http://arstechnica.com/reviews/other/indie... This arts technica site is quoting TUNECORE as the means to do Online Music Marketing without SONY Universal and BMG
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A new era of musicPiracy as a marketing tool
Indie bands talk digital music and life without the labels
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: August 12, 2008 - 11:05PM CT
A new era of music
Online music is a complex and constantly-morphing beast, especially from the perspective of the bands and artists who create it. For small indie bands, that beast can be quite a challenge to wrangle. Without a label and a team of execs whose entire job it is to make sure your stuff is everywhere it should be, dealing with all the intricacies of online music sales is just one (or 20) more thing(s) to do—on top of making sure the proceeds from that last show will pay your rent. But times, they are a' changin', and if the artists who've recently shared their digital music industry experiences with us are any indication, indie bands are becoming increasingly savvy at navigating the online music world. From distribution to promotion to actually making money, indie bands are doing more than just getting by without the major labels—they're actually thriving.
It's already widely acknowledged that you don't need a Universal or Sony BMG behind you to enter the online music market, thanks to services like Tunecore. Tunecore enables just about everyone (and we mean everyone) to sell their wares through the big dogs of digital music: iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, and Rhapsody, to name a few. But getting online is just the first (and now, the easiest) step. "The struggle is no longer getting it there, but trying to market and promote once it is there," Panda Riot band manager and guitarist Brian Cook told me.
The Panda Riot crew Panda Riot is a Chicago-based electronic distortion band originally founded in 2005. After recording its first full album in 2007 "in a tiny bedroom in Philadelphia" with the help of a MacBook Pro and Apple's Logic Pro software, Panda Riot began selling music—simultaneously in both CD and online form—in November. Since the band's music sales adventure is still quite young, its perspective on online music is a little different than the old guard that runs, say, the Big Four music labels.
Panda Riot uses Tunecore to sell its music through iTunes in the US, Canada, Japan, and Italy, as well as Amazon MP3. But, as we mentioned in our Tunecore feature, the real key to success online is promoting your music—otherwise, no one has a reason to be aware of it and buy it. "It's all social network type stuff. Blogs are a huge part of the equation too, and Internet Radio (like WOXY.com) also plays a big role," Cook said. "It's all about finding avenues that are global."
Independent artist Ryan Lindsey agrees. The Oklahoma-based musician has been playing in indie bands for over a decade and started doing his solo thing about four years ago. Perhaps because he's slightly more seasoned (although coincidentally about the same age as Panda Riot's members), he utilizes some of the more "traditional" online methods to promote his music, which he sells through a service called CD Baby that operates in a similar manner to Tunecore. "I just send out bulletins on MySpace, and I have an e-mail list that I send out," he told me. "If I have enough money, I'll send posters." (Yes, real ones.)
MySpace, unsurprisingly, has been a strong force for both Lindsey and Panda Riot by providing a place for bands to promote their wares and for fans to interact directly with them. Cook said that MySpace is particularly useful on the band's end because it provides a play counter on their embedded music that lets them measure reaction to certain things (new reviews going up, a feature on Internet radio, etc.) on a day-to-day basis. And since it is one of the most well-known and well-trafficked social networks for bands and artists, that likely won't be changing anytime soon. With the advent of MySpace Music and a built-in user base in the millions, the site will likely continue to serve as a major portal for indie bands, even as they continue to explore other avenues of promotion.
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