How to Sell Your Music Online

With so many musicians and bands out there searching for that big break in the increasingly viral world of online, undiscovered music, it's harder and harder for an unknown act to gain traction. Before gaining traction, your band needs to learn something about selling music online. If you've never sold one track or CD online, or are just looking for ways to sell more as an indie artist, here are some tips to help you along the way.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Register with a performing rights society, a digital licensor and make friends with a music biz lawyer. You shouldn't spend any money to do any of the above unless there is already a strong demand for your music. If such demand occurs overnight, start paying that lawyer friend of yours some good money so she can fine-tooth all the mumbo-jumbo of the contracts you will eventually be signing.
2. Find an online retailer. There are hundreds of options on the web for an unsigned artist. CD Baby is one of the most established and respected for online retail and digital distribution (see Resources below). In fact, don't just find one online retailer, find as many as you're comfortable with, as long as they don't take away any rights to your music.
3. The only entity who should be taking away any rights to your music is a publisher. This is more complex and you need that lawyer friend from step one here. No website you download your songs to should have rights to them. If you have a song on your MySpace page MySpace doesn't own that song--you do.
4. Don't pay someone thousands of dollars to do something you can do yourself. Don't hire a publicist to promote you online unless there is an increasingly strong demand for your music.
5. Utilize Web 2.0. Become a social networker online. Always have links back to you in the sig line of any email you send or message you post.