The Self-Released Album 101: The Basics
This article is part 2 of a 4 part series by guitarist Cameron Mizell. For more information about self-releasing your album, visit the other articles in the series.
Part I: An Introduction to the Self-Released Album
Part II: The Self-Released Album 101: The Basics (this article)
Part III: The Self-Released Album 201: The Details
Part IV: The Self-Released Album Reference Guide for Musicians
Ready to release your own album but not sure where to start? Last week I outlined many factors to consider when preparing your release, and today we’ll cover the basics. In this article you’ll learn where you can sell your album online, what distribution means, how digital music distribution works, and some bare essentials necessary to start selling your music.
Where to Sell Your Album
Before you start, it’s a good idea to know where independent musicians are able to sell their music, how these stores work, and what the advantages and disadvantages are to each option. The advantages, disadvantages, and some of my other comments are solely based on my own opinion, formed from my own experiences. Take it or leave it.
For starters, it will be important for you to understand this: Your music should be available in as many places as possible, but only direct traffic to two or three destinations. Your goal is to make it possible for people to find you at their preferred store, but also to select a couple specific options for your fans. The only choice they should have to make is to buy or not to buy, not where to buy. Furthermore, it is more valuable to concentrate the bulk of your sales in one place because, thanks to web 2.0, you will have a better shot at making some sort of “Top Sellers” chart. Not to mention, a well trafficked album page (with lots of reviews, recommendations, etc.) will encourage people that don’t know you to give your music a try.
In all cases, a portion of the sale price will go to the store, distributor, or whatever company is facilitating the credit card transaction as a fee. This is standard, and the only way to really avoid it would be to exchange your CD for money face to face with the person buying it, and ideally not in front of an IRS building. But keep in mind that as an independent artist, you’re making a much larger percentage per sale than an artist signed to a label. So accept reasonable transaction fees in exchange for convenience, reach, and service.
CD Baby – One of the most popular destinations for for independent artists to sell the CD is CD Baby. They have become the industry standard for this type of sales model, and to be honest, I’ve been hard pressed to find a serious competitor that does what they do. For what it’s worth, I have been selling my albums through CD Baby since 2004 and will probably continue to do so as long as they stay ahead of the curve.
Advantages: I use CD Baby mainly for convenience–simply ship them a box of CDs and they handle the sales transaction and shipping of individual CDs. I don’t have to worry about shipping out individual CDs from home whenever orders come through, which saves me a lot of time and trips to the post office. They also have a customer service department, so if one of your CDs is damaged on it’s way to a customer, they’ll take care of it (and in my experience, have eaten the cost of the broken CD). Independent musicians have enough to worry about, this is an easy way to take some grunt work off your hands. They can also sell your album as an MP3 download on their store, and also through their digital distribution service (which I’ll discuss more below in the section on Distribution). And finally, perhaps the best part is that you can set your own price for both your physical and MP3 album.
Disadvantages: CD Baby keeps $4 per CD. That’s hard to swallow at first, especially if you want to price your album competitively, but I eventually felt this was worth the convenience. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about CD Baby is that they do virtually nothing to direct people to your album. While I think the CD Baby store is a little behind the times by not offering dynamic recommendations, I believe it’s up to the individual artists and their fans to raise awareness and drive traffic to their CD. Don’t expect your album to magically sell just because it’s available. You need to do something to make that happen.
Digital Download Stores – Retailers like iTunes and Amazon MP3 allow customers to buy music digitally, download it directly to their computer, and then do whatever they wish with it. They own the music, much like buying a CD at a store. You will get paid a flat rate for every track or album sold.
Advantages: The beauty of the digital download model is that there’s no inventory, and therefore no cost per unit or shipping expenses to deduct from your wholesale price. In other words, all the money you make from iTunes is net profit. It’s also an extremely level playing field. In the store, your album page looks the same as the rest and it’s as easy to search for as the next guy’s. It’s also extremely easy to link to your albums from your website.
Disadvantages: Currently, you can’t set your own price and you just get paid whatever amount they pay artists (though they do pay the same amount to independent artists as they do everyone else, and variable pricing for independents is supposed to be on the horizon). It’s also very difficult to get prominent placing in any of these stores, but again, you should take responsibility to drive traffic to your album. In some stores, people may stumble across your album while browsing once listeners-also-bought-style recommendations start generating. Of course, that takes some initial sales, which will require some work on your part.
Subscription Download Services – These sites allow customers to download a maximum number of tracks per month for a flat subscription fee. eMusic has become a leader in this model, which only sells the music of independent artists.
Advantages: The people that use these types of services typically love seeking out new, niche oriented and obscure music. This model is geared towards discovery.
Disadvantages: You get paid based on a system that calculates the sites total revenue divided by the popularity of tracks downloaded, or some complicated algorithm of similar nature. So the earnings per sale are not always consistent, and they will probably be less than what you’ll make from a standard digital download store.
Subscription Streaming Services – Streaming services are much like on-demand radio. Customers pay a monthly fee and are able to stream as much music as they’d like (within various tiers of subscription options). The big players here include Rhapsody and Napster.
Advantages: Discovery. This is a great way for people to find your music. Many of these services also offer the option to buy a downloads of albums or tracks, usually at a discount for subscribers.
Disadvantages: Streams pay fractions of pennies, and you’ll never make much money from this business model. But I still recommend getting your music on these sites because your first goal should always be to just get people to hear your music.
Your Own Website – There are many ways to sell your music off your own website. The key is to set up a secure, easy to use payment solution so your fans will feel confident entering their credit card information. In the past I’ve sold CDs using PayPal, and still see musicians do this well. For an excellent download store for your site, check out the Brad Sucks Digital Download Store (thank you Scott Andrew for pointing this out to me). There are also a number of widget options, which are basically stores that can be inserted into any website or social networking site with customizable HTML. ReverbNation and AudioLife both offer these types of options.
Advantages: With a direct commerce route, you are making a stronger connection with your fans. They are buying directly from you, so the transaction is more personal. You are also able to keep traffic on your website. Best of all, it’s possible to make more money per sale if you use a payment method with a small fee structure or if you can sell a lot of product from your website.
Disadvantages: You have to run a store. Shipping alone can turn into a pretty big hassle. Once I moved to New York I cut the PayPal option out of my site. The $1-2 extra I made per CD selling them from my site was no longer worth the lines, lost shipments, and damaged CDs.
Other Options – When it comes to digital storefronts, there are always new models popping up. For example, Amie Street is a store that initially offers an album for free, and as it is downloaded more and more, and demand increases, the cost of the tracks increases until they reach a $0.98. I find new music there all the time. There are continually new sales models popping up. Some will succeed, some will fail. Keep an eye and ear open for models that you feel best suit your music and audience.
There are also creative ways of using Amazon Marketplace or Ebay to create your own stores for your CDs and merchandise, but since I have not done this myself, someone with more experience may need to write that article.
What is Distribution?
Now that I’ve outlined the places to sell your music, I’m sure some of you are still wondering exactly HOW to get your music on iTunes. This is where distribution comes into play. In a nutshell, distributors are the middlemen between the label and the retail outlets. While it is becoming increasingly difficult to land a physical distribution deal, digital music distribution has made it easy for unsigned musicians to sell to their music in the same online stores as the major labels.
Physical distribution companies are the places retail outlets go to buy the albums they stock. So just like a retail store needs to stock albums that will sell, distributors only want to carry titles retailers will be interested in. If you get a record deal, your music will be distributed by the label’s distributor (a slowly decaying advantage for record labels). If you go the self-released route, a traditional distribution deal is near impossible to land on your own.
Digital distribution is really a different beast altogether. While physical retailers need to be picky about the albums they carry, digital retailers want to sell as many titles as possible. As the Long Tail theory suggests, selling less of more can create a successful niche business. In other words, you can afford to sell less of each title you carry if you’re carrying more titles. Since the product you’re selling is digital and can be duplicated infinite times, storage is really no issue.
The internet has also allowed a hybrid of the two–websites that sell physical product. This virtually cuts out the distributor. Online stores can stock only a few copies of each CD, and as they sell, the musicians send a few more. People all over the world can shop at these stores and buy your music–the kind of availability previously only obtained with a distribution deal.
Because digital sales are on the rise and can be such a large revenue stream for professional musicians, I’d like to focus on digital music distribution.
The role of a digital distributor is to deliver digital products to the various download, subscription, and streaming services mentioned above. They also collect payments from those services and pay the musicians in turn. Should any problems occur along the way, or if something goes wrong after your music is made available at the store, the distributor should also go to bat for you and get the problem corrected. Generally speaking, the store will have a relationship with the distributors, and the distributor will have a relationship with the musicians.
When you break it down, there are two prominent business models for digital music distribution companies:
- Those that make their money by charging a percentage of your earnings, regardless of how much or little you sell.
- Those that make their money by charging a standard fee based on a fixed unit, regardless of sales.
CD Baby is a good example of the first model. If you sign up for their digital distribution service, they send your music to iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and more for free, but keep a 9% cut of all your sales. They will also sell your CD in their store, as mentioned earlier. They charge a one time $35 set up fee on all albums, physical or digital. So if you are going to use them solely for their digital distribution, be sure to factor in their set up fee.
TuneCore is the most popular example of the second model. Their digital distribution service also sends your music to iTunes, Amazon, etc. much like CD Baby. The difference is that TuneCore charges a yearly maintenance fee of $19.98 per album and keeps no commission of your sales. Their website has an example of how this works. Also, TuneCore is digital only, and does not sell CDs.
At what point does it make a difference? Let’s figure it out using iTunes as an example. iTunes (in the U.S.) pays the distributors $7.00 on a $9.99 album and $0.70 on a $0.99 track. TuneCore pays the musician the full amount. CD Baby keeps 9%, so the musician makes $6.37 and $0.637 respectively. On an album being delivered to all available stores, TuneCore would charge $47.99 to set it up and sell it for a year, and then $19.98 every 12 months. CD Baby would charge $35 to set it up, plus $20 for a UPC if you don’t have one, so $55 total, and then keeps 9% on all your digital sales.
If your album sells 100 copies in the first year, you would net $652 with TuneCore and $582 with CD Baby. In the second year, assuming sales taper and you only sell 50 copies, you net $330.02 with TuneCore and $318.50 with CD Baby. Third year, slower sales of 25 albums, $155.02 with TuneCore and $159.25 with CD Baby net profit. So in this very simple example, it looks like once the initial set up fees are removed the magic line is drawn between 31 and 32 albums. If your album is going to sell 32 or more copies per year, TuneCore has a more profitable model for you. If you sell 31 or fewer copies per year, CD Baby’s model will create better profit.
Of course, this is an oversimplification. There are many other factors that can affect your digital distribution choices. Are you selling a physical CD or just going digital? How many albums are in your catalog? In which digital stores do you want to sell your album? You need to evaluate your own situation and decide which is best for you. But remember, while you can sell your self-released album at many digital stores, it can only be distributed by one company. This is to avoid duplicating albums at any store, which would typically result in the album being removed completely.
UPC, ISRC, and More!
In order to sell your CD or download in these stores, your product must comply to a few commercial standards. This is geared towards US standards, although it will allow you to sell in a global market place.
Universal Product Code (UPC): This is the 12 digit number found on the back of any CD you buy at a store. On physical goods, it’s also called the Bar Code, which is actually a graphic rendering of the 12 digit code scannable by a computer. The number is unique the your album. No other product, CD or otherwise, is allowed to share that number. When your album is sold by online stores, sales are counted towards the UPC, so any confusion could potentially keep you from getting paid.
One UPC can be used for the CD and digital album, as long as the music is the same on both. If the CD has a bonus track that does not appear on the digital version, then they will require different UPCs. If you are releasing your album on vinyl, you will need a separate UPC for that configuration.
UPCs are easy to acquire. If you manufacture CDs (to be discussed in the next article), you can probably get a UPC as part of the manufacturing cost (they’ll call it free). Most distribution services can offer you one, and if not they will surely help you get one so you can sign up for their service. If you are going to be releasing many albums and want to buy UPC codes in bulk, you can do so through GS1.
UPCs are not required if you are only selling from your website and at gigs. But if that’s your approach, you’re missing out on a greater revenue stream.
International Standard Recording Code (ISRC): Just as a UPC is a unique code for an album, an ISRC is a unique code for a song. These are required to track sales and royalties. Also similar to UPCs, you need a different ISRC for every version of a song. Radio edits, remixes, live, or album versions would all need their own code.
You can probably acquire ISRCs from your digital distributor for free. If not, you can apply for them through the IFPI. In the US, you would go to the RIAA. If you live in another country, see this list for your contact.
Selection Number: Sometimes referred to as Catalog Numbers, these are completely optional and are not typically required by most digital distributors that cater to independent musicians. Selection numbers are completely for internal purposes. Go grab a couple CDs and look at the spines. You’ll probably see the artist, album title, and some weird number that might start with some letters. That’s the selection number. It can be whatever you want, but if you intend to release many more albums then I suggest allowing room for enough digits.
For example, I work with a couple friends to record albums which we release digitally. Our small “label” is called RDC Recordings, and our selection numbers look like, RDC01, RDC02, etc. That system makes it easier to administer a large number of albums rather then dealing with full album titles and different artist names.
Tips on Metadata: The term “metadata” refers to all of the information on an album. At it’s most basic, it includes the artist name, album title, genre, song titles, song timings, UPC, and ISRCs. When you’re selling a digital product, the metadata can become very powerful. These are the keywords that are going to come up through internet searches and store listings. Consistency matters. I’ve written an in depth article called Metadata for Musicians. I recommend reading it for a more complete understanding of how metadata plays a bigger role in your music’s discovery online.
Up Next…
Please check back next week for the next article on the self-released album. I will discuss manufacturing, the making of a production schedule, and some legalities.
The next article in this series, The Self-Released Album 201: The Details, will teach you how to make a basic production schedule, the basics of manufacturing, and some legalities you may need to sort out before releasing your music. Subscribe by email or RSS and have these articles automatically delivered to you.
About the author
Cam, great article (just caught up with your first in this series as well after getting back in town). Thanks for the detail on everything an indie artist should know.
3/23/2009
I’m excited at some of the things we’re going to be doing shortly, Cam (I can’t quite talk about them yet), which will have everyone revisiting the comparison! But as things stand now, thanks for the mention and the analysis.
The key to your article isn’t really comparing services, but offering ways to help musicians do well through spreading information and knowledge. GOOD! That’s the spirit, and that’s what counts. We’ve assembled a tips page too, including ways people can get their material surfaced on iTunes.
http://www.tunecore.com/index/m_and_p
I’m not putting this here to drive folks to our site. They’re viable tips that help artists, and they should be and are free to all. No matter how musicians get into iTunes or Amazon or eMusic or wherever, these can help them succeed.
Thanks!
–Peter
peter@tunecore.com
3/23/2009
Good overview, Cameron. Excellent point about directing fans to one or two locations where you sell product. iTunes, amazon, etc. are great for picking up casual buyers, but you want to direct your hardcore fans to the store or site where your product sales are most profitable.
Plus, if I may add my (admittedly biased) opinion to the issue of whether the $4 per CD that CD Baby takes is fat or skinny, the advantages with CD Baby are many: even at $4 our take is much less than going the standard distribution route. And you don’t have to run your own store, manage a merchant account, pay credit card fees, postage, and disc mailers. Plus you get to set you CD price, as well as your download price (only for DLs sold on cdbaby.com, we all know iTunes et al stick to a standard pricing schedule).
Can’t wait to read the disc manufacturing article…
Tony van Veen, CD Baby / Disc Makers
3/23/2009
Hi Tony,
Thanks for stopping by the site, it’s always nice to know that guys like you (and Peter @ TuneCore) are keeping your ears open to the opinions of the little guys.
You know, as a writer I try to be as unbiased as possible. I try to look at the facts from all sides in a helpful manner and relay information the way I wish it had been relayed to me years ago. I need to keep things in the perspective of an independent musician, but I think I ultimately justify the expense of CD Baby throughout the rest of my article. (Maybe you skipped over those parts?)
From a personal perspective, based on my own experience and the fact that I’m a picky SOB that wants things to be perfect, I love CD Baby and I hate Disc Makers. I’d recommend the first to anybody, and advise my friends to avoid the latter.
CD Baby has been wonderful and my only real complaint is your lousy accounting section (which I hear is getting fixed up this year, kudos to you and the team for addressing that detail). I’ve been a client for 5 years and will probably continue to be.
I used Disc Makers on my last album and you guys totally blew it. I’d be happy to go into more detail offline if you care, but I don’t want to dwell on negativity here (email in the About the Author box). In fairness some of my friends were happy with their Disc Makers experience while others weren’t. It’s split about 50/50.
That won’t even be mentioned in the disc manufacturing article. The goal is simply to enlighten our readers on their options, help them understand how things work as it pertains to them, and hope it aids their decision making.
Thanks again for dropping by!
-Cameron
3/23/2009
Well, at least I’m batting .500!
Kidding aside, I’m sorry your DM experience was not satisfactory. Whether you’re a picky SOB or not, CD replication is a difficult business, with every part made from scratch to the customer’s spec, and sometimes it doesn’t come out exactly as the customer had imagined or hoped it would.
Please drop me a line to tvv@cdbaby.com and let’s discuss. We didn’t grow DM into the market leader for independent CD manufacturing by disappointing our customers.
Tony
3/24/2009
THANK YOU!
Wow, this kind of info is so valuable, and I deeply appreciate your putting time into writing it all down.
Will be checking back for more.
Jeff
3/27/2009
Great read Cam! Thanks again for more great insight for independent artists.
3/30/2009
You really laid it all out for us man and I appreciate it.
See ya the top…
-Detroit
4/22/2009
Nice article, thanks. I am going to be first time self-releasing 2 EP’s this winter, so I’ve read quite a bit on the topic. I would like to add Bandcamp (http://bandcamp.com) to your digital distribution list. It is rather new, but I find very good.
My American colleagues seem pretty happy with CD Baby, but I am based in Europe. The shipping costs would really drive the price high. Especially because I am releasing 4 song mini-albums/EP’s, which I want to sell cheap. Do you know a similar service in Europe? I haven’t come across anything useful so far.
Best
-Martin
10/28/2009
@Martin – I don’t know much about similar services in Europe. I’ve seen a lot of musicians from outside the US use CD Baby, so if that’s any indication, maybe there isn’t something like it elsewhere. However, there are ways to set up a store on your site that might work for you. The trade off being more work on your part to ship orders, but you’ll make more money.
10/28/2009
Thanks for the answer. I sell CD’s mainly at concerts anyway, so maybe I’ll skip the “physical” distribution all together. And postpone the production until some gigs come in.
10/29/2009
hi there im looking for advice please,i used to sing for a small local rat pack tribute group 3 years ago, while with them i had the opportunity to record 4 cover songs,the pack paid for the recording costs but i laid my vocals onto a basic karaoke backing track ( good quality sing to the world ) so they do sound proffessional,i now want to put these tracks on you tube but the guy that was the self proclaimed musical director is trying to tell me that i cant use these tracks !,i have spoken to a solicitor and explained the situation and the fact that i am not selling or charging in any way ,her response is that i can use my own voice how i like and that they cannot stop this,in the meantime they continue to perform and charge for doing so and as far as i can gather pay no performing rights\copyright or other fees,you seem to be well versed in the musical biz ,i know its cheecky of me but i really would appreciate your advice.
many thanks
dave
10/29/2009
@Dave – It sounds like this issue is a matter of master recording ownership. In other words, who owns the recordings that you made? If it’s not you, then you’ll be limited in the ways you can legally use them. Just because you’re one of the performers does not mean that you have any ownership of the recordings. However, people use other people’s music in YouTube videos all the time, so I really don’t see what’s to stop you from using these.
11/1/2009
thanks for that cameron,thats something that i shall look into,i know we did not sign any paperwork giving the musical director any specific rights to use our recordings and as far as i am aware we did not sign any contracts regarding any limitations of use,however the group paid for the studio time so i suppose they may be classed as owning the master recording they are however still using my tracks on their site so i suppose i may have a comeback,but as you say i may be limited in the ways that i use them,im hoping on the basis that i am not profiting from them i may be ok ,i do appreciate your advice ! if you think of anything else give me a shout ,,,thanks my friend .dave
11/6/2009
ps : if i went into the studio and overlaid some vocals would the tracks then become different \ new recordings ?
11/6/2009
Thanks again for the insight and wisdom. It is a challenge for us artists/musicians but with focus and determination and a well thought out plan w/action…we can make it. Or atleast I can. Hope you had a Happy New Year too.
-frankie
1/2/2010
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