Are you still buying CDs and DVDs? I am, for the artists whose work that I consider timeless and worth collecting. Last week I ordered a DVD that contains videos of live piano performances by one of my favorite pianists, only to find that the same video is readily available on Youtube! I was expecting to see additional content in the DVD, thinking there might be exclusive interviews that comes with the DVD, but there was none.
The other day I was shocked to read about the digital music retail giant Amazon is no longer providing print on demand service for CDs.
The implications for musicians who wish to publish their music is that digitizing and publishing music digitally is not only a trend and but soon the only way (or the leading way) to sell recorded, copyrighted audio forms of music. Because of internet, musicians have access to channels to sell their work without going through traditional big labels.
Is that good or bad?
The pros are that the way music is being delivered is diversified and how people consume music has dramatically re-shaped the music industry. Indie musicians could record their own music, making their own recordings and sell their own music files through digital music distributors and do their own marketing, thus creating a great deal of opportunities for emerging musicians to have their music "heard".
Take a pianist for an example, the traditional way for a pianist to pursue a concert pianist career is to win a major international piano competition, in the hope that the exposure will attract big recording companies and artist agencies to offer concert engagements or recording contracts and all the marketing and concert bookings are arranged by the "managers". As a signed artists all you need to worry about is to give good performances. However, in a digital era, it is no longer the case, well, not entirely so. The music indstry has become "democratized" : an unsigned artist for the first time has equal chances to have their music heard on streaming service platforms like spotify, itune (and a ton of others), as a signed artist.
For an aspiring indie musician to produce a digital album there are five basic elements to consider:
Recording equipments, including hardware and software
Digital music distributors
Cover art and graph design knowledge
Social media and marketing
Understanding copyright
Recording is made much easier now due to technology advancement. A basic recording studio will consist of the following:
Instruments (for instance a piano, a guitar, a violin, or you if it is vocal, or a combination of all depending on the music type)
Microphones (there are a variety of affordable microphones in the market place to choose from )
An audio recording softward (DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation, for example, Ableton Live, Audacity, Garage Band)
A quiet space (a room, a basement)
There are many digital music distributors to choose from. My favorite is Onermp. Other popular ones include TuneCore, Distrokid, CD Baby. I like Onerpm becuase there is no fees to be paid upfront and the platform is very well organized with great marketing tools and data/revenue tracking features. It is worth it to try a couple to see which one works the best for you.
CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com
Onerpm http://www.onerpm.com
Distrokid http://www.distrokid.com
Cover art is required for your digital album. To design a cover art, you will need a cloud based designing software. You can subscribe to an easy to use software, or hire a designer to do the work for you. For designing yourself the following platforms are popular:
Canva http://www.canva.com
PicMonkey http://www.picmonkey.com
InDesign https://www.adobe.com/ca/products/indesign.html
I like Canva the best. It is easy to use and it has a dynamic community, and the elements and features are constantly renewed and enriched. The best is that there is zero learning curve. You can get a hang of it in about an hour or two. There are a lot of free resources within Canva to help you learn too.
Social media has become the most powerful marketing tool in the digital era, not magazines, not TV commercials, not newspapers. To promote your album and music, being present in social media is a must. The major ones to consider are:
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
Each of the social media platform provides different features. It is worth noting that choosing one or two to focus on is better than being everywhere because it could be overwhelming to be on every platform.
Understanding copyright is so important as to selectin
g right music to produce. Unless you are recording music you write yourself, you want to check if you need permission to record certain music. For music that is protected by copyright law, it is illegal to make covers without getting a license or a permission. The safest way is to stay away from copyrighted materials. I am a classical pianist so all my recordings are on "public domain" music, which means the copyright on the music has expired. Doing some serious homework on understanding copyright is essential.
Comments