Sell Your Music – How to Go World-Wide With Your Own CD
In a previous article called “How To Put Out Your Own CD” I told you how to sell your music by recording and putting out your own CD. The example used music, but it is the same process for spoken-word or any other audio you think people will want to buy. We will use the internet and the post office to now take it world-wide!
Once you have several copies of your CD packaged up, you need two more things: demand and distribution. Distribution is the ability to quickly get your CDs to people who want them, and demand is….well…people actually WANTING your CD. That last part is the hard part these days. So why don’t we start with distribution.
Distribution – Getting Them Out There
You want your songs to be on iTunes? I highly, highly, highly (get the idea?) recommend visiting CD Baby. For just a 1-time 29-dollar set up fee, they will distribute your songs to all those internet music sites, and….get this….sell your CDs for you!
After getting your account set up, you send them 5 CDs. They then distribute the physical CDs to Amazon, which is where your fans can buy those.
But the really valuable thing is the digital distribution. They will send your music to iTunes, Spotify, Amazon digital music, etc. That is how most of your fans will be able to find and purchase your music.
Demand – Making Them Want Your CD
Now you just need to get some fans and you’re on your way. I recommend starting your own website, with a blogging platform like WordPress, that you can use as a hub for your web presence.
Then start a fan page (or whatever they’re calling them now…”Like Pages”?) on Facebook. Set up all the other social media accounts, including YouTube. CD Baby also puts your music on YouTube! they are just the audios with a still picture of your album cover. but it helps a lot to get your music out there and monetized.
Put news and song samples on your website. Put banner links from iTunes on your site to take fans directly there to listen to your music and hopefully download it.
If you do all that and just keep building your fan base through social media, web updates, and of course, gigging. Your music will soon be available in just about every country in the world. You don’t get much more “global” than that. The vital part about your music not sucking is totally on you;).
Record your CD from your home studio. Learn how with Home Brew Audio tutorials. Good luck!