Last week I talked about how giving credit where credit is due can minimize band drama. You may recall that before that I had mentioned about why it’s important for bands to think of their music as a product. Well, in this follow-up post, I’d like to talk about how you can distribute your music online.

Before you can distribute your music though, you need a product “to” distribute. In fact, I recommend several. :) Keep in mind that since you love cheap and easy (After all, why get your free, legal tab from anywhere else?) these ideas are meant to be low-cost or “free” ways to help you out. There’s no shame in using the tools that are available to you — even if you build a following. A lot of bands still use print-on-demand t-shirts and the like so they don’t have to sit on inventory and store it in their apartments.

Without further ado, here’s some tips to getting “product.”

Bands Can Self-Publish Music on CDs and More!

Gone are the days of finding a label to distribute your music. As many musicians have shown their success through online resources like YouTube! and MySpace, you now have the option of becoming your own music publisher. This resource called the “Indie Band Survival Guide,” points this out by saying:

Your home doesn’t make a good warehouse. You don’t need to duplicate 1000s of CDs anymore. There are now services that will print your CD on demand – when a customer actually orders it. Usually these services allow you to order your own CDs at a discount so you can have an inventory on hand for live shows. –SOURCE: Print-On-Demand CD Resources

I could not agree with this site more. Even places like Lulu.com allow you to upload and package a very professional-looking product and what’s more — you can supplement your online music distribution with other print-on-demand products through places like CafePress or Spreadshirt. From t-shirts to DVDs, the only thing you need to do is make sure you have a quality product to produce.

Your profit margin may be smaller than if you go with a larger print run or a pile of t-shirts, but the benefit is that you don’t sit on inventory and you don’t have to come up with a ton of money up front. Many places have a lot of design flexibility, too. So if there’s a particular design that isn’t working for you — you can swap it out easily enough.

Besides hard goods, you’ll also want to ensure you have digital files of your music. From downloadable MP3s to other file formats, offering your music in digital formats is a great way to reach a broader audience.

Now that we’ve talked about getting a range of “products” — including CDs of your music — let’s look at two, other ways to distribute your music online.

Distribute Your Own Music Online

After doing a bit of legwork with some local bands and folks here who play, there were two sites that were mentioned for online distribution. I’m sure that there might be others, but these two stood out for the people I talked to.

Tunecore is an online distributor that will get your music into iTunes, Napster, Amazon.com and other places. They also offer a mastering service (pretty cheap per song, considering) that will ensure your music is of a professional quality. Here’s a little bit about their philosophy:

TuneCore is all about getting your music heard and available to buy. We want you to earn money from your music and make a living doing what you love. We believe that all artists and bands should have equal access to the channels of music distribution, the physical and virtual stores alike.–SOURCE: Tunecore

In order to get those listeners to hear you, you have to give them a way to do it. I know that some bands I’ve talked to were pretty resistant to the idea because they wanted to be more traditional or old-fashioned. Well? How are people going to know about how awesome you are unless you give them tons of options to listen to you play?

The other online music distributor that people mentioned was ReverbNation. The site has a much different feel to it than TuneCore, and it’s philosophy can be summed up from their website:

Nothing is more important to Artists than the relationship with their Fans. All of an artist’s financial success comes down to the strength and breadth of the relationships they have with their fans. It is from those relationships that artists can earn a living selling music, tickets and merchandise. It is our mission to provide the tools artists need to create, nurture, and strengthen fan relationships. We call the total value of these relationships an artist’s Band Equity™, and it is our mission to help artists maximize this.–SOURCE: ReverbNation

Whichever method of online music distribution you decide to use, do the math first and see what might be in your best interest. Different distribution models and company philosophies do come into play, so find the one that speaks to what your business plan is for your band. Don’t forget to also use your friendly neighborhood search engine to do some good searching, too. I found a ton of leads by typing in “print-on-demand music cds,” and I’m sure you can too!

Until next time, practice hard and master well — one of you out there may be a rock star one day, I just know it!