The purpose of this site is to review several of the promotional tools and distribution services that are available to independent musicians online. The industry is changing rapidly and the tools seem to be getting better and better. I truly believe that 2016 is a great year to be an independent artist.
This is a huge score for Mondo Tunes, teaming up with music legend Chaka Khan. This deal brings an entirely new level of name recognition to Mondo Tunes by distributing the music of a Grammy Award Winner.
Mondo Tunes is a subscription based distribution service that will distribute an unlimited amount of an artists music for $39.99 per year and they claim to take a 0% commission. As I have said in the past, the subscription based online music distribution services like Tunecore, Mondo Tunes, Reverb Nation and Distrokid are great services for the active musician. If you're not constantly releasing and marketing music, watch out, because the subscription fees could eat up all of your profits if you are only a part time artist. Obviously for Chaka Khan, this will not be an issue, because she will sell and stream thousands of copies are her upcoming single "I Love Myself"
Mondo Tunes also offers Music Video Distribution services (for a one time fee of $249), Press Releases and a ton of other marketing programs. They may have more retail partners than any other company in the world because they use the same digital distribution as Universal Music Group. If you distribute your music on Mondo Tunes, your music will be virtually in every retail outlet that sells music online.
If you're reading this blog, you are
probably a musician like me, that knows exactly how to spend hundreds
of dollars on studio gear, instruments and software, but when it
comes to marketing, even the expenses under $100 seem to hurt. Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions or
statements?
I wish I could find a graphic
artist for my new album cover that costs less than $300 and will
actually give me something I want.
I am broke and I need an album
cover, but I don't know anyone.
A lot of album covers that I've
seen these days look cheap and simple, why is that?
I just need a simple album cover
for a cheap price, I am broke.
I don't know what I want on my
album cover, that's why I'm calling you.
Why do graphic artists take my
deposit for an album cover and then disappear for two weeks?
I know I explained to this graphic
artist, exactly what I wanted for my album cover, and they made
something totally different and now they want to charge me to make
changes.
I heard that there are people
overseas that are graphic artists that will work for cheap, unlike
the spoiled local college brats that are over charging me.
Hello Facebook friends, can anyone
recommend a graphic artist for me?
OK, five bucks, I think I can pay
$5 to get a cover for my next single, I just need something basic.
Well, I think you've come to the right
blog post? Fiverr is an amazing place, where people across the world
offer services starting at $5. You can find graphic artists, translators, musicians, SEO web specialists, graphic designers and more. So why did the title of my blog post say “...
less than $25?” Because the truth is, at fiverr, the prices for
gigs start at $5, but you probably need a few “extra gigs” to get
exactly what you need. But before you start comparing fiverr sellers,
there are a few things that I recommend you get, no matter who you
hire to design your album cover.
Get a square version of your album cover that is 3000 x 3000, 300 dpi, .jpg less than 15mb.
Make sure that you either have the ability to resize your own image, or you pay your graphic artist to output different sizes, based on the table above.
Make sure to get the source file (photoshop, illustrator, or whatever program they used)
Getting your source files important, because, you may want some small change later on, two years from now and you can't expect your graphic artist to have archived this file. Save yourself from a huge headache later. The following is a list of some of the artwork dimensions that
you need for some of the main distributors. You would
think that this is an industry standard, but it seems like every
distributor wants something a little different.
You'll notice, that on fiverr, some
graphic artists charge a little extra for each of the three rules
stated above, which is why the $5 simple album cover is rarely a
viable option. $25 is more reasonable, and depending on the seller,
it may cost you up to $50, but keep in mind … most retail graphic artists are charging anywhere from $200-$500 for album covers. Keep your
options open.
Here are five great sellers on fiverr
that I have found:
Topspin Media is a service for
musicians and filmmakers that has been around since 2007, according
to wiki. When I started looking for ways to
promote and sell my music in late 2012, Topspin came highly
recommended from a friend. He told me that it was a cutting edge tool
that major artists and labels were using and is now available to
lowly peasants like myself. At first, it all seemed too good to be
true. They offer a customizable store, where you can sell
merchandise, digital downloads and concert tickets in one interface
and get direct deposits to your bank account for $9.99 USD per month
and a small commission (15% Sales Fee.) All you have to do is embed
the code on your artist website. Pretty amazing and straightforward
without a bunch of Topspin branding everywhere. Unlike using a
distributor that helps you get onto iTunes, Amazon and the big
retailers, when you sell direct with Topspin, you get to actually
keep the emails of your customers, which is a great feature. Direct
email marketing is so important that the creators of Topspin created
another tool that is included in the monthly subscription price, called the
“email for media” widget.
A “widget” is an application, that
enables a user to perform a function or access a service. The Topspin
“email for media” Widget is a little app that offers fans a free
song download in exchange for their email address. You can customize
and post this widget on Facebook or on your own website. I knew a
band that did an interview with a local online blog, and was allowed to
embed their widget at the bottom of the article. They collected 335
emails from that one interview during the first three days. Email
addresses are, by far, a more effective direct to fan marketing tool
compared to social media “followers.” If you are serious about staying in touch with your fans, this widget may be one of the
most effective tools to convert those social media contacts into
direct email contacts.
In my opinion, Topspin is a great
service for an artist or band that is serious about music and is
actively marketing, playing shows and recording. Eventually, Topspin
is where you want to be when your band is geared up and running on
all cylinders. Collecting email addresses at the shows and selling
bundles of merchandise, downloads and tickets could lead to serious
money. Check out the "What is Topspin?" youtube video, it is very
informative.
As with all subscription services, eventually the
subscription costs start to add up. So if creating music is a part
time hobby, and you're releasing just a few singles per year, you
probably want to go with a service that has a “one-time” setup
fee to distribute your music with like Symphonic Distribution or
CDBaby. Or, if your funds are really low, Loudr.fm will put your
music on top retail sites with no upfront costs at all. (15%
commission on the back end.) I feel like Topspin would be able to
attract more entry level artists, if they offered the “Email for
Media” widget with the free account for your first 500 email
addresses. This would give entry level musicians an opportunity to
“grow” into being a full Topspin Media subscriber. There are actually three levels of Topspin subscription services that are offered.
Reverb Nation's Fan Reach program has a simple widget
called Fan Collector, which does not offer free media for download
like the Topspin widget. However, you can collect up to 500 email
addresses from fans with this simple tool, which can be
embedded on your website or on Facebook for free.
