Digital Distribution is Key for Your Musical Success

A lot of my readers tell me that their number one concern is that they are not making enough money as an artist and that they are not selling as many CDs as they would like. They say that they don’t know how to get in front of a larger listening audience and they want to know how to fix this problem. I will tell you that the problem has already been solved by MP3’s and digital sales.

Digital Downloads 

There are a number of reasons for this but chief among them is that MP3’s give you access to a much wider market and presents more opportunities due to its versatile and portable nature. With MP3', there are an endless array of venues to share your music like iTunes, Spotify and even Reverb Nation, and music is no longer confined to any one place. We carry our music with us at all times via smartphones and we can either buy or stream MP3's 

The era of the hard copy is dead or dying except for those aficionados like me who still enjoy the physical formats like analog, CD’s or albums. Now, it’s not to say that you should not be making CD’s, it’s just that they are no longer the sole means to purchase music, and while physical sales are in rapid decline, digital downloads now make up more than 50% of all sales in music.

 In a sense, we have returned to the age of the single being the number one seller in music. Why? Because listeners often only like a few tracks off an album, so are more inclined to buy individual songs rather than the entire collection, much like the old 45’s in the 50’s and 60’s.

I know it’s not the same, but in 2012 digital music sales have far surpassed the physical formats and that is just a reality we live with now.

Looking Ahead

 Lamenting the past is not earning you any sales or gaining new fans. Think about this: MP3 sales comprise 32% of label revenues, and the percentage continues to grow year after year. This is about 5.2 billion dollars in 2012 alone! What are we waiting for? Why should the labels be raking in all the dough when we can just as easily upload and sell our own music?

We have the digital world at our fingertips, literally. Spotify and other paid subscription internet radio stations are on the rise as well as cloud based services like SoundCloud. These outlets allow greater access to our audience worldwide. Spotify is one of the best places to listen and discover new music and the best part is that anyone with a CD Baby account can submit music to the station. What this means is that anyone who has the random player on and is listening to your genre will eventually come across your track. How cool is that?

How Bad is Piracy?

Some musicians and labels are concerned with digital piracy and worried that it might hurt sales. These worries are unfounded however as studies are now showing that piracy actually increases sales. It turns out that people who download torrents are more likely to buy the music they enjoy directly from the artist as opposed to putting that money in the hands of the major labels. Now more than ever, indie labels are looking real good to a lot of big names because they can work out better deals. Another thing the big labels will not tell you.

 Contrary to conventional wisdom, people are a lot more understanding of the musician’s plight and will support their favorite bands while the big labels are operating off the assumption that all people are thieves and don’t care about the artist. Obviously this is just plain false and don't let them tell you otherwise!

This suggests that even though person A downloads a torrent from person B, person A will look further into the catalogs of the artists they like and will make purchases. In fact, it seems as if the fans are downloading he torrents to insure they like what they hear before going on to buy the tracks.

People don’t see spending 99 cents on a song to be out of the question, especially when all they have to do is click to receive their song, plus, the assurance that it’s free of nasty malware is also a huge benefit. The myth that piracy is harming the musician is simply not true, despite how the industry pushes that meme. If your fans like you, they will buy your music.

Get Big In Japan

I know it pains a lot of you to think of music losing its tangible format. I too miss the physical act of going to the local record store and buying an album, with sleeve art and bios, having a conversation with the clerk about the latest Cramps release, but, this also mean wider distribution. Consider this: in 2011, countries that support digital distribution doubled from 24, to 58, and have doubled again in 2012, with the leading buyer of digital music being Japan. Do you think you can reach at least 1% of the population of Japan with the proper use of online marketing? Yes, you can. They absolutely love American music and chances are that there is an audience just waiting to hear your sound.

With the ease of distribution that MP3's offer, you can literally send a single track to millions of people instantaneously. The virality of data means that anyone, anywhere can listen to your music so why confine your thinking to regional markets? Think globally! By using EPKs (Electronic Press Kits), there is no reason why you should not submit your material overseas. Get social, meet people from across the pond and share your talent with anyone who is willing to listen. 

 Plenty of Room for Everyone

I get asked if older bands have a place in the digital world a lot. Absolutely. Statistics show that although youth is purchasing vast quantities of music, it’s on their parent’s dime. This means that their parents are the ones with the disposable income so they are also heavily buying classic rock, old school hip hop, alternative, and blues to name a few. So it pays to know your audience and where they are going to look for their music. Also, it’s important to recognize that while 30% of online traffic is due to Millennials ages 18-22, Gen X’ers comprise 23% of online traffic, followed by the late baby boomers at 22%.  This is 45% of online traffic that older bands should be marketing to with digital music releases. If you aren’t now, sign up with CD baby right now and upload your last album.

You Are In Charge

What the major labels are not telling you is that the independent artist can do quite well on their own. In one of last month’s articles, The Fabulous Miss Wendy told me that she sold 8,000 albums on her own, and a large portion of that was in digital sales. With the advent of MP3’s we have a variety of ways in which we can market ourselves, limited only by our imagination. One of the coolest ways I've seen is a business card, with a code that links directly to iTunes. With this, you can automatically download the mp3 on your smartphone and pay with Google Wallet.

Be Open To New Possibilities 

Another way to get your music out there is a neat little trick I picked up working at Rock N Roll Industries Magazine. We used specialized QR codes on one of the pages called a ‘digital jukebox’. With this, you can take your smart device and scan the code, giving you either a direct download, or again directing you to the iTunes store. How many ways can you think of to use a QR code to lead people to an MP3? You will sell far for MP3’s at a gig if you sell a card with your album on it; it’s far easier to carry with you and you won’t have to lug around a cumbersome disc at the show.

We live in an age of endless possibilities for the music artist and to neglect any of these avenues is to sabotage your own career. Now more than ever it is important that we make use of all avenues from CD’s to Spotify and everything in between. The days of selling 300 thousand records is long gone, but it’s been replaced by a medium with far greater potential for sales. Oddly enough, there are still independent record stores that do well with vinyl and CD’s because they provide something tangible and nostalgic, so don’t ignore them, just don't put all of your money there.

 To answer the question of how many CD's to produce, well, its hard to say, but i would produce too many. Think about how many followers you have, estimate ten percent will purchase our music, and only half of those will buy CD's. the rest will be happy to buy download cards from you and many will only want to purchase singles so have a variety of formats available to your fans.  Don't lament the passing of physical albums; embrace the new possibilities that await you.

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2012/07/24/music-sales-decline/

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1093/generations-online

http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/bittorrent-piracy-increases-sales-of-leaked-albums-study/