Superbowl Secret for Independent Artists

Independent artists, listen up!  This is your chance to take advantage of the upcoming NFL Superbowl event... especially if you're looking to pull new fans.  Only a few know and understand this little secret I'm about to share with you.

As an independent artist, the biggest challenge is finding new fans.  You don't have a big budget to consistently market your music on radio and TV and build awareness.  Nope, not happening.  So what can you do?  Well, you can do what is called "piggy-backing".  That's when you piggy-back off of a well known event like the Superbowl and attached your music to it.  You can simply make a song that is relevant to the Superbowl, either as a supporter of the Seattle Seahawks, the Denver Broncos, or just football in general.  Call it the "Superbowl Superhit" or something like that... just something to spark attention from someone who knows about the Superbowl but might not know about you.  Post it on your social networks and use the word "Superbowl" to get people clicking.  So, while you're entertaining everyone who is into the Superbowl, you can introduce your music at the same time.  Make sure you tell them what they should do next if they like it, like "share with your friends" or "visit my website for more".  

So many artists have blown up off of this technique alone... and all it takes is a little awareness...  we all want to be entertained by what's familiar.  It's the secret for success for all independent artists.  Good luck, and go Seahawks! lol I mean go Broncos!  I really mean, go YOU.

Happy Recording.

SLICK
Follow me @JackOfJazz
Listen to my first release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ys3jANqDFk
Check out my team's beats at http://www.sfrbeats.com

What it means to be an INDEPENDENT artist..

Wassup, it's SLICK, I know it's been about a half a decade since my last post lol.. but I'll make up for it.  I want to talk about independent artists and what it means to be independent.  To me, it means being who you want to be, independent of what anyone else has to say.. including labels, managers, promoters, anybody!  It's one of the core meanings of being an artist.. an artist is creative.  The more unique you are the more creative you can be.. the more original you are, the less competition you have.  And the more you be yourself, the easier it is.  WAY easier.  People can tell fake quick... but a real person, someone who is different, is someone people will gravitate toward.  It can be a pretty scary thing being independent.. being unique and being someone who no one has ever seen before.  But it can also be very rewarding.  Just step out there on faith... make your music the way YOU want to make it, without the so called "advice" from the label or even experienced artists.  Just be YOU, and work hard, and you'll see.... you'll start attracting more attention and building more fans than ever!

SLICK
Follow me @JackOfJazz
Listen to my first release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ys3jANqDFk
Check out my team's beats at http://www.sfrbeats.com

How to Get Your Music on iTunes

We get asked alot of times how to get music on iTunes, the largest digital music store in the world. Well, here's the answer, with help from Crenk.com:

To get music on iTunes, you have to look at the companies that supply them with the music. These companies are referred to as "digital distribution companies", because they take music from artists all over the world and then distribute that music to the world's largest online stores. All of these companies take a cut for providing this service in some form or another.

We are also going to run through an example of how each site will work in terms of revenues for the artist. We will place 1 album per year for 2 years on each site. Each album will have 13 tracks. The artist's actual sales were $0.99 per track and the artist sold 1,000 tracks.

Cdbaby.com – Cdbaby is one of the oldest companies in this market and provide some great services, even though their website seems to be outdated by about 5 years. The prices are as follows:

Setup: $35 one time fee

Cut for Distributor: 9% of all income

Partners: You don't have a choice as to which online stores your music goes to, except for a very small list of selected retailers. The Cdbaby service is completely non-exclusive and doesn't tie up any of your rights. Their distribution partners include iTunes, eMusic, Hear Music, Last.fm, MusicNet, Napster, Rhapsody and others.

Example: The artist has to pay $35 upfront for the first album and then another $35 for second album, totaling $75 in initially. Sales would be $0.99 x 1000 tracks sold, which equals $990, and the artist would receive $900.90. Profit equals $900.90 less $75 costs = $825.90

Tunecore.com – Tunecore is the new player on the block who has been getting a lot of press attention for their business model. They've also signed some large album distribution deals.

Setup: $19.98 Per Album Per Year Storage. Plus $0.99 per store per album. Plus $0.99 per track.

Cut for Distributor: Nothing in terms of income

Partners: The choice is yours. You can send your music to one or all of their partners. Partners include iTunes, Amazon, Lala, Napster, Rhapsody, Music.com, eMusic and GroupieTunes.

Example: Costs would equal $19.98 x 2 for two years ($59.94), plus $0.99 per album for 5 stores ($9.90), plus 13 tracks on both albums at $0.99 each (25.74). Overall costs equal $95.58. Profit equals $990 less $95.58 in costs = $894.42

TheOrchard.com – The Orchard is currently one of the world's largest online distributors. They have over 350 retails partners in a variety of areas. I'm not going to run through their sections because they are very straight forward. The Orchard as far as 'Im aware doesn't charge for catalog inclusion. They also have a huge list of retail partners, but the big down side is that they are known for taking a very large percent cut. Plus, everytime I rang them, I could never actually speak to a person with any intellegance that atually got back to me on time with information about what they can provide. It was the worst service I have seen in the industry.

RouteNote.com – RouteNote is the new player on the block. They have a very basic distribution model and a growing list of retail partners. Since they are new on the block, they don't have as many retail partners as their rivals, but look for this to grow.

Setup: Free

Cut for Distributor: 10% of income

Partners: The choice is yours. You can send your music to one or all of their partners. Partners include, iTunes, eMusic, Limewire and Audio Lunchbox. They are also in talks with Amazon and Rhapsody to add their options to the RouteNote service.

Example:$990 is sales and the artist would receive = $891 (with no upfront costs)

This analysis proves that Tunecore is the best option for artists to retain the most revenue. However, the artist will have to pay $95.58 upfront and tasks the burden of selling 1000 tracks to realize the financial benefit. RouteNote is a new service but the results speak for themselves. Their service brings is nearly as much money as Tunecore, but the artist doesnt have to pay anything upfront at all! I hope this helps in your desire to getting your music on iTunes! Happy Distributing!

http://www.soforealproductions.com/

Real Beats For Real Artists

The Artist E.P.

What's an E.P.? It literally means "Extended Play"... coined before CD's were born. Today it can mean 'demo', or just a short album. E.P.'s have special significance in the internet world. With an E.P., artists can in a sense test the market with a collection of songs without full dedication to a CD's worth of material. This is great for artists looking to be signed to larger record labels. If you make a nice buzz on the internet with the few 3-6 songs you have, you can save your other gems for once you get that deal. Some artists are now even making a living release 4-6 song E.P's every few months. The internet makes it simple to do that.. why not output more music especially if music creation is getting easier. With digital distribution, making E.P.'s starts to make more sense. But ultimately it's up to you the artist. If you're staying independent, do your research and know your fans. Whatever they want, give it to them. I'd say if you're looking for a deal, focus on a good few songs and send that E.P. everywhere you can think of. Happy Recording.