Newcomers releasing music: Bandcamp? YouTube? Soundcloud?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Happy 2023, Nauts!

The “Commit to release something in 2023” - thread made me think about releasing on bandcamp.
Yes - it would be one of my ultimate goals to release a EP and to play live.

But: does releasing on bandcamp makes any sense for small hobby dawless nerds?
I mean - it’s NOT about making money. My YT-channel is tiny (300 followers) and average performances receive clicks between 400 and 2500 clicks.

So if you have few people listening to your music, there will be probably even fewer willing to pay for it. Therefore YT was my main choice, because I think it’s better to reach more people without being paid than vice versa.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks and best wishes

flo

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How do you release your music?
#2

Ive been self releasing stuff online since around 2015.
Soundcloud is a total waste of time. Its full of spambots.

Youtube, meh. Its full of ads.

Bandcamp, is awesome, I love it both as a listener and as an artist. People dont have to buy your music, but they can if they want. And there are more people out there that actually want to pay for music and support the artist than you might think.

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#3

While I wish for several more features and options, I confess I’m just addicted to Bandcamp as listener and as… well, artist. And also very glad they do not destroy their quite conservative web design every half a year, like everybody else is doing.

For a small artist it’s totally great. You can have 200 free downloads monthly per artist and can create several aliases for no cost. You have basically no limits on length and content of the album (only on single file size). My only gripe is the usage of PayPal as a core. I don’t like PP, it’s very annoying and expensive.
Currently the platform does not matter much, you need to draw an attention (on other platforms).

Another alternative is Jamendo, I used it a bit but many years ago.

Soundcloud… are there any real users there? My every little sketch is liked by some suspicios account. And the starter pack is too restrictive, only 2hours free and the streaming quality is questionnable.

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#4

Huh! I did not know that. Handy! Will have to check that out.

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#5

You can even link multiple accounts to a one to manage everything centrally (need only to provide email and password) and can even use the same email for multiple artist names.

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#6

What! My finger is not even close to the pulse. Need to investigate immediatley.

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#7

Users can also link the various alias accounts so you can toggle between them without logging in and out separately.

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#8

Hello ,and Happy New year!
This question is also bothering me.
Is bandcamp a really good source of music distribution and which other music aggregators do you use ?

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#9

soundcloud is the worst, i guess it’s good for releasing demos or whatever and the communal features are nice for some ppl but it’s really awkward to use.

bandcamp is the best, player is ok and you can sell your stuff.

youtube, eh i guess if you want to broaden peoples chances of listening to your stuff. never bothered to put anything there myself, except music videos or live shows.

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#10

From a listener’s perspective when I see something on YouTube or soundcloud it doesn’t feel like a ‘release’ it’s more someone sharing a track or jam or whatever.

Bandcamp feels more like a product and a release. It just feels more legit. Especially if you create a label with branding etc.

Personally if I upload to soundcloud or YouTube I’d share it and say here’s a new track I’ve just finished. To call something a ‘release’ I’d have it on a label or create my own Bandcamp site and label or artist profile.

That’s just me though and not saying it’s how everyone should think

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#11

That s exactly how I feel about it.

Also, on yt, people s attention is the product, not the content. Everyone make their own choices, but I stay away from this.

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#12

Bandcamps only artist payment channel is paypal right? Nothing else like payoneer etc?

#13

Paypal indeed
https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360007902213-How-do-I-get-paid-on-Bandcamp-and-how-often-

#14

I release random tracks on SC, “albums” and tapes on BC and videos on YT.

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#15

…first thing to realize in 21st century’s self promoting wonderland…if ur creating music, u do it for urself in first place, ur personal satisfaction of getting things really thought through, really finished/polished to be really ready to be released and all u want is somebody out there, who loves to listen to THAT…somebody who can relate to ur stuff…

nobody is really buying music anymore…but nevertheless “they” all still wanna listen…but 9 out of 10 only spent money for their monthly streaming farm subscription…1 out of 10 actually spents money on UR music directly…and that happens on bandcamp…

therefor, u better be available on both sides…in case u really touch “them” with ur music on some frequent bases, they might wanna support U and ur music…in that case, it’s more likely, they wanna go and buy a ticket to a show of urs or even buy some merch…and here, bandcamp rules like nothing else, since u can sell all kinds of merch there alongside with ur music and bandcamp does all the tradetravel to ur pockets directly via paypal…

u can say, fuk all these streaming farms and focus on utube and bandcamp only…
u already have a utube channel…go for frequent content, in best case, since it’s a visual platform, with a concept and a bit more than just stills, showcasing nothing but ur cover artwork while ur track is playing…while even that might work, if ur music really got that “something”…

while bandcamp is the last recordstore of the planet…there, people only spent money for truu quality…so let them listen to mp3’s as much as they want and in case they really wanna own ur music, offer hi res versions to purchase for reasonable prices…

those “if it’s for free, it must be shitty” days are over…but keep in mind, there are heaps of real shit out there every given day anyways, no matter what…so always give ur stuff some little but serious xtra effort…
only if u do so, “they” can tell…

if “they” once realize, ur material just sux, is always aiming for a senseless quick shot, ur doomed, over and out… but once “they” can relate and feel ur really into “it” for good reasons, u still can trust on word to mouth…since everbody wants to share the good stuff…

if u wanna make reasonable profits with nothing but music, with nothing but beeing a truu recording and perforing artist, it’s quite a challenge beyond just producing good tunes…real money is only left in that game, if u get ur ass out there, perform and play ur stuff live and be able to claim that officially afterwards…that’s quite a way to go…

so for now…utube?..YES, check…bandcamp?..YES, check…
some tiktok shorts?..maybe…presence on streamingfarms?..sure but also maybe…
some booking agency?..hell yeah, if u can…

but most of all…never underestimate the groupfactor…no matter how much u work, it’s better if ur part of some comunity…go for contacts beyond ur screen…find same minded people in the real world and co work TOGETHER…and cross promote each other…

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#16

…oh, and while we’re on it, a little reminder…

there’s a huuuuge difference between a utuber and releasing music on u tube…be careful with this…

if u wanna be perceived as an artist, don’t also do tutorials and stuff like that…
sure u can make even more like a “career” as a utuber with such content…but if u wanna do so, make sure to keep such content strictly separated from whatever ur releasing concept might be, when it comes to ur music…

people need some myst factor to the artist and their music they like…
if that same artist is also the guy who tells them how to mix/produce and which tools are cool and how to use them, their perception of ur music, of u as an artist, no matter how solid, is switching…

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#17

I had a feeling there was this distinction, but couldn’t put it in words. There seems like there should be an Artist’s channel and a YouTuber channel.

Also, I did a little kinda experiment where I uploaded some January tracks linked to a YouTube upload and a SoundCloud upload, and the SC gets more plays than the YT one.

Is it the extra beat for the player to load that’s not getting the play, or the immediacy of the SC player on the page?

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#18

…soundcloud, once, was huuuge, when it came to discovering music…
it was totally for free and half a generation was used to dig for their shit there…
i guess, what u experience, is some kind of late shadow of those days…
billie eilish was pretty much the last artist that got her career boost start from nothing but soundcloud…
nowadays, soundcloud is simply too crowded with dj mixes and demos…
and their latest not so free for real anymore policy makes it all crumbling…

while even there, if ur stuff got “something”, has truu quality and originality of some sort, ur music has it’s own “power” that get’s u to all kinds of places…eventually.

so sure, to have some of ur content also uploaded there is no mistake…it’s always better to be found all over the place…but u really gotto focus and emphasize the right corners…whatever that might be…

more and more mouth to feed…more and more range of offers…
more and more artists who can make some sort of living with their music…
but less and less people who really make their truu cut…
all kinds of careers possible…but the vast majority runs pretty short…
consumer cycles and modern times just get faster and faster and faster…

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#20

Bandcamp is my preferred choice and imo it’s perfect for the dawless minded. You can chose whatever price you want and even if you decide it’s free people can still opt to purchase your media… Ive made $50 from the kindness of other people… which is about $48 more then Spotify has given me.

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#21

What does this mean?

1 Like