Public release platforms on a limited budget

[funsongs]

Hey, TAXI Buds...
an Old-Guy on a fixed income still needs (wants) to follow the RR Mentors' advice: release songs as singles (no more albums or CDs) on as many digital sites as possible.
And - if able - at least a lyrics video for You Tube followers.
QUESTION: so - for what's the best 'bang-for-the-buck'... and 'gotta-have' minimums?
Website... You Tube channel... those where listeners who wanna buy a track can do so?

Any & all help is appreciated.
Cheers.

[Razor7Music]

Hey, TAXI Buds...
an Old-Guy on a fixed income still needs (wants) to follow the RR Mentors' advice: release songs as singles (no more albums or CDs) on as many digital sites as possible.
And - if able - at least a lyrics video for You Tube followers.
QUESTION: so - for what's the best 'bang-for-the-buck'... and 'gotta-have' minimums?
Website... You Tube channel... those where listeners who wanna buy a track can do so?

Any & all help is appreciated.
Cheers.

Just replying here so I can be posted on the replies. I'm interested in the answers to your question too.

[lesmac]

Here is Apple's list of partners they use to push tracks to iTunes.
Might be a good place to start. https://itunespartner.apple.com/en/music/partnersearch

I imagine a minimum would be

1. To have a distributor [see above] get tracks to digital outlets. https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/ ... ing-m.html

2. Have a Youtube channel with lyric videos and links to the digital stores.

3. Have a Facebook artist page.

Haven't done it myself yet but will be doing so soon.

Looking forward to advice from people with experience.

[CTWF]

Hey, TAXI Buds...

Hi Peter. In the last TAXI TV show with Erin the music lawyer, two of the usual suspects, CD Baby and TuneCore, were mentioned. E.g. CD Baby states:

Make your music available on 150+ streaming and download services around the world, including Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, YouTube, and Deezer, all for a one-time setup fee. Wherever your fans prefer to listen to music, they’ll find you!

https://cdbaby.com/

An important thing to remember is to properly think about whether to check the publisher box, or not. Erin and Michael talked about that on the show. It could mean that your music cannot be signed by libraries anymore. Also, the structure of the fee(s) you pay for distribution is varying, and if the budget matters, you might have to look into different options and compare to see what is best for you.

DISCLAIMER: I have not used any such services myself yet, and I am generally clueless.

The good thing about SoundCloud and YouTube is that they are free. Obviously you are on SoundCloud. With YouTube one can run adds to promote the own stuff as far as I know (because YouTube reminded me of that on my own channel). I have not ever looked into that, but maybe it could make sense to run an add for a specific song that you have targeted to a specific audience. I don't know how expensive they are, but apparently one only pays if/how much the ad gets watched. Say, you have a great song with a faith context. Maybe you could run an ad, so that people who watch related contents on YouTube would see your ad, leading them to your song and to your channel. Maybe someone on here knows how that works. Maybe running such an ad could work as a kickstarter to get a certain followership/amount of subscribers. Not sure.

Again the DISCLAIMER that I have not tried any of that myself, but I might in the future.

Tom

[CTWF]

Looking forward to advice from people with experience.

For instance (and: no pressure!), Anna Yarbrough comes to mind. She seems to have it all: Homepage, a single for sale, etc. She knows her stuff, I am sure. Tom

[Kolstad]

I would just use Distrokid and be done with it. Great thing about them is that there is no administration deal, so you can still pitch the music you put up there to libraries.

[CTWF]

I would just use Distrokid and be done with it. Great thing about them is that there is no administration deal, so you can still pitch the music you put up there to libraries.

Ah, yes, I remember reading about them. Here is what they write on their web page - sounds pretty good!

Upload your music to stores today.

We'll get your music into iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon, Google Play, Tidal, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Deezer and 150+ other stores & streaming services.

Keep 100% of your royalties, get paid monthly.

In stores 10-20x faster than any other distributor, at a fraction of the price.

Pay only $19.99 to upload unlimited albums & songs for a year (our competitors charge at least 2x that just to upload one album).

Keep all your earnings—or set up "splits" to automatically route any percentage of earnings, from any track, to anyone.

Bonus features! Distribute cover songs legally · Get paid when other people use your music in YouTube · Unlimited backups · Instant Spotify verified checkmark · Manage your Apple Music page · Get your credits & lyrics into stores · Spotify pre-save · So much more...

https://distrokid.com/

"$19.99 to upload unlimited albums & songs for a year" - sounds pretty good to me. Maybe that is the way to go for you, Peter. Tom

[Razor7Music]

Good stuff!

Thanks all!

[eeoo]

+1 Distrokid. Also Bandcamp is great if you want try and sell directly to fans.

[funsongs]

I would just use Distrokid and be done with it. Great thing about them is that there is no administration deal, so you can still pitch the music you put up there to libraries.

Ah, yes, I remember reading about them. Here is what they write on their web page - sounds pretty good!

Upload your music to stores today.

We'll get your music into iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon, Google Play, Tidal, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Deezer and 150+ other stores & streaming services.

Keep 100% of your royalties, get paid monthly.

In stores 10-20x faster than any other distributor, at a fraction of the price.

Pay only $19.99 to upload unlimited albums & songs for a year (our competitors charge at least 2x that just to upload one album).

Keep all your earnings—or set up "splits" to automatically route any percentage of earnings, from any track, to anyone.

Bonus features! Distribute cover songs legally · Get paid when other people use your music in YouTube · Unlimited backups · Instant Spotify verified checkmark · Manage your Apple Music page · Get your credits & lyrics into stores · Spotify pre-save · So much more...

https://distrokid.com/

"$19.99 to upload unlimited albums & songs for a year" - sounds pretty good to me. Maybe that is the way to go for you, Peter. Tom

Thanks for the research, Tom. Yeah - I saw the TAXI TV episode, and have heard about the NO-CLICK advice, as to signing away publishing.
Bandcamp's minimum cost looks like $144 a year. But, wouldn't that be duplicating what Distrokid would already be doing?