You can often find distribution companies that simply route your music to various sites like Itunes, Napster, etc...  The real trick is publicity.  As others have said, you have to make YOUR music the icon they click on.  Getting that done is the important skill these days...

Both comments ...from Kalle & Slug really touch on the heart of the situation.

Promotion & Publicity

Your song may be much better than those of the "big artists" but that doesn't mean jack unless you have the multi-million dollar publicity campaign they have  to let people know about you. Without that, you will be hard pressed to break even, among all the other "also rans" in the music sites.

The few lucky ones that get mega hits...like Rebbecca Black and a few others are also like the people who win the mega-bux lottery. The chance of you doing that, is so slim, it's not going to happen.

In this business, you have to create your own buzz. And thereby create your own market. It is not impossible to do it that way, to carve out a small but profitable segment of the music biz pie just for you. However, it does take a game plan, and lots of hard work and determination.  I can think of several handfuls of artists that are doing this. They have a large email list of fans, they have a youtube presence, and they sell enough mp3's to make a nice living. Like any other business, it often takes several years of really discouraging, hard, tedious work, and of course, having a product that people actually want to buy.

If you play live, that is a great way to start building a fan base AND sell CD's at the shows to get the ball rolling. Reinvest the money you make into promo and keep the ball rolling. A couple of years down the road, you can be making a nice income.

SIDE NOTE: referring back to my first post about TAXI. While I was at the Road Rally I met several people who are doing THIS plan.... Playing as an artist and working the biz end in the clubs. Putting together a fan base email list. I now get emails from these people on a regular basis informing me of their shows, new songs, music sites where I can buy the new music, and even links to download a free song from them. Another who is just a writer/musician (non-public performer) also sends out an email with her latest songs, signings, and industry cuts information.  You gotta let people know if you're selling the music direct to them.

Guitarhacker
If you play live, that is a great way to start building a fan base AND sell CD's at the shows to get the ball rolling. Reinvest the money you make into promo and keep the ball rolling. A couple of years down the road, you can be making a nice income.

I forgot that other people play live.  That's a great way to sell.  In my last band, we'd sell CDs for $10-$15 after the set.  Sell LOTS of them (we had a good live show).  The money we made off ONE CD would take a hundred download royalties...
If you can go that route, a lot of people still like physical CDs, especially after a couple of drinks and the excitement of a musical thrill.

Yes... back in the day when I played live.... 8-tracks were the thing and cassettes were fairly new and recording was expensive, so we never sold music at the gigs. We did sell T-shirts, pictures and other things. It was quite often that on a good night, like you said, I would make more from merchandise sales then I did from the gig.

Never underestimate the buying power of an inebriated fan.

Thanks!

I will check out some ot the sites. I appreciate your help so far!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandid=874486

Just a word about Taxi if I may. I mean no disrespect to anyone using their services, but in my opinion and experience, I think it's a total scam. Michael Laskow and his team of "formerly's" were one of the biggest mistakes and let-downs of my life. I was with them for 3 years. I submitted over 80 songs in that time period paying the submission fee for each. Of the entire 3 years, I got one reply back asking me to be on a collaboration for something.

I posted my songs to the proper genre listings at all times. 80's rock, melodic rock, instrumental guitar, extreme guitar video music, commercial pop, commercial rock, jingles, the list goes on and on. When I decided to quit because I was starting to smell crap, I shopped my stuff to 5 indy record labels that catered to my style of music. Z Records, MTM Music, Escape Music, Frontiers in Italy and Now & Then records. All of these labels had some of the most popular bands of my time signed to them. In 2 weeks time, I had all 5 of them bidding on me for a record deal. I submitted the same songs to them that I submitted to Taxi and they welcomed them with open arms. A month later after negotiating deals, I signed a contract and started my career. Paid off my parents house, went on tour, started my own life, made connections, gota licensing deal in Japan to where I am a fully signed artist with Marquee Avalon (it's never been easy to get licensing let alone a deal in Japan) and am happy I decided to go off on my own. I also cannot name any big artist that has ever stated in an interview online or on TV that credits Taxi for their success. Please be very careful with this. I went to every seminar Taxi held for the 3 years I was with them.

With every one, came a whole panel of "formerly's". All people that worked for labels at one time, and were fired or asked to leave. Not one person with that establishment had parted ways with a former company on good terms. The only credible person they had talk at a seminar was the president of MCA records at the time who was still the current president at that time. Other than that, just read down the list...everyone is a "formerly".

As for the original question as to how to sell your music, there are many ways to do it, but none of them will get you what you want "for free". You can be the best artist in the world...if people don't know you exist, you will sell 0. Though people claim record companies are dead and difficult to deal with, they open up the doors for you and you get instant results if they are credible. I'd shop my stuff to an indy label if I were you. They handle everything for you and you usually get paid because there aren't as many middlemen. You also do not have to be a big star to make money on an indy label. Way less pressure and stress than a major label. 

The good ones will require solicitation which in my opinion, if you go that route, you might as well go for gold. Hire a credible entertainment lawyer that has worked with famous bands, pay the retainer fee that shows you're serious and he'll treat you like a settlement case. If he doesn't get you a deal, he doesn't get anything other than his retainer fee. Don't let the retainer fee scare you. Most people live under the impression that "you should never pay anyone to shop your music." This is not the case for a credible, big name entertainment lawyer with connections. He doesn't need your $5000 retainer fee...it's principal. That's petty cash for him. He won't even take you on unless he believes in you because it will be him (or her) that calls up a label and says "I'm sending you this package...play it as soon as you get it."

The other way to sell songs is to affiliate yourself with someone that has a credible publishing company. Spotters are out there buying songs for pro artists that don't like to write their own material. I've had 2 successful sales doing this with more in the works and I've only just started it within the past 2 years. I'd personally go with a small indy label if you just want to sell product. Let them do the work for you because let me tell you, it's not easy to do this stuff on your own unless you have some money to back yourself. Radio is all about paying a radio marketer as well as the station to play you...so payola still exists. You're looking at $2500 per song per station just to get to the "try or die" section at 12 midnight. Any other radio spots for prime time will be insane. And you know how the advertsing scheme goes...you don't advertise something unless you can do it 5 or more times. At 10k per spot for prime time, you better have some good material IF you can even get the marketer to push it.

The other thing you can do is hire a charter marketer. These dudes know how to work songs and get them into the top 100. The price to make it into the top 75 is like 15k for a credible chart guy to work his magic. For 1-50 charting, you're looking at about 30K+. But get one song to chart at a decent spot, and own all your publishing while you're there, and you'll not only make some decent coin, you can make a name for yourself and this translates into album sales and maybe even a major deal. Doing all this on your own is risky and trying to sell songs on the net without proper marketing is going to get you nowhere. You need credible people in your corner to help you sell this stuff the right way until you can learn the ropes and take it upon yourself to drive the bus.

Good luck in whatever you decide...just be careful and make sure you know what you're doing before you do anything. :)
 
-Danny

Danny Danzi


Just a word about Taxi if I may. I mean no disrespect to anyone using their services, but in my opinion and experience, I think it's a total scam. Michael Laskow and his team of "formerly's" were one of the biggest mistakes and let-downs of my life. I was with them for 3 years. I submitted over 80 songs in that time period paying the submission fee for each. Of the entire 3 years, I got one reply back asking me to be on a collaboration for something.

I posted my songs to the proper genre listings at all times. 80's rock, melodic rock, instrumental guitar, extreme guitar video music, commercial pop, commercial rock, jingles, the list goes on and on. When I decided to quit because I was starting to smell crap, I shopped my stuff to 5 indy record labels that catered to my style of music. Z Records, MTM Music, Escape Music, Frontiers in Italy and Now & Then records. All of these labels had some of the most popular bands of my time signed to them. In 2 weeks time, I had all 5 of them bidding on me for a record deal. I submitted the same songs to them that I submitted to Taxi and they welcomed them with open arms. A month later after negotiating deals, I signed a contract and started my career. Paid off my parents house, went on tour, started my own life, made connections, gota licensing deal in Japan to where I am a fully signed artist with Marquee Avalon (it's never been easy to get licensing let alone a deal in Japan) and am happy I decided to go off on my own. I also cannot name any big artist that has ever stated in an interview online or on TV that credits Taxi for their success. Please be very careful with this. I went to every seminar Taxi held for the 3 years I was with them.

With every one, came a whole panel of "formerly's". All people that worked for labels at one time, and were fired or asked to leave. Not one person with that establishment had parted ways with a former company on good terms. The only credible person they had talk at a seminar was the president of MCA records at the time who was still the current president at that time. Other than that, just read down the list...everyone is a "formerly".

As for the original question as to how to sell your music, there are many ways to do it, but none of them will get you what you want "for free". You can be the best artist in the world...if people don't know you exist, you will sell 0. Though people claim record companies are dead and difficult to deal with, they open up the doors for you and you get instant results if they are credible. I'd shop my stuff to an indy label if I were you. They handle everything for you and you usually get paid because there aren't as many middlemen. You also do not have to be a big star to make money on an indy label. Way less pressure and stress than a major label. 

The good ones will require solicitation which in my opinion, if you go that route, you might as well go for gold. Hire a credible entertainment lawyer that has worked with famous bands, pay the retainer fee that shows you're serious and he'll treat you like a settlement case. If he doesn't get you a deal, he doesn't get anything other than his retainer fee. Don't let the retainer fee scare you. Most people live under the impression that "you should never pay anyone to shop your music." This is not the case for a credible, big name entertainment lawyer with connections. He doesn't need your $5000 retainer fee...it's principal. That's petty cash for him. He won't even take you on unless he believes in you because it will be him (or her) that calls up a label and says "I'm sending you this package...play it as soon as you get it."

The other way to sell songs is to affiliate yourself with someone that has a credible publishing company. Spotters are out there buying songs for pro artists that don't like to write their own material. I've had 2 successful sales doing this with more in the works and I've only just started it within the past 2 years. I'd personally go with a small indy label if you just want to sell product. Let them do the work for you because let me tell you, it's not easy to do this stuff on your own unless you have some money to back yourself. Radio is all about paying a radio marketer as well as the station to play you...so payola still exists. You're looking at $2500 per song per station just to get to the "try or die" section at 12 midnight. Any other radio spots for prime time will be insane. And you know how the advertsing scheme goes...you don't advertise something unless you can do it 5 or more times. At 10k per spot for prime time, you better have some good material IF you can even get the marketer to push it.

The other thing you can do is hire a charter marketer. These dudes know how to work songs and get them into the top 100. The price to make it into the top 75 is like 15k for a credible chart guy to work his magic. For 1-50 charting, you're looking at about 30K+. But get one song to chart at a decent spot, and own all your publishing while you're there, and you'll not only make some decent coin, you can make a name for yourself and this translates into album sales and maybe even a major deal. Doing all this on your own is risky and trying to sell songs on the net without proper marketing is going to get you nowhere. You need credible people in your corner to help you sell this stuff the right way until you can learn the ropes and take it upon yourself to drive the bus.

Good luck in whatever you decide...just be careful and make sure you know what you're doing before you do anything. :)

mr danzi...brilliant post..i likewhat i heard.i know alot of people doing buisiness with taxi but this was very informitive.
always exspect nothing but the best from your posts anyway..nice job.

Thanks Charlie, much appreciated. Just telling it like I've lived it. :)

Danny I respect you and know you are a musician of the finest caliber. I appreciate your views on TAXI but do have to disagree with calling TAXI a scam. To me a scam is where no one comes out a winner except the ones running the scam.

I know quite a few members of TAXI that are getting cuts and making money licensing songs through the connections they made as a result of  taxi listings. As you well know, not everyone has the talent, or ability to write hit songs, or even jingle tunes. Those folks will never get a forward, or a cut. But they can still have fun and enjoy the journey.

You obviously have the talent to write and play well enough to get a deal..... congrats! And I do agree 100% that the screeners there are not always at the top of their game. Some should probably be flipping burgers for a living. Especially the ones that return my music.

I've had more than one disagreement over returns and some of the forwards surprised me.

As you have shown, there is more than one way to make it. If I sent my music to the folks that signed you, you would hear the laughter from where you set....

The whole point I think, is to make a plan, work it, stick with it, and see what happens. If you get success (whatever that means to you) Great! If not, my question is: Did you enjoy the journey, the making of music, the meeting of new people along the way, the whole process of playing music anyway? Hopefully the answer is YES!

Guitarhacker


Danny I respect you and know you are a musician of the finest caliber. I appreciate your views on TAXI but do have to disagree with calling TAXI a scam. To me a scam is where no one comes out a winner except the ones running the scam.

I know quite a few members of TAXI that are getting cuts and making money licensing songs through the connections they made as a result of  taxi listings. As you well know, not everyone has the talent, or ability to write hit songs, or even jingle tunes. Those folks will never get a forward, or a cut. But they can still have fun and enjoy the journey.

You obviously have the talent to write and play well enough to get a deal..... congrats! And I do agree 100% that the screeners there are not always at the top of their game. Some should probably be flipping burgers for a living. Especially the ones that return my music.

I've had more than one disagreement over returns and some of the forwards surprised me.

As you have shown, there is more than one way to make it. If I sent my music to the folks that signed you, you would hear the laughter from where you set....

The whole point I think, is to make a plan, work it, stick with it, and see what happens. If you get success (whatever that means to you) Great! If not, my question is: Did you enjoy the journey, the making of music, the meeting of new people along the way, the whole process of playing music anyway? Hopefully the answer is YES!

Thanks for the kind words GH. I'll try to explain it a bit better for you. See where you mention what a scam is to you? That's exactly how I saw this to be. Ok, I know I'm nothing to brag about as far as being an artist, singer, writer etc...however, I sincerely believe in myself when it comes to the genre's I submitted to and had a REALLY hard time accepting that NOTHING I sent in was ever accepted by them. I mean for God sakes bro....how can I get no response for 3 years and get a deal with a company that signed me on 7 songs? LMAO! Not only that, but we never got critqued...we never had a place to go for feedback, we never heard back from the company about anything.
 
I sent out a few emails to 3 of my friends that had the same experience as me. I asked them to join this forum to share their experience here so you could see I wasn't alone nor was I trying to bust on Taxi purposely. I busted on them because in my opinion, they did absolutely nothing for me in my dealings with them. The songs you hear on my myspace page if you have ever checked it out, are songs Taxi passed on. Hell man, who's more fit for melodic rock, 80's, or extreme guitar music? I'm sure several are...but were they all working with Taxi for 3 years at the same time I was? Possibly they were...but I just can't buy it. See my point at all man? Honest when I tell you, and I sincerely mean this with every ounce of my being...I don't have an ego or think I'm great or anything...but I have a hard time believing this company would pass on stuff like that and then have 5 record companies with bands like Badlands, Giant, Journey, Extreme, Survivor, TNT and Dokken fight over me to sign a deal. It just doesn't make sense to me at all. 80 songs in 3 years and only one for a bogus compilation CD? LOL!!
 
I then sent some work to 2 companies that work with video game music and had some songs sold for the first Sega CD video game (Beyond the Limit Racing) and we did some stuff for Need For Speed 1 for Playstation and Twisted Metal 1 as work for hire. Taxi passed on these too! I just had a hard time fathoming this bro, I really did. When I was with Taxi, it was in their earlier stages...so I would be hard pressed to believe it had the member strength that it does today. I've always looked at them from time to time to see if anything had changed but for the most part, it's basically the same business plan they had when I was with them.
 
I've been around quite a few musicians on many sites and am really up on the industry type stuff etc. I've yet to meet a single person that has told me they are surviving from music because of Taxi or have a solid income in some way from it. I hope my buds decide to come on here and share their stories with you just so you can see I'm not alone. If there are people that have made a few bucks from it or they have received recognition from them, that's great...God bless them. If you've made a few bucks consistently from them, I'm very happy for you too and hope that's the case. But for me and others I know, nothing came out of this for us other than an expense and false expectations.