Publishing music online

I tend to agree having a realistic perspective about how likely it is for most of to get noticed. I get a ton of personal satisfaction from making music and sharing it with a few friends. But mostly just from making it. When I’m more confident in my final product, I’ll care more about sharing. And this isn’t really related to the thread, but here I go…

…I don’t get why the masses are so willing to share their sub-par music with everyone. Maybe its just the culture of social media, but I’m not super interested in blasting my mostly just-listenable music all over the internet. This is certainly not a dig at anyone in this thread ; )

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Agree 100%. That’s where I’m coming from as well. It can be disheartening. I wish I had more positive and practical advice to contribute instead of lamenting lack of connection in the modern musical world, hehe. Maybe look into netlabels. I seemed to garner most of my listens and correspondence with fellow artists and “fans” through those channels. But, again, that was several years ago. Early 2000’s. I would have no idea which specific netlabels to recommend at this point. If you come across some good ones, post back.

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LMFAO. You make it sound so easy. If we could all do this no one would need the PR guys.

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as many as possible could also be 5 listeners if that’s all that is possible for me :wink: Won’t be very famous then

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Ha. Yeah, it’s kinda like knowing they put water and sugar and brown stuff into Coca-Cola. I have no idea how to actually make a bottle of Coke taste 100% authentic though. :grin:

Just like it used to be. Just for the impulse to create and the joy of sharing it with friends. The ‘industry’ has been around less a century out of all time of humans creating and performing naturally.

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Absolutely. Things are just getting back to normal, I say.

How many people here are registered with ASCAP/BMI etc. ? Just wondering, it’s a good thing to do but I find a lot of musicians do not do this anymore.

here you can upload a mix from your music to start the journey

good luck with your project :slight_smile:

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I use landr to release my tracks myself on all major streaming services. Cost £1 per month to keep them up though (up to 10 tracks), but its really easy

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Whilst its really anti consumerism and shows what a nice person you are having all your music free or pay what you like, it also sends out the negative message that your music has no value, people tend to ascribe free stuff to low value, hence are more likely to play it only a few times if at all.

So if you want to build a fanbase then charge a fair price for your music like every other successful artist does, nothing wrong with having a few freebies, especially once you are established, but by charging for your music you are asking your fans for a small commitment in return for music that you have committed to, this type of fan is really the only kind worth having, as they are more likely to help spread the word about your music than the guy who downloads/streams 1000 free tracks a week every week.

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I agree. It’s kind of sad. A fair price might be the right way to go.
Many people don’t value musicians at all, because there are so many out there these days.

Damn you Radiohead and your pay what you want “In Rainbows”!

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Yes it is a psychological thing, when established acts like radiohead, aphex twin or legowelt or whoever give away free tracks they still have value exactly because they are established.

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Yes, music should always be made to honestly express yourself and never for monetary reasons, however this does not mean that you should not charge money for “the product” that is the recording.

FWIW I have released free stuff that has had over 200,000 plays, I have had my music given away free on a CD of over 30,000 copies, radio play on the BBC and other major media platforms, also self released stuff on tape, CD, vinyl and had record deals with independent labels on CD and vinyl, glowing reviews and appeared in DJ mixes and “top picks” etc etc. I am very grateful for all of this, but ultimately the only target audience for my music is myself, and it always has been, anything else is a bonus/just gravy.

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this! and sometimes it doesnt even help if its fresh and new when its pushed to the wrong platform. i just recently read a very good article in our german music magazine “Beat”. they spoke about the role of Music today. why it became so incidental, how its consumed on the side of things we do, how people are not paying that much attention to it, how they cannot enjoy it on its own anymore. how its primary - and sad - role turned into a background for media that catches more attention. like videos. they couldnt give the ultimate answer as to why that is, but they outlined that our perception of music must have changed - thanks to web 2.0, thanks to Soundcloud and the like that made it possible for everyone to put music online. and now we are saturated with music of all kinds so heavily that its literally impossible to find what we are looking for if we really look for it. so we rely on the algorithms of our Streaming Apps and hope for suggestions which fit our needs in exactly this moment. we consume it as fast as possible and we move on. and only in the rare occasion where we got something suggested that catches our attention and touches us in the right places we want to know more about the artist and start to actively search for him/her. guess how high the chances are that you - as the creator - are the person who is found that way. even if your stuff is fresh and new …

So: Currently the best way to get your Music to the folks out there is Youtube i think. It lets you deliver what people are looking for these days: And thats Entertainment. If you garnish the Music with an eye catching Video you can grab the attention you want. And if you learn how to properly tag Videos and write the Title/Description to reflect these tags your Videos will be found. And if the right people found them: you are famous much faster than you thought :smiley: Im almost sure that this will not work with the Music alone anymore. Not even with Spotify and the like. We have to adapt now. The faster we get this, the better.

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I run a very small net-label; really just releasing some music from me and a few friends.
I think you have a choice:
You can really push hard with the marketing, the networking, the social media, all the rest.
Or you can just release stuff and hope to reach some people more organically.

I’ve chosen the second option, because I find the marketing stuff really exhausting and unpleasant. So the audience is very small; nonetheless, our releases have a small number of dedicated fans. A little radio play on non-commercial stations. That’s enough for me.

I think participation in a local music community is important. I play shows reasonably often; not at clubs, because we don’t really have clubs here (that have live music). I play at bars and galleries and house parties, with bands, with people that I know.

I know too many world-class, incredible musicians who have no commercial success to worry about the smallness of my own audience. So I just make it available and let fate take its course.
https://freezingworksmusic.bandcamp.com/
(I use distrokid too)

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yes, there are countless in the world wide web.

Yes. But I mean personally, even! I have friends who should be professional musicians by rights, but it’s not possible. We live pretty far from any major markets. It doesn’t really matter how good you are.

I think this is a big part of the problem. Why some people upload half baked ideas that don’t even them would listen? Just for the sake of uploading something. It is not an obligation, and many people would notice and appreciate the fact that you had some kind of thought put to your music.

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