So how does one really go about "selling" their song(s) on the internet? Okay, so this is a real doozie of a question because it's so broad, but I will attempt to answer. (Gee I sure wish someone had told me all this stuff when I started out doing this full time less than 2 years ago-it would have saved me about a gazillion hours...but I'm NOT bitter!) I'm glad we had my nephew (Brendon, 22, a songwriter too, who'd a thunk that??) here this weekend, since he was asking about all this same stuff. I know a lot of musicians need this information and don't know where to start or even look...it was good for me to review it all with him, so I'd know what to write here...
First of all, every song you write or want to put on a CD, needs to first be copyrighted (http://www.copyright.gov/register/sound.html). And the old mail it to yourself trick isn't really working too well any more... You can register like 30 songs online at the .gov site at a time, for only $35! And it's really important that you make a good if not great, demo. It can be a home recording if you have a good home mic and studio setup, but ideally it should be a professionally cut demo (some of the opportunities out there I discuss below take home recordings, but not that many). And have I ever mentioned that it's really competitive out there? So you DO want your music to sound at least as good if not better than everyone else's, right? But that's another bloggie...
The advice from some of my friends on Linked In Music is all good advice. They say get a good online presence. What works well for me is to have my own website, and yes, it does have to be great, (sorry!) My new one is from Section 101 (yes, that one, the www.DeDe-Music.com one!) and it's very cheap considering...and (aw shucks) it is pretty awesome too (thanks Kathleen!), especially compared to the last one I had which it beats by about 2 million coconuts to negative 1 million coconuts (so what if I happen to love coconuts?). I switched to Section 101, because my last website cost a whole lotta cha-ching, but looked like a whole lotta caca-doo. Plus, Section 101 covers your Hosting and you can do all your own updates for like $265 per year. (Google: "Section 101" and ask for Kathleen, and please tell 'em DeDe sent you, okay?) I also have Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (aka MyWaste), and YouTube. Looks like I may need to do a website building blog now too, hmm? Also: good photos and great videos seem to be where it's at now, especially music videos.
The better you get with Social Media, the better you will do, but if you're like me you need to work on it, (BTW I didn't know what LOL was for the longest time, I thought it was a new division of AOL or something...yikes)! And of course get out there and play music! Build a fan base with your gigs, your Social Media and website by posting some of your songs (or just clips if you don't want people to rip them off free on the internet! (which, of course has NEVER happened to me; sarcasm completely unintentional). There is free software on the web to make clips for your websites, and also even for hosting a website, etc.
It's up to you if you want to try to compile your music into a CD to sell. If you tour and do a lot of gigs, you probably need to have at least one good CD (8 plus songs), or EP (with 5-7 songs), and you need to get it mixed and mastered, especially if you don't use one producer for all the songs. If you do make a CD, then iTunes and CD Baby are where it's at to sell them online if you don't want to ship it all yourself...
Once you have great songs (and some decent professional looking photos), I would join some of the what I call "Music Licensing and Opportunities (and yes, some of these "opportunites" are utter & complete BS!) Sites". When you do, make sure you have good quality MP3's of your song available to upload to these sites: Music XRay, Broadjam.com (singer/songwriter), ReverbNation, Music Clout, & Hitlicense, and others. They all allow you to set up a free or semi-free account and upload your songs and send them to opportunities and synch licensing opportunities, for a fee. The two best for me are Reverbnation and Broadjam. I have not personally had much success yet with the others, but it sure beats what I call "the mega-waterhose treatment" of mailing your music to all the people out there in the biz. I did join Taxi, (and I'll save that fiasco for another time), but suffice it to say it was NOT a great investment...
So once you join, you build your page, you post your music and you submit it to the RIGHT opportunities (they give you reference songs, and a description, so please read & listen to them). If they want a sound/song like Taylor Swift, and you sound like Otis Redding or God forbid, Kermit the Frog, please DON'T waste your time and money submitting! Okay, now repeat after me: "join, build, post, submit", "join, build, post, submit". Got it? Now wasn't that easy?
Let me know how you are doing with all of this, okay? If you have any questions, you can comment here or email me on my webpage at: www.DeDe-Music.com/About. Please check out my weekly "Musician Stuff" BLOG here: http://dedewedekind.blogspot.com/, & if you have time after reading all this, please LIKE me at: www.facebook.com/DeDeWedekind. Thanks!!!
All the best to you in music & this thing we call "life"! DeDe
