MUSIC INDUSTRY BLOG

ReverbNation, home to over 600,000 artists and music professionals, has significantly expanded its independent digital distribution service, the company announced in a press release this week.

Now, RevebrNation members can choose between two competitive, flat-fee digital distribution packages:

The “Essentials” Package – $34.95 per release, 29 sites
Submits a release to iTunes (worldwide), Amazon Mp3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, MySpace Music, Last.fm, Spotify, Zune, iLike, MOG, Tesco, Guvera, La Curacao, Synacor, GetPlaylists, Secure Media, Intertech Media, InMotion Entertainment, WaTunes, Get Green Music, Immergent, and Moozone.

The “Pro” Package – $59.95 per release, 39 sites
Includes submission to all of the stores in the Essentials Package, plus submission to Pandora, Nokia, Lala, Wal-Mart (Liquid), Amie Street, We7, Myxer, Puretracks, ThinkIndie, and Shockhound.

Learn more…

Tomorrow, MySpace Music will open its gates to TuneCore artists, Wired.com reported.  TuneCore’s artists will be able to distribute their music through MySpace and benefit from streaming royalties, though the company has not commented on how much.  Probably very little.

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This is a guest post by Brian Mazzaferri

Brian Mazzaferri here, Lead Singer / Songwriter / NES-Player from Chicago NES-Rock band I Fight Dragons.  You may remember me from “How To Get 200 New Fans A Week“.

Well, it’s been a good while, and our mailing list has continued to grow.  In fact, it’s more than doubled in size since then, and we’re also in the midst of our first national tour!  However, I wanted to write to answer one of the biggest questions that has arisen from my previous post.  Gaining fans is well and good, but at what point can one expect to actually turn a fanbase into a living?

Well, we took our first stab at answering that question 2 weeks ago.  We decided to offer this:

They’re Lifetime Membership USB Drives!

They come preloaded with all of the music we’ve ever released (including email-list only tracks), and they guarantee the owner a free digital copy of anything we ever release, as well as free admission to any live show of ours now and forever.  And there will only be 100 ever made.

We posted the link, sent an email to our mailing list, and within 48 hours all 100 were sold.

So why were we able to sell 100 of these $100 drives, being only 9 months old as a band, having never had a label supporting us, and only being part way through our first tour?  It wasn’t a terribly original concept.  Plenty of bands have tried to raise funds by offering limited run, high price items, and usually they will succeed if they’re already well established (Nine Inch Nails, major label acts), and fail if they’re not (the rest of us).  I believe there are 3 main reasons we succeeded:

1. We give a lot of free stuff away.  A LOT.

As I discussed in my last article, we regularly send out free, high quality mp3 files to our mailing list.  In fact, in the 9 months we’ve been a band, we’ve released over 15 free tracks to our subscribers (in addition to the 5 free songs they got for signing up!).  We’ve also gone out of our way to create new kinds of free stuff for them.  For example, when we reached 1000 subscribers, we offered them all free personalized signed wallet cards that certified them as one of our first 1000 fans.  We made and mailed them out ourselves, and fans really appreciated them.

My point is this:  we started our relationship with our fans by giving.  And then giving more.  Then more.  This is the first time we’ve really tried to sell anything to our mailing list, and it’s been 9 months!  Fans jumped at the chance to support us, and many many more were disappointed that we sold out so quickly, because they didn’t get a chance to buy.  We’ve shown our fans that we respect them and support them, and now they want to do the same for us.

2. The upside is infinite.

With a limited edition box set or super-deluxe package, you know exactly what you’re paying for and what you’re going to get.  However, with a Lifetime Membership, you will continue to receive value for the rest of your life!  Believe it or not many of our fans actually apologized to us for buying the membership, feeling guilty because they knew they would get more than $100 value out of the cards and they didn’t want to cheat us!

At the same time, the downside for us is very minimal.  Digital copies are free to make, and 100 fans spread across the world are easy enough to get free tickets for.  It’s a win-win.

3. We’re selling Memberships, not Products.

Instead of selling a deluxe, signed, limited edition box set or product, we decided to sell memberships.  The 100 people that own these cards are part of an elite club, and one whose membership will never expand, no matter how successful or well known the band becomes.  We’ve promised there will only be 100 of these drives, and we will stick to that promise.  It has become a matter of identity, not one of mere property.

So what does all of this mean?  Well, we’ve taken the first step in turning our music into a living, and we’re incredibly happy with the results.  Our fans are happier than ever too, especially the 100 who ended up with the Lifetime Memberships.  Many of them have even reassured us that they’ll continue to buy merchandise and physical versions of our music in the future!

So what’s next?  Well, we’ve still got to figure that part out.  I’ll keep you posted!

- Brian (I Fight Dragons)

Tweet My Song is an easy to use Twitter tool for song distribution and promotion on Twitter.  Simply upload a song on TweetMySong and tweet the link.  When you do, the link will direct to a hosted player where the song can be streamed in full, shared, and downloaded at the artist’s discretion.

The service provides reporting on trends, clicks and viral distribution.

Free and simple.

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By the end of this year, the TuneCore Artist catalog will have earned over $30,000,000.

This means that there is a song selling by a TuneCore Artist on iTunes every second.

Currently, TuneCore distributes between 150 – 250 releases a day.

I went head to head with Jeff Price, President of TuneCore, to find out how he created the world’s largest distributor of music in only four years.

“Music distribution is what we do, and we do it better than anyone else”, Jeff started.  “We are the first place music stores come to get the music and we pride ourselves on this.  When we launched four years ago, we got to change the world: For the first time in the history of the music industry, anyone could ‘sign themselves’ and get worldwide distribution of their music while keeping all their rights and 100% of the money from the sale of their music.  That was a game changing paradigm then – and still is today!”

TuneCore recently announced a partnership with Universal Distribution (Interscope, Universal Republic, Island Def Jam, Motown, Geffen and more), bridging the independent music market with the most sought-after music catalog in the world.

“This was a deal I did solely to provide artists with more options.” Jeff comments.  “In a nutshell, in addition to regular old TuneCore.com, we will also be hosting and serving websites for Universal labels that provide artists with distribution while taking none of the artists’ rights or revenues.  If an Artist chooses to get their distribution via one of the label portal sites (as opposed to TuneCore.com), they will have a direct line into that label.  This means the label will be aware of you, have heard your music, be up to speed on the success you are having, etc.  The label can reach out to you to offer more marketing, promotion, physical distribution and anything else.  If they do, the artist can choose to talk with them, tell them no, tell them yes, tell them they will get back to them or simply decide to continue to do what they had been doing to that point in time.  All the options.  No strings.”

From physical distribution via 215 Guitar Center stores to media widgets that distribute TuneCore customers’ content across the social web, TuneCore has made a name for itself by providing dozens of opportunities centered on the most accessible and competitive music distribution model of our time: Flat Fee. No Commission.

Not distributing your music with TuneCore?  Start now with a 30% discount!

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Pubic Enemy is the first established act to sign with SellaBand, the fan funding platform for music artists.  SellaBand will facilitate the fan funding process for Public Enemy’s new album with the band aiming to raise $250,000 in increments of $25.00.  Fans who invest in Public Enemy will receive an exclusive, numbered copy of the album and share in the revenues from sales of the record.

“SellaBand’s financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse,” says Public Enemy front man Chuck D.  “It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there.  The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board.”

The news follows an earlier press release from SellaBand announcing an improved and more accessible fan funding platform for independent artists, which I wrote about here.

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This is a guest post by Brian Mazzaferri

My name is Brian, I’m in a Nintendo-Pop-Rock band called I Fight Dragons, and we currently get over 200 new fans signing up for our email list every week.

We officially launched just under six months ago, with 0 fans on the list.  As I write this, we have 3656 subscribers.  We didn’t add a single fan ourselves, these are all people that have signed themselves up, that we now know, love, and interact with on a regular basis.  They are our biggest champions and a constant inspiration to us to keep working harder and pushing ourselves.

Note: there has been no label investing in us, no management company pulling the strings, no 800-pound gorilla confusing the issues.  While I appreciate the creativity of endeavors like those of Radiohead and Trent Reznor, let’s be honest; it’s not rocket science to make the internet work for you when you already have legions of fans.  That’s the easy part.  Offer them stuff to buy, and they will buy it.  Tada.

But how does a new band go about getting fans when starting from scratch?  Most advice on the subject is sorely old-hat (just play as many shows as humanly possible and never stop), or hopelessly impersonal (add 500 targeted MySpace friends every day).  The problem is that it all revolves around impressing the industry and getting to the point where someone will drop a big chunk of change to buy you a fanbase.  And there’s the root of the problem, because in the internet age money just can’t do enough.  So unless you get on TV or become famous for some other reason, the key is finding a real way to establish and grow meaningful relationships with an ever-growing number of fans.

So I humbly submit our method, which so far has been going pretty well.  For the sake of brevity, I’ll boil our online strategy to three core steps:

1. Give your music away, but don’t throw it away

We’ve given away a free digital copy of our debut EP to everyone who signs up for our email list.  For people who don’t know us, it’s a free and easy way to learn about our music for free.  And then we’ve got their ear.  Note, this is VERY different to just posting it online for free download.  The price may seem the same, but the result is 100% different, because we now have a foot in the proverbial door.

2. Regularly give away stuff that’s way too good to give away

Next, we send an email to our list every Monday at 11AM (for the most part).  More weeks than not, that email contains free music.  And not just some off-the-cuff track, it’s a track that is up to our personal standards, which I’d like to think are very high.  In holding ourselves to that standard, we give our fans something new that they really want to show their friends.  And when the next new track goes out, the new converts get to become the evangelists.  But they need new music to do that, and not just any new music, YOUR BEST new music.

3. Be real, be available, and be involved

This seems like a no-brainer, but it actually takes a LOT of work.  We’re on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, our Blog, and TheSixtyOne every day, talking with people and being involved in conversations.  I’m NOT talking about one-way, blast-yourself-out-there stuff like MySpace adding.  I’m talking about joining in conversations on Twitter that you have something to add to.  About commenting earnestly on music you like.  About joining a community, not trumpeting your own message.

Of course, you’ve still got to play live (and put on as great a show as you can muster), you’ve still got to have great music and high standards (in whatever context you choose), and you’ve still got to get out there and network, to become a part of the physical community as well as the virtual one.

But ultimately, in the early stages it’s not about the money.  Or I should say, it’s not about the marketing money.  It’s about you, your music, and your willingness to put in the time and energy to develop real, deep, and meaningful connections with fans.

Following Radiohead’s example, Alice in Chains are giving away the first single, “A Looking In View”, from their latest album, “Black Gives Way To Blue”.  The much anticipated release was preceded by a number of videos of the group fooling around in the studio.  Get the single here.

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Pandora, the revolutionary streaming music and tastemaker service, and one of the most disruptive promotional platforms for musicians of every style and caliber, has imposed new rules for submission of music to its playlist database by artists and labels.  In the past, Pandora accepted music in almost any form at no cost.  Now, artists and labels must have a CD of their music, a unique UPC code for that CD (for vendors to keep track of inventory), and it must be available for purchase on Amazon, rules that most artists and labels already comply with.  However, some indies are not yet on Amazon.  In order to meet Pandora’s new criteria, artists and labels will need to obtain a unique UPC code for the physical album they wish promote prior to joining the Amazon Advantage Program at a cost of $29.95/yr, per Pandora’s recommendation, to make it available for sale.  These new measures will standardize the album artwork spec Pandora displays on its playlists, pulling all the images directly from Amazon, and linking every playable track to the Amazon store.  Amazon takes a 55% commission from sales from which it pays Pandora a share for referrals.  Considering that the Net proceeds of six or seven CDs annually will cover the cost of the Amazon Advantage Program plus the fee for the UPC code, I reckon that any artist worth hearing will be only too happy to oblige.

If you don’t already have a UPC code, you can get one here or through any number of musician resources such as CD Baby, Discmakers, and Nimbit.  Check out Pandora’s submission FAQ and Amazon Advantage Program for application details.

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ReverbNation has officially launched the much-anticipated Sponsored Songs Program previously covered on this blog and, with that, revealed the sponsor behind the initiative: Microsoft Windows.  1000 handpicked ReverbNation artists are being featured on www.MySpace.com/Windows from June 24 through September 24, 2009 and their songs will be available for download for free.  Participating artists will be compensated by Microsoft for every free download to the tune of $0.50 in exchange for a Windows advertisement embedded on the digital artwork.  The three-way partnership is a potentially break-through digital distribution model, providing corporate brands with the means to tap into new, music-centric audiences and creating a fund for independent artists to finance their marketing and distribution activities.  If ReverbNation can find a way to scale this idea (i.e. bring on board more sponsors) and roll out consistent promotions, I am confident that indie artists from every musical sphere will be lining up to get on board.  While I’ve come across some cynics since the launch, I fail to see the downside.  Here is Microsoft’s point of view.

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