Selling Music for the Independent Artist

Top 10 Digital Music Artists

Unless you’ve been lucky enough to secure a recording contract with a major label, you know the struggle of getting your music out there while earning a profit. While selling music online is nothing new at this point, it can still be a confusing proposition for those who are new to the world of Internet sales. Before you give up on the dream of earning money through your musical prowess, take the time to learn a bit about online sales.

How to Sell Music: Getting Started

All of the musical knowledge in the world won’t prepare you for the realities of selling music online, because making music is an altogether separate animal from online sales. Without the support of a record label, you’ll need to focus on building your marketing and sales skills, as well as your musical chops.

When you’ve built a catalog of reasonably high quality, it’s time to start learning about the expectations of the average online music consumer. Shopping online for music through major Internet marketplaces like iTunes has created the expectation of instant delivery among the vast majority of listeners, so you’ll need to make sure your system includes automated content delivery. Even if you’re monitoring your sales alerts around the clock to manually share download links, you will inevitably miss a few here and there, which can have a significant impact on your customer service reputation. You’ll also need to be capable of accepting payment for the goods you sell, and customers are more likely to complete a purchase when they can feel secure about how their payment information is handled. Working with a reputable, trustworthy and recognizable service like PayPal or Google Wallet is best. Finally, you’ll need to find secure file hosting for your products.

While it’s certainly possible to find all of these tools separately, the most efficient and foolproof method is to work with a consolidated ecommerce system like PayLoadz.com, which streamlines all of your vital web store needs while combining them with valuable sales and marketing tools.

Selling Songs as Singles vs. Selling Full-Length Albums

Whether you choose to release your material piecemeal by selling songs individually or as a complete album project will depend upon your artistic vision and means. For some new musicians, financing studio time and production for a full-length album can be a challenge, so selling songs individually helps to generate capital which can be invested into a later project. However you decide to sell your music, marketing will still be the most important part of your new business venture. This is why it’s so important to work with a ecommerce provider, which allows you to make more time available to focus on promotional duties. Don’t spend all your time maintaining a web store; leave yourself time to perfect new material and promote your brand. With a steady flow of new songs and a dedication to marketing, you’ll be selling music and earning money quicker than you may realize.

 

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