Music hosting sites: Let's talk about these, shall we?

[lykwydchykyn]

So, quick history: I've been making recordings off and on for ... a couple of decades now... I have never published "albums", at least not of my solo work. For a long time I've made my tracks available on my website under a CC license so people could freely download them and enjoy them. I asked for donations, but you know how that goes.

So I'm looking into some kind of music hosting site with some goals in mind:

- Obviously, store my sounds and make them available at a decent quality.
- Have an option to distribute them for free, but...
- Make it easy for people who want to support me to purchase something
- Make it easy to get on streaming services and sales outlets, Pandora, spotify, itunes, whatever.

I've tried Jamendo in the past, and it's been OK, but I haven't gotten anything really out of it other than free hosting. I was looking into Bandcamp recently, but I've heard mixed things about it. Some of my musician friends have used ReverbNation, too.

Any thoughts or personal experiences anyone would like to share?

[apathity]

We live in a weird time, isn't it?

If there are no licensing issues between the sites, why not release your music on all these sites at the same time? It's not that much work to do.

Personally I often use YouTube as a plain music player. For my own upcoming music releases I was thinking about hosting my music on my own website/domain, and do really good YouTube videos for the songs. That way you could kinda listen and watch my stuff on YouTube totally for free, and from there go exclusively to my website where you can download my high quality files after a simple register/newsletter form.

[lykwydchykyn]

We live in a weird time, isn't it?

If there are no licensing issues between the sites, why not release your music on all these sites at the same time? It's not that much work to do.

I guess it depends on how much time and material you have. Every time I try one of these sites it turns into a big data-entry hassle, and I don't want to spend all my time promoting my material -- I'd rather spend time making new material.

I'm just wondering if one has proven more helpful in terms of getting your music into various online venues or generating revenue.

[ssj71]

I have not heard negative things about bandcamp, its what I've planned to use. What complaints have to heard? AFAIK it fits your list of requirements pretty squarely. It doesn't do the uploading to other streaming services though. I don't know of any site that does. They want all the traffic themselves typically.

[sysrqer]

I have a bandcamp which I don't update very often. I went to add an old album the other day and the whole process of uploading seemed to be made as difficult as possible, only could choose one song at a time and very slow. After a few flacs I gave up. They seem to be pushing paid membership, or whatever it is, quite strongly but it's not bad aside from that. I've used archive.org before, it's not ideal but depends what you want/need. Soundcloud is hard to beat for individual tracks or mixes.

[sadko4u]

I'm using soundcloud for publishing free tracks.
To publish my music in many online stores I've used tunecore.
The benefits are that you become your own ISRC code.

[GMaq]

Hi,

Prolly not what you're looking for if you want to do CC stuff, but I use CDBaby for sales and Soundcloud for streaming. CDBaby also does CD Production as well if you want to sell actual CD's online or at your shows. For one time fee ($89.00 USD, could be less if you take advantage of a promotion) CDBaby also gets you hooked up with iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Amazon, Youtube licensing etc. etc. etc. PLUS they also look after performing rights royalty collection from Radio, TV etc.

It's very weird how a record label is completely unnecessary now for actual worldwide distribution, however sadly all that freedom to get your product everywhere is of no avail when rampant piracy is now the status quo and has made the need to purchase any music unnecessary.

Anyway if I haven't insulted everyone with the very idea of selling their music, at least give CDBaby a look: http://www.cdbaby.com/

[lykwydchykyn]

Prolly not what you're looking for if you want to do CC stuff, but I use CDBaby for sales and Soundcloud for streaming. CDBaby also does CD Production as well if you want to sell actual CD's online or at your shows. For one time fee ($89.00 USD, could be less if you take advantage of a promotion) CDBaby also gets you hooked up with iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Amazon, Youtube licensing etc. etc. etc. PLUS they also look after performing rights royalty collection from Radio, TV etc.

I'm not religiously attached to doing CC, but I like being able to release CC when I want to.

So, if you don't mind me asking, has it actually paid out? I've tried so many services over the years (going back to mp3.com in the 90's) that promised payouts, and despite a decent amount of listens/downloads/etc. never actually made more than pocket change.

[GMaq]

Hi,

Hey, I was on mp3.com too! I still have some of my D.A.M. CD's

To be honest it's a bit too soon to tell, my CD was just put up at the end of November, so far I've almost made my $89.00 back, We are planning a CD release party in March and booking a few gigs into the summer so I have download cards as well as physical CD's to hawk at shows to help as well. To be clear the CD duplication was extra, but reasonably priced. When I decided to go with CDBaby I was planning on taking the longview and taking a year of shows to make my initial investment back. I do not expect to make much more than 'pocket change' on this first EP but on the other hand seeing the tunes on pretty much every Digital Retail Outlet for $89.00 does not seem like an unreasonable sum.

It's all a bit of a bringdown after years of making a couple hundred bucks a show playing covers..lol

[lykwydchykyn]

Hi,

Hey, I was on mp3.com too! I still have some of my D.A.M. CD's

Heh, yeah, I think I have my one golden copy of my album I did on there. I don't think anyone else in the universe sprang for one.

I do not expect to make much more than 'pocket change' on this first EP but on the other hand seeing the tunes on pretty much every Digital Retail Outlet for $89.00 does not seem like an unreasonable sum.

Yeah, seems reasonable, if they're doing all the legwork there for you. I looked into doing it myself and it was quite a chore.

It's all a bit of a bringdown after years of making a couple hundred bucks a show playing covers..lol

I tell ya, I spent 6 years trying to make money in an original band, we were glad to get $50 take-home after a weekend of shows (those were 1990s' dollars, but still). One of my old bandmates who still tours says things are a bit easier now, but it's still scraping for nickels and dimes. I have no interest in doing that ever again.

[glowrak guy]

https://www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicM ... _bandcamp/

an interesting music-hosting discussion,
with a range of experiences/persuasions, that could be useful
to decisionmakers.
Cheers

[Lyberta]

Are there music hosting sites whose frontend and backend are free software? I've tried searching but found only self-hosting solutions.

[Vitne]

Man, mp3.com was great. My high school band was on there back in 2001. I remember a site called Garageband.com as well (no, not an Apple thing) where you reviewed other people's music in exchange for them reviewing your's.

Here's what I use now:

Primary
CDBaby or Symphonic Distro for general digital distribution (iTunes, Spotify and all that jazz) - paid
Bandcamp (my primary music "store" - pay what you want) - free

For Creative Commons specifically (free)
Jamendo
Soundcloud
Archive.org

Other sites for general discovery (free)
Reverbnation (kinda crappy)
OurStage (basically ReverbNation, but you can also add your songs to monthly competitions. That's pretty cool)
TheSixtyOne (Discovery kinda thing. I've gotten some nice feedback from users here)
EarBits (you must be accepted by them first, though)

Paid Radio/Promotional Play (not free, but nice)
Radio Airplay / Jango
Feature.fm (like Jango, but integrated into 8tracks)

Other FREE options
Gumroad (I like them a lot, but they don't have much of a community like Bandcamp does, so I might as well just use bandcamp. Or both. But they don't have a dedicated player, since they are really just an e-commerce widget. But it's super easy and free)
Free Music Archive (You have to get accepted. Really depends on music. I wasn't accepted)
CCMixter (Creative Commons stuff. I think you upload stuff like stems so that others can make their own mixes or something. I don't know much about it)
MagnaTune (Creative Commons. You have to be accepted as well, with a minimum of something like 14 songs for an album. A bit odd demand I think, but I'll try again once I release a "best of" or something)

[Lyberta]

Here's something I've discovered today:

DO NOT USE SOUNDCLOUD.

It doesn't work with cookies disabled, so I assume it's spyware.

[tavasti]

When I decided to go with CDBaby I was planning on taking the longview and taking a year of shows to make my initial investment back. I do not expect to make much more than 'pocket change' on this first EP but on the other hand seeing the tunes on pretty much every Digital Retail Outlet for $89.00 does not seem like an unreasonable sum.

It's all a bit of a bringdown after years of making a couple hundred bucks a show playing covers..lol

That is most likely how it goes. Playing covers you get gigs, and get some money from them. And also making cover videos to youtube, you get (some) views. It's bit like taking day work, you get something paid for your work, but nothing more fancy.

On the other hand, with making own music, most likely you won't get gigs, nobody wathces your youtube videos. You can create professional really good music, and still be nobody. In Jamendo I have found plenty of excelent artists, and still, they are nobody.