How to Sell Your Blues Songs Online

Use distribution services to expose your blues tracks to millions of potential fans.

The Internet and the popularity of streaming music websites and players make it easier than ever for artists to put their music in front of millions of potential fans. Many of these streaming media sites also offer members the option to perform a digital download of their favorite tracks and albums. To sell your blues songs online, you must have a Universal Product Code, or UPC, and an International Standard Recording Code, ISRC, assigned to the tracks. The best way to sell your blues songs online is to contract a distribution service that creates codes for you and automatically puts the songs on a number of sites.

Instructions

1. Choose a digital distribution service (see Resources). Some providers charge monthly fees, but give you 100 percent of the royalties. Others have no fees, but require a percentage of the royalties. All of the distribution services create UPC and ISRC codes for your songs. Choose your service based on your budget, expected amount of sales and the number of distribution channels it includes.

2. Sign up for an account at the chosen distribution service's website. Follow the onscreen instructions to create your account and choose the type of services you need for your blues songs.

3. Upload your blues songs and fill in the required information about each track. Each track must include the song title, album title and artist name.

4. Wait for the tracks to appear in the various digital music stores. This may take up to 6 weeks depending on the amount of traffic on each website.

5. Promote your music with download links on your website and other popular websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. Use forums and blogs related to the blues to further promote your songs.

Tips & Warnings

• Some services charge extra for UPC and ISRC code generation. Most services provide you with special download links you may use to promote the tracks, or you may create links to a specific digital music store such as iTunes.

References

• Garage Spin: 7 Ways to Sell Your Music on iTunes
• Evolver: How To Sell Your Music On iTunes Using Tunecore

Resources

• TuneCore
• Reverb Nation
• Ditto Music