When I read the book, I was working for a large music production company in Charlotte NC. My job title was Business Development Account Manager, and basically I was responsible for growing our digital music business. This book was partially responsible for growing our sales by a factor of 10. When I moved on to start my own business, we were making a quarter million dollars per year, with digital downloads only (that didn’t even include physical CD’s).  More about Andrew.

So, enough said. This is a great resource from a guy who has really done it. It has helped thousands to succeed (including myself) and should be on your virtual bookshelf, if you’re serious about succeeding with your music online.

Email is a free and easy way to accomplish this. Whenever you have a newsworthy development (new song, cd, gig, etc) let them know. The best type of email is quick and to the point, but with an actionable item that your friends/family can quickly do.

Email marketers and web gurus will tell you that one of the most important tools you can have online is a responsive email list. In fact it may be the most important tool. That’s why each and every website that we create here at FindYourFans has a built in email list tool that can be set to auto - notify all your fans each time you write a post on your site.

Caleb Brumbelow recently sent a quick email to all his peeps to let them know that he had a new website, and an online presence where they could get his music. I did the same, promoting his music from my website at Andrew R Rogers.com.

By keeping your peeps informed, and giving them some music to work with, you are actually growing your marketing power exponentially, by giving them the power to tell their peeps, who tell their peeps, and so on and so forth. You get the picture.

Here are Caleb’s website stats before the emails:

And after the emails - notice the visitor count has doubled.  We’ve increased exposure to Caleb’s music by 100% in a few days:

I decided to use Kunaki for a recent project that I had co-produced. Below is my experience.

1. Download the Kunaki software here.
2. Install and run the software. After installation, there will be a link on your desktop to start the program.
3. Progress through each screen of the software by clicking the green arrow buttons. Very straightforward.
4. If you need a free UPC barcode, make sure you select “yes” for this option on screen 2.
5. Enter as much or as little data about the CD/DVD as you’d like.
6. On screen #3 you’ll choose from two main options: auto design or custom design. The main difference is that auto design uses only 1 image, and “intelligently” resizes and stretches it, providing images for every part of the project from cover to back. Then the software adds text that you’ve entered in the previous screen. Using custom design, you’ll choose 4 separate images, one for each part of the disc. I’ve used both, depending on my timeframe and the “professionalism” that the final product requires. I’ve had success with both, but the custom design is really the way to go if you need full control over the product.
7. After you’ve chosen either “auto design” or “custom design,” play around with the images, text and data until you’re happy with the result. The software provides a nice preview of the product, as you’re creating it. Check and double check each part of the CD by virtually opening the case, rotating it, and inspecting it.
8. The next screen will capture data from the master disc you are trying to replicate. The Kunaki software will make an exact copy of the data on your physical CD (or DVD). Make sure the CD you are copying is perfect, before starting this process. You may want to spend some time learning about the Redbook Audio Cd Standard. This involves properly authoring the disc, making sure it is finalized, and that it plays in all manner of CD player from the cheapest to the most expensive. The finished product you receive from Kunaki will in fact be an exact copy of this master disc. When you’re ready, insert the disc into your drive, select it and its contents, and hit the green next button.
9. Click “save as” and name your product (something easy to remember, hard to forget)
10. Click the green arrow button, and the software will begin compiling your product (this takes about 10 minutes)
11. By hitting the “Launch Product” button, you’ll do a final check of the project, before uploading. You can print out the artwork, test the audio files for glitches, etc. Hit “publish.”
12. In this next screen, either login to your account or create a new one. It’s free and easy.
13. The next step is to upload the compiled product (which includes artwork, data, and the songs on the CD) to Kunaki’s servers. The amount of time this takes will depend on your internet connection, but whatever you have, it will take along time. Use a computer with a solid internet connection that won’t go to sleep on you. started 1:45

Luckily for me, Pandora and services like it are streamlining this process of connecting people with music they really want to hear. Pandora is an online streaming radio service that learns what a listener likes, and gives them more of it. For Caleb, this means that his music will be exposed to listeners who crave the kind of music he produces. His music will be played right alongside Imogen Heap, Bjork, even Radiohead…. I’ve also heard that the Pandora iPhone App is one of the hottest available downloads right now. Learn more about Pandora.

It takes about 15 minutes to get your music into Pandora (well 15 minutes of your time - more like a few weeks until the music is live) Getting in to the system is relatively easy, if you have a physical CD to send:

Step 1: Prepare materials

1. Download, print and sign the Pandora agreement here: http://blog.pandora.com/faq/submission_agreement.pdf
2. Prepare your CD: Remove shrink wrap, tape, etc. Make sure your CD has your email address on it. Make sure your CD has a valid UPC. Pandora receives thousands of CD’s per day - make yours an easy one to deal with. They get album artwork from Amazon.com, so get your music to Amazon as well sometime soon.
3. Prepare a few pages of bio information (if you want and have time). Nothing crazy, just good info about your music and/or press releases.

Step 2: Package and send out materials to:

Pandora
Attn: Music Genome Project Indie Submission
360 22nd Street, Suite 440
Oakland, CA 94612

That’s about it. The amount of time it takes for you music to go live in Pandora seems to vary quite a bit, from album to album. I’ve had success following up with Pandora using either of these email addresses:

pandora-support@pandora.com
Listener Support and Product Feedback Inquiries

suggest-music@pandora.com
Suggest Music for Inclusion in the Music Genome Project

I’ve found that just about everything I try to accomplish online is harder and takes longer than it should (or than I want it to). So the goal will be to streamline the TuneCore process, and document the best, fastest, most efficient way to setup a new account and upload an album. For Caleb’s 16 track album, I spent about 1 hour gathering materials, setting up accounts, and adding album data. Then the uploads took about 12 hours (due to my slow Windstream account, and large wavefiles)

Materials and info to gather before you start:

Materials/info About you:

1. Your first and last name
2. Band/Artist Name
3. Record Label name (optional)
4. email
5. Phone Number
6. Country
7. Zip Code
8. How Did you hear about us
9. A new Password

Materials/info about your music:

1. Album Title
2. Artist Name
3. Whether or not this is a compilation album
4. 2 Genres that identify your music
5. Which stores you want to include your music in (I always select all stores)
6. Confirm your rights to distribute the music
7. Original release date of the music
8. Label name
9. UPC Code (if you have a physical CD, make sure to use the UPC of the CD, if you don’t have a UPC, TuneCore will generate one for your album)
10. Recording Location
11. Album artwork image (Typically this is the same artwork as the front of your CD. TuneCore accepts .jpg, .gif, or .png. The image must be a perfect square and greater than 600×600 pixels. It must be in RGB Color mode, and have a resolution of at least 72 dpi. The artwork needs to have the artist name and album name on the image.)
12. Audio files for each track. TuneCore recommends uploading wave files. Here is what they say: “We have found .wav files to be the most reliable and therefore recommend them first and foremost. Remember that they must be set at a 44.1 khz sample rate, 16 bit sample size and the channel set to stereo. Not sure how to convert your music? – Check out our tutorial.”

Step 1: Setup a new account

1. Go here
2. Click on “sign up for a free account”
3. Fill in the information
4. Continue to the next page
5. Check your email to verify your account, click on the verification link in the email.

Step 2: Add an Album

1. Click on “Add Album” after verifying your email address above.
2. Enter the information about your album
3. Choose your Amazon MP3 pricing (I always choose Front Line pricing - the highest - I don’t think a difference of a few dollars for a digital album influences a purchaser’s buying decision much at this time). Plus if people want the best deal, they can always buy directly from Caleb’s website here.
4. Click save info
5. Choose your Amie street pricing (this is a very interesting new digital store. Check it out here. The price of your music is dependent on it’s popularity. The more popular your music, the higher the price, the less popular, the lower the price. A very cool experiment. With great promotional opportunity. I always choose Front Line Pricing here as well.)
6. Add your album artwork by clicking on the album image. Click browse, and select the image file from your computer. Hit Upload.
7. After the artwork appears at the top of the page and looks ok, hit return.
8. Click on “Add Your Tracks” You can now build up your album track list by entering a song title, then clicking “add this track.” I like to do a rough, quick data entry of all tracks, then go back and double check for errors slowly and carefully. You’ll kick yourself later if you have any errors in the track names, and it can hurt searches in the digital stores. *Note* TuneCore annoyingly capitalizes every word in your song titles. Maybe they have a good reason for this that I don’t know about. Just be aware that all your song titles will be capitalized. Continue until all tracks are entered.
9. Upload audio files for each track you just entered. Their interface makes it appear as if you can upload multiple tracks at one time, but when I’ve tried this, I’ve had many stalled uploads that required starting from scratch. Better to hang around the computer and do one at a time.

Step 3: Pay for the album

1. First, do a final, careful check of all data, images, and audio files associated with your album.
2. Choose the Paypal account you want to use
3. Click Pay

You’re done! The album is on its way to the stores. In my experience albums have gone live in roughly 3 weeks, slightly better than TuneCore’s estimate. Here is the Green Zone Studio website stats for today - not much change. Today’s activities won’t bear fruit for another 3 weeks or so. Click on the image for a larger view.

I’ve worked with The Orchard, Ingrooves, CDbaby and TuneCore in the past. To my knowledge, only one of these offers a flat fee, taking zero percent of your sales. All the others take a percentage of the artists sales.

This is a double-edged sword. If you are an artist that will upload your CD and let it sit, snagging an occasional sale, then a distributor that takes a percentage will probably be more cost effective for you. However if you are planning an all out assault with your music, with the goal being a sustainable career in the online music industry, it makes sense to choose a distributor that will be cost effective for the long term.

For example, if you choose a distributor that takes 10% of your sales, and make $100,000 in downloads, you’ll play the distributor $10,000 of that. If you choose a distributor like Tunecore, and make $100,000 in downloads, you’ll still pay roughly $50 per year. Bottom line, if you’re thinking big, go with Tunecore, if you’re thinking small (which is fine too by the way) go with anyone else, after careful research. Here’s a quick best to worst rundown of services I have actually used (this may be a bit arbitrary because I don’t want to go into the why’s and how’s right now) Best at the top, worst at bottom:

• TuneCore
• INgrooves
• Cdbaby
• The Orchard

So having chosen TuneCore, let’s blast out Caleb Brumbelow’s music and get ‘er live, preferably well before the upcoming Holiday season (typically iTunes sales peak just after the holidays - people need to fill up their shiny new iPods they just got for Christmas)

Everyone wants to know “what is working in online distribution and promotion.” That’s what we’re trying to answer with this experiment. The stage is set, the music is ready, and we will blast his music to as many online websites, blogs, and outlets as possible, and drag you, our precious reader, along for the ride.

First a bit of background. Caleb has been involved with many bands throughout his journey. Check out the bio here. Recently he finished a self-produced album called “When I was sick.” He pressed up a number of CD’s and began sharing them with friends and family.

One of the people who heard the CD was musician and distribution and promotion strategist Andrew R Rogers, of FindYourFans. “When I first heard Caleb’s CD, I liked the production style and quality immediately. I liked how he blended the vocals with interesting electronic layers in ways I’d never heard before. But that was it at first, just an appreciation for the production style. The songs didn’t mean much to me. Then Caleb decided to have us (FindYourFans) setup his website, and I was exposed to his songs for about a week during that process. They became a kind of soundtrack as my brother and I worked on his website. I can now honestly say that “When I was sick” is my favorite CD. I haven’t had a favorite CD in 15 years. This is a very odd occurrence for me, but a welcome one. And it makes my job of finding Caleb’s fans much easier!”

So that’s where we start our journey; Caleb has a great CD, a solid website, and a few loyal fans. Next up: deciding on a Digital Distributor to get his music into the top digital retailers such as iTunes, Amazon, etc. There are quite a few options these days - CDBaby, The Orchard, Tunecore, Ingrooves, and a host of others. The choice (in our case) is actually quite simple.

Here is a “baseline” shot of Caleb’s current traffic levels to his website Green Zone Studio. Probably the most interesting stat will be the Visitors, on the top left hand side. We’ll track the growth of these unique visitors throughout this journey. Click on the image to see it in full size.

Next Article: Choosing A Digital Distributor