I was just wondering what web sites could be recommended for an independent artist such as myself to be able to upload, promote and possibly have their music downloaded for those that would like to sample and pay for it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions/insight.

sunshine said:

www.myspace.com is the best one now. DO NOT register from the main page. Go to the music section of their site and register from there, AS AN ARTIST, otherwise, you won't be able to upload any mp3s. It's retarded, but that's the way they do it.

myspace.com. It's the de-facto nowadays.

www.myspace.com/funkmusician

Myspace is the way to go if you want to build a fanbase because you can allow people to download 4 songs for free. However, if you want to get PAID, CD Baby is the way to go. CD Baby will hook you into MOST of the download site like iTunes, etc...

http://cdbaby.net/




.

Good point. I was thinking "cheap/free"

anyone know a good # 2 call 4 managers or know any good managers?
i think im pretty good

Rebecca6 said:

just any old manager? yeah i know one...

















...you are a juggling act with trained monkeys, right?

na, if i was a trained monkey i wouldnt need a manager

im a muscian (clearly) and a good manager, and he wouldnt happen 2 b on the east coast, would he?

I would also check out garageband.com

Rebecca6 said:

Finding a good manager is harder than finding the right spouse. Most of the great managers have never managed a band before the current band they're managing. Most really bad managers are managing more than one band. You want a single person who's sole focus, at least for artists, is YOU. Most often, it's someone who might know a little in the music biz, but most often, the successful managers are experts at networking.

But a lot of the managing stuff you can definitely do on your own, and by doing it yourself, your future manager will see that you've got great potential because you don't NEED a manager. (yep. the ol' catch 22).

Don't look for a manager. Get this book instead:
THE SELF-PROMOTING MUSICIAN.

see thats wat i was thinkin but i thought i'd put it out there an see wat other people had 2 say, thanks every1

The article below gives a good feel on the reality of the label industry.
I’ve been preaching the demise of labels for a long time. Distribution is it. iTunes, Napster, Myspace, Puretracks (well maybe not Puretracks) are the new ‘label’. Musical eBays without the bidding, charging artists upfront costs to sign on covering legal fees, etc. and retaining a portion of the revenue from each DL.

Today’s labels can’t survive off the .99 DL. Warner, Universal....are terrified; nails bitten to the quick with the realization that the time has come to sell the Estate, get rid of the Porche and start dining at Denny’s.

All you need as an independent artist is an honest accountant and a good publicist. Touring and merchandise will remain the $ shaker.

P.S. Apple sold 14 million ipods from October to November and apparently couldn't meet the demand. So far they've sold 42 million ipods since they've been introduced in 2001. And I don’t have one. But after hearing about the Mac Show in San Francisco this week...I’m going shopping for some new toys soon....with Yomamma and Frank

January 12, 2006, Critic's Notebook
'Laffy Taffy': So Light, So Sugary, So Downloadable
By KELEFA SANNEH

Over the last year, so-called snap music has made an unlikely journey from Atlanta phenomenon to hip-hop laughingstock to mainstream juggernaut. It's the name some people have given to a dance-centric form of hip-hop, defined by light but propulsive beats and lyrics that often revolve around playful chants.

Dem Franchize Boyz have a snap-music hit with "I Think They Like Me (Remix)," which reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the rap chart. (It far outpaced the group's previous and better hit, 2004's "White Tee.") But snap music's best-known chant is "Shake that Laffy Taffy, shake that Laffy Taffy." That's the refrain from an utterly infectious song called "Laffy Taffy," by D4L. It has been hanging around the upper reaches of the Billboard chart since before Christmas, and last week it officially became the most popular song in America.

There's only one problem: people aren't buying the album. D4L released its debut album, "Down 4 Life" (Dee Money/Asylum/Atlantic), in November; according to Nielsen SoundScan, it has sold about 230,000 copies so far. That's considered a success if you're an alternative-rock group, but not if you're a Southern hip-hop group, and especially not if you're responsible for the biggest song in the country. In fact, it's one of the lowest sales totals for a chart-topping act in years.

In another category, though, D4L is setting sales records. Last week, the group sold 175,000 digital copies of "Laffy Taffy." That figure doesn't just set a digital-download record, it smashes the old one: the previous record-holder was Kanye West, who sold 80,500 digital copies of his hit "Gold Digger" one week last fall. D4L has now sold more than twice as many digital downloads as CD's. The group's members - Fabo, Shawty Lo, Mook B and Stoney - aren't just chart-toppers; they're music industry pioneers, too.

In news releases, Atlantic is spinning this as great news: a trail-blazing triumph for a forward-thinking label. No doubt the balance sheets tell a different story. You don't have to be a professional accountant to realize that the record company isn't making much money from D4L's record-breaking online success. The list price for D4L's album is $18.98, whereas the iTunes price for "Laffy Taffy" is 99 cents; even when you factor in the cost of CD production, digital downloads are no match for CD sales.

Still, those hundreds of thousands of 99 centses must be better than nothing. Throughout the 1990's, record companies all but stopped selling singles, in hopes that people would buy full-length CD's instead. Listeners who wanted one song instead of 15 were out of luck. Radio D.J.'s often found themselves playing songs that weren't even available except on albums. Hit singles often were not singles at all - were not, that is, available singly.

In the last few years, though, the idea of buying songs has been resurrected, thanks to iTunes and other legal music download providers. Billboard recently began including digital-download sales in the formula it uses to compile its pop charts. Just as the rise of the vinyl LP helped usher in an era of so-called album-rock, it seems likely that the rise of paid downloads - and the resurrection of the retail singles market - will have unpredictable musical side effects.

Which brings us right back to snap music. On the hip-hop prestige scale, goofy dance songs like "Laffy Taffy" don't rate very high. Even in Atlanta, which has produced more than its fair share of goofy dance smash hits (like "Whoomp! There It Is" and "Get Low," to name two of the biggest), dance-oriented hip-hop is often treated like a guilty pleasure. Tough-talking, lyric-oriented storytellers like T. I. and Young Jeezy get much more respect than D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz, whose hits are considered light club music, as opposed to heavy street music.

Of course this is a specious dichotomy, but the distinction between serious and frilly exists in many genres, and it often finds expression in consumers' buying patterns. For the serious stuff, you need the album; for the frilly stuff, a song might suffice. Young Jeezy has never had a song as big as "Laffy Taffy," but he has sold many more albums than D4L. In hip-hop as elsewhere, "album artist" isn't just a sales category; it's a music category, too. An elite one.

So despite D4L's success, it's a safe bet that Dem Franchize Boyz are hoping their career more closely resembles Young Jeezy's, even though their music doesn't. "I Think They Like Me (Remix)" came from a compilation called "Jermaine Dupri Presents ... Young, Fly & Flashy Vol. 1" (Virgin), which made a tepid debut at No. 43 on the album chart. Now Dem Franchize Boyz have a new emerging hit, "Lean With It, Rock With It," and a new album, "On Top of Our Game," due in stores Feb. 7. For the sake of both their reputation and their bank accounts, no doubt the members are hoping more listeners buy the CD than the single.

For now, though, it certainly seems as if snap music and digital downloads were made for each other. Easy and cheap, single-song downloads are the musical equivalent of an impulse buy, so maybe it's no coincidence that the biggest digital download in history (so far) is a cheap-sounding hip-hop track named after a sugary snack that's traditionally found near the cash register. The silly little song about candy was neither as silly nor as little as it first seemed.

I dunno Red. I beg to differ. The 99 cent DL is probably much cheaper to make (and distribute) than the $18 CD. The big labels just weren't prepared for it, and they're not looking at the bigger picture.

If a band sells 1000 downloads, they've only made $1000, but after all expenses (just for the manufacturing and sales of that single) they've made $900.

Conversely, if they sell 1000 CD singles at $3 each, sure, they've made $3000, but after manufacturing, ($1000) and distribution ($1000 if they're mailing them) they've made the same amount. And I'm not even counting the cost of putting the CDs in the music stores, since the stores will want THEIR slice, everybody that touches the disc will want a slice. When it's online, only you and the online store will get a slice, so, in the long run, it will be cheaper to sell downloads than selling CDs.

Of course, it'll be sad to see cover art become a thing of the past. Instead, you'll get a file maybe? A PDF? Who knows.

But crap - all you needs is a server and a storefront and you can sell millions of copies of your song without ever buying one piece of real material... paper, plastic CD covers, shrinkrap - all that stuff will become excessive.

That's just my opinion I spose. Atlanta and the other labels will catch on really quickly... they'll see less money, but they'll KEEP a whole lot more.

Red and Beau, so cd's go away and people are on the DL and I get it.

What if, it's just the live shows that people are hooked on for discs? Like I see Beau play the local arena and while people are leaving you're handing out cd's for $5 of the show they just witnessed. Also available for $0.99 a song from the website and blah, blah, blah.

If it was a great show (like every one Mr. Hall does, ) they will shell out the cash as they are leaving to relive the memory the next day or even on the drive home.

I think it's a winner of an idea but not entirely new (Pearl Jam), just not utilized