Distributing an Indie Music Album - Part 2 -
The other day I posted about getting our album manufactured. But there is more to the story. Manufacture is only part of it - you have to get your product to market.
There are two basic distribution channels when it comes to music: digital distribution and physical distribution. Physical is easy: CD's and vinyl albums. Fine, you have them. Ever wonder how they get to the stores? There are a couple of ways, actually. Some stores (both brick-and-mortar and online) will only list CDs from major labels. So be it. Ignore them. You're too cool for them, anyway.
You can go to local stores and ask them to carry your product. Not a bad idea, especially for a project like ours. Small Christian bookstores might be very happy to have some product from local artists. You should also consider hooking up with a distributor. It will cost money, of course, but it's better than a box of old, unsold CDs sitting in the garage. We use SuperD, who has an affiliation with CDBaby. They are basically a catalog service for music stores to search for new product to stock.
But seriously, online is where it's at. Getting listed on one of the big sites is important. And, it turns out, easy. Companies like CDBaby and TuneCore offer a digital distribution service. iTunes does not deal with individual artists, but they will deal with the distributors.
CDBaby hosts it's own music store. But in digital marketing like this, the more channels you can get in, the better. So they also send your album to Amazon, iTunes and Digstation. It's pretty heady stuff seeing your Amazon page, or seeing you album in iTunes. Prepare
is listed on both, and we barely had to lift a finger.
So if you're an independent artist or a church worship team with an album to put out, don't worry about getting it out there. It's easier than ever. And don't forget to build a site, and a Facebook page, with some nifty buttons:
There are two basic distribution channels when it comes to music: digital distribution and physical distribution. Physical is easy: CD's and vinyl albums. Fine, you have them. Ever wonder how they get to the stores? There are a couple of ways, actually. Some stores (both brick-and-mortar and online) will only list CDs from major labels. So be it. Ignore them. You're too cool for them, anyway.
You can go to local stores and ask them to carry your product. Not a bad idea, especially for a project like ours. Small Christian bookstores might be very happy to have some product from local artists. You should also consider hooking up with a distributor. It will cost money, of course, but it's better than a box of old, unsold CDs sitting in the garage. We use SuperD, who has an affiliation with CDBaby. They are basically a catalog service for music stores to search for new product to stock.
But seriously, online is where it's at. Getting listed on one of the big sites is important. And, it turns out, easy. Companies like CDBaby and TuneCore offer a digital distribution service. iTunes does not deal with individual artists, but they will deal with the distributors.
CDBaby hosts it's own music store. But in digital marketing like this, the more channels you can get in, the better. So they also send your album to Amazon, iTunes and Digstation. It's pretty heady stuff seeing your Amazon page, or seeing you album in iTunes. Prepare
is listed on both, and we barely had to lift a finger. So if you're an independent artist or a church worship team with an album to put out, don't worry about getting it out there. It's easier than ever. And don't forget to build a site, and a Facebook page, with some nifty buttons:
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