Industry

Using The Internet to Sell Music

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The importance of knowing where sell music on the internet

Using the Internet to Sell Music: It’s more important than ever for singers to take the do-it-yourself approach when it comes to knowing how to promote and sell music. With less record labels signing artists it’s crucial for singers to adopt that hands-on attitude. Being able to sell music on the internet, gives singers a head start!

Sell Music – The Basics

As a singer the obvious way of making money from your music would be to gig. These days, playing very small shows will very rarely get you any money at all. These small shows may not give you the opportunity to sell any merchandise either if the venue doesn’t have the room. At best if you had some copies of your EP on CD you may be able to get some money from those. Using the internet to sell music therefore is imperative. Over time you may recoup enough money to reinvest into your act, such as getting studio time to record more material.

  • CD sales are in a massive decline these days due to the rise in digital music sales.
  • Creating CD’s is a time consuming process that also includes higher costs due to manufacture, artwork printing etc and also ties your money up until they are sold.
  • Record stores are in decline. Independent record stores are a thing of the past and the bigger name brands such as HMV are struggling to compete with the online market.

Sell Music – More Tips

Why it’s Beneficial to Sell Music on the Internet

  • Allows you to sell music directly to fans. You can upload an unlimited amount of tracks.
  • Money from sales goes directly into your PayPal account minus the PayPal fee. If the sale is under £12 you can apply for PayPal’s micropayments so from a 79p single download, you keep 72p!
  • You can also sign up to have your music played on Amazing Radio. You get royalties paid quarterly for this service, which is a good way to get your music heard.
  • Band Camp offers a similar service, selling directly to fans. It is another site worth checking out!

Sell Music – Providing an Income Stream

  • Pledge music campaign raises capital for music projects for unsigned artists all over the world to support their endeavours.
  • Artists sell music on the internet by setting a minimum ‘pledge’ price to cover the cost of the EP or album they are promoting.
  • Artists can offer exclusive content alongside the album to entice prospective buyers.
  • Pledge has no rights over any of the music so the artist retains complete independence.
  • Charlie Simpson, of Busted fame, charted at number 6 in the UK album chart after using Pledge but of course he had a fan base.

HOT TIP! A singer is unlikely to be able to sell music effectively if there’s no fan base to purchase their material.

The main thing to remember is without fans it will be near impossible to raise funds independently. Being able to sell music relies on the artist’s willingness to work hard and promote their act in order to build a loyal fan base that will be excited by the notion that you’ll be selling music online.