How to Get Your Music on iTunes
Summary:
Step 1 -Get all of the equipment you need to record/produce your songs on your home computer (or get them professionally produced)
Step 2 -Get your music on iTunes for the entire world to download.
Also, be sure you have unlocked your vocal capabilities (you have no idea what you are really capable of!).
How to Make Money as an Independent Artist
Artists have NEVER had the amount of freedom and advantages of being an independent artist as they do today. In earlier ages, the record companies were everything. Don't underestimate them in today's world though, they still have 1,000 times more contacts and resources than the independent artist will ever have, but my point is that independent artists have never been able to strive in the past as well as they can today. Let me explain.
What is the most popular form of music purchasing in today's world? Most will say the internet of course - iTunes, etc
Before the internet, you had to buy CD's from retail stores. Of course the independent artist could sell their own CDs after shows, but that isn't much compared to having your CD in every retail store throughout the country. In this obsolete situation, only the artists with record label support could get their CD on the store shelves. Why would a store waste shelf space by putting an unknown album on their shelves when they can put other CDs that are guaranteed to sell thousands of copies? They wouldn't. So in this obsolete situation, you would be out of luck. BUT, since iTunes has become one of the main sources of music purchasing, you are in great luck. When CD sales relied on selling hard copies off store shelves, guess how much that costs? The materials, packaging, etc can cost up to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars depending upon the quantity. Guess how much it costs to sell that same album in digital form off of iTunes? Nearly nothing. No material costs, no packaging costs. All you have to do is make ONE copy of the song and that ONE copy can generate MILLIONS of sales, where as in the obsolete music business it would take MILLIONS of copies to make MILLIONS of sales. See what I mean? You can have an equal amount of product on the "digital shelves" as any famous singer in the world - that eliminates your dependance on a record label to fund the massive production costs of putting an album in every store across the nation.
What Record Labels Don't Want You to Know...
Introducing TuneCore.
So what is so great about this for the independent artist? You can now get your music on iTunes WITHOUT any record label support. Go to http://www.tunecore.com to get your music on iTunes. You, as an individual, can put your music into the same exact database that all of the major labels put all of their professional singers' music into. This is the obsolete music industry equivalence to having your CD right next to the CDs of your favorite artists on the shelves of Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Tower Records, or any other retailer that you used to buy CDs from. This is literally a music business revolution that dilutes the massive power of record labels while empowering the individual artist. Now that the individual has just as much "digital shelf space" as any other artist in the world, the individual artist with enough popularity can get 100% of the sales instead of just a small 8-18% that you would get from your record label. Of course record labels still have much more production and marketing power than you, but the fact that you can now sell your music to the entire world all by yourself is just a complete revolution that record labels don't want you to learn about.
I have recently been working with an artist who did all of this on his own personal budget. He ended up generating hundreds of thousands of downloads off iTunes and was soon getting calls from MTV asking permission to put his music in the background of shows such as Laguna Beach, The Hills, and Next. All of this attention attracted FOX news to interview him about his success. He did it all on his own by uploading his songs onto iTunes, just like a record label would have done for him - but he did it himself and got all of the profits for himself.
In today's world, record labels are for the huge artists that can't possibly manage their career by themselves. They need a team of people for management, a team of people for touring, a team of people all of that kind of stuff. The individual artist, however, can now take control of their career and actually start one on their own. Most record labels want to pickup an artist who has already somewhat established themselves because it can be a big waste of time and money to sign an unknown artist and spend millions of dollars on promotions, marketing, production, etc and then end up selling no records. Colbie Caillet is a good example of this - her song "Bubbly" got hundreds of thousands of downloads and the word started spreading about her and then record labels put an eye on her, and now she has a record deal. She proved herself as an artist that people wanted to listen to, and that is exactly what record labels look for.
So now that you know how to get your music out to the entire world to purchase, you have to produce your songs if you haven't already. If you don't want to pay for a producer and studio time, then you can get great quality recordings with the right equipment in your home (just remember that you get what you pay for - so don't go cheap to save money or you you are buying a cheaper quality). Of course I will recommend professional production, but in this new age where you can sell your music as an independent artist from your home computer, why not try to produce the music on your home computer too!? Go to http://www.guitarcenter.com to find all of the following equipment, books, etc: If you have a decent computer, then you can get an audio interface for your computer and get a good microphone and microphone pre-amp. You can get some books that will tell you exactly what you need and how to set it up (click here and search "home recording") and check out the books. You will also need audio recording software for your computer (click here and search "recording software") those are the computer programs that will let you record, edit, mix, and master your own songs so you can produce your own album at home. Make sure you buy a book on home recording so you know what you need and how to do all of this.
After you produce your own music, or get it professionally produced, you now have open doors to sell your music to the entire world. Go upload your music onto iTunes! (TuneCore: www.tunecore.com). It only costs 99 cents per song or $9 per album to upload your music into their database and then millions and millions of people will have access to your music, and best of all, you get all of the profts - not just the small 8-18% you would get from your record label after 80% of your sales money pays the salaries of the record label staff members and all of the production and marketing budgets. Its your music, and you get all the money by selling it on your own. And where do you get to sell it? On the "digital shelves" right next to your favorite artists!
Further information about TuneCore services can be found at: http://www.tunecore.com/index/faq
