' so I can literally mix blindfolded....but not quite.

Once the song is recorded to the standard that I'm happy enough with, the next thing to do is to get it onto the internet. One needs a computer for this and some know-how about converting sound files. Again, more expense and time.

I've heard many songwriters prattle on about the weeks of torment & anguish that they subjected themselves to in order to 'capture' a song. Firstly, a song isn't there to be captured. It's either there or it isn't. Deliberately subjecting oneself to torment and anguish for the sake of a 3 or 4 minute song is either lunacy or a lie.

Due to the life that I've led I have plenty of horrific memories to draw on if I wanted to go down that road. I do throw snippets in now and again but always ensure the song has an upbeat and thought-provoking message.

So, to the casual listener, every song that you hear on the radio or on your iPod or wherever has an awful lot more go into it than the few minutes that you hear.

Every single song can't possibly have a price put on it. One download of 99c nowhere NEAR reflects the time and money spent on even making that song available to you to purchase. The fact that it has been made available for you to purchase instantly would have been laughed at not so long ago.

Irrespective of how quickly the internet can make this option possible, the fact remains that the songwriter & recording artist still has to put the same amount of time, money and effort in to getting their songs to the public.

This leaves many a musician the dilemma of how to price their music. Had my surname been Dylan I imagine I'd be selling an unfathomable amount of material at much higher prices. As it stands my surname is Findlay and I make every effort possible to make my material not only easily accessible but also as affordable as possible. Only recently I have made my commercial releases available as physical CDs at 'audiolife' at more than competitive prices.

Gone are the days of me making many songs streamable or free downloads. My songs are as important and as personal to me as any 'major' musician. I may not recall the entire lyrics of all of my songs but I can give you an in-depth description of what each song is about, why it was written & what it means to me.

So any song that you may hear from independent artists, bare in mind the time, money and emotional effort that goes into those 3 or 4 minutes.

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The Jugglers & The Clowns.

"You never turned around to see the frowns

on the jugglers and the clowns

when they did their tricks for you....."

One can interpret this particular line of Bob Dylans in so many ways. For the purpose of this entry I'll be borrowing it to use with regard to the music caper. It's so blatant that the frowning jugglers and clowns performing tricks are the musicians trying to make something of what they enjoy doing.

They do this for a number of reasons. Initially it's out and out enjoyment but listening to ones' own music wears pretty thin, to this writer at least, after a very short time. The next logical thing to do is to have others hear it. If enough people enjoy it then it's obviously worth pursuing further if one feels that need. This is where things begin to 'bend.' By bend I mean one can lose ones' focus.

Not many musicians start off with the notion of making a career out of it but when the remotest of possibilities of this becoming real occur, people tend to literally lose their minds. All of a sudden they begin to dress differently, speak differently, behave differently and worst of all treat people differently, depending on who they are.

I consider myself fortunate in that, ever since I was old enough to be allowed, I've always liked wearing drainpipe jeans, winkle-picker boots & truckloads of jewellery. My hair has varied from being down to my backside, shaved bald and even bleached white more than once. By the time I became known as a musician, no-one batted an eyelid at my appearance. Even now I can walk around the small town where I live and be 'normal.' This is, unfortunately, not the case in other towns and cities in Tasmania....so I don't leave here much.

The most irritating aspect that I find with some musicians is that they seem to think they're doing the world a favour merely by being present. We all know the sorts; the ones' who look around to see who's looking at them. I've been introduced to many such folks who overly-proudly introduce themselves. More than once I've replied, "Neither am I."

So us musicians, us jugglers and clowns, are performing tricks for whom? We're performing our little tricks for an unbelievably constipated mass. So congested is the internet that one really has no idea of who and how many people really dig our music.

Primarily we're performing for people who truly enjoy our music and enjoy it enough to purchase it and provide well-informed feedback that displays that they are actually listening. Some musicians are also doing their tricks for major distributors hoping that somehow, some major player will find their needle which is placed in a multitude of haystacks.

Far from being a frowning juggler or clown, I'm more than happy getting my music across to people who may get enjoyment from it. I have made it as accessible and affordable as I can for those who enjoy it enough to download it, infact just this week I have found an avenue for making physical CDs available. This happened one day prior to me being asked (again) if I had any CDs for sale. I was absolutely over the moon to finally be able to say "Yes."

I shall continue recording in the knowledge that there are a few folks paying attention and will also be continually on the lookout for cheaper alternatives for people.....happily.

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