Public release platforms on a limited budget

[funsongs]

p

I don't own a smart phone... and won't.

I've never owned a smart phone either, and I might be a couple of decades behind you (in age). Also not on Facebook/InstaTweet/SnapClap whatever. I hope I won't now get Flak from the people who gave me some for not using a DAW yet. Tom

HA - you just gave me an idea - if I ever get a courier pigeon, I'll name it "DAW".

[annayarbrough]

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

Or just pretends to

Peter, I've found my website useful for pushing direct sales (no commission taken, I'm in total control of my rates) and Bandcamp is great too - free to use and low commission.

Spotify is where my streaming numbers are at (the difference between my Spotify and Apple numbers is laughable.... thousands vs hundreds) - Spotify has a great play-listing culture.

I think finding a good distributor is key... like someone mentioned, people will listen wherever they like to listen. The more places the better.

[funsongs]

Peter... and Bandcamp is great too - free to use and low commission.

Free 30-trial, maybe? But not totally free...?
Or, did I miss something?
My search at it showed $144 per year, minimum.

[annayarbrough]

Peter... and Bandcamp is great too - free to use and low commission.

Free 30-trial, maybe? But not totally free...?
Or, did I miss something?
My search at it showed $144 per year, minimum.

Not sure what that's for - but I definitely don't pay for mine

[jaywilliams]

ok so a couple of points are missing from this thread - from my understanding, in order to reach the streaming services you must use an intermediary (distribution service). there are many of them, a lot of taxi folk speak highly of distrokid. I've released a handful of singles using both distrokid and songtradr, but there are now several "free" distributors as well.

distrokid pushes to YouTube and collects the resulting royalties on your behalf, usually the video they release is just your cover art set to your song. so far I've not been super happy with distrokid as I feel their business model is a little sneaky, they have a lot of ways to upsell you if you aren't paying attention to what you are doing (example given: plus $1 per year per track for Shazam)

songtradr costs more ($50/yr vs $20/yr) but includes a licensing platform and they give you streaming stats that you would have to pay for on distrokid. I also have a sneaking suspicion that songtradr pays better than distrokid, due solely to my limited experience of having released a handful of singles from each service, and one is showing revenue while the other hasnt shown any yet, time will tell I suppose.

one issue I (and many other artists) have run into is songs getting distributed and grouped with songs from other artists with similar names. it doesn't appear to make a difference in terms of getting paid for the streams, but it's sure making it difficult to build a following around my tracks.

tip: carefully research your artist name before releasing your tracks for streaming, don't use a generic name like, say, Jay Williams, or you can run into issues.

best of luck Peter!

Jay

[eeoo]

I don't pay for bandcamp either.

[lesmac]

More info to inform [or confuse ]
https://aristake.com/posts/images/Distr ... 281%29.jpg
That link came from this page.
https://aristake.com/post/cd-baby-tunec ... imbalam-or

[eeoo]

Bandcamp is not a distributor

[DesireInspires]

I tried to release an album through TuneCore, but some weird message about my music fit the criteria for potential streaming abuse.

I just said no. I’ll probably be going through DistroKid.

[annayarbrough]

[...] and Bandcamp is great too - free to use and low commission.

So I guess it is a different fee structure? DistroKid maybe a one-off, and Bandcamp is "free", but takes a percentage? Just asking, because I really have not researched that. Tom

Yeah exactly... just looked it up, it's a bit higher than I thought... 15% on digital. I've found it good for the exposure though... got connected with a great online magazine on there and they ended up reviewing my first album.