Internet-based Publishing for Independent Bands?

Cultural Sublimation asks: "My brother's band is putting the finishing touches on their new album. They have published via a small independent label before, but this time they are considering going for Internet-based distribution. They are quite open to fresh ideas: they are even thinking of releasing the album into P2P networks and using the tip-jar model for revenue. It would also be nice to give people the possibility of buying online the physical CD with the artwork. They are therefore looking for a publisher which: a) won't take away their rights; b) allows for distribution via P2P (perhaps even providing a tracker for torrents); c) facilitates the tip-jar model; and c) allows physical CDs to be shipped on demand. What are fellow Slashdot readers opinion on this?"

Build it and they will come

[Nos.]

If you can't find what you're looking for, build it. Everything you've mentioned (torrent tracker, tip jars, ordering CDs) can be found in OS projects that are available out there. Put them together, or hire someone to do it for you. Then you just have to find a printer for your CDs which shouldn't be too tough.

Washington Post

[samjam]

mp3.washingtonpost.com [slashdot.org]

May need to get a Washington PO box for all I know.... to spoof the system

I got some of my best new music from there including Them Eastport Oyster Boys, Debi Smith and David A Alberding (all in the "Folk" section, but its not the folk my parents knew), also Meleket a cool Reggae group.

OK, its not the ENTIRE solution but your next big problem would have been how to get folk to your website, well the Washington Post website already hads tonnes of visitors, who won't be looking for your

Re:Washington Post

[rogabean]

mp3.washingtonpost.com [washingtonpost.com]
fixed your link. :)

CDs on Demand

[GuitarNeophyte]

CafePress.com has the ability to send out CDs on demand. It's like 4.95 as the base price, I think, for CDs, and if you set the price any higher than that, you get the profits. They don't touch the rights, and you don't have to worrk about doing any of the print work.

Luke
----
Does your Aunt Maggie want to learn about computers, but you don't have time to teach her? Send her top ChristianNerds.com [christiannerds.com], the Easy-to-Understand Computer Encyclopedia.

Why a publisher?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, so they can keep their rights, they can upload to P2P networks themselves, and they can sell CDs through CD Baby [cdbaby.com] or similar.

What, exactly, do they need the publisher for? It's certainly not to publish.

PS: d) comes after c).

Re:Why a publisher?

[cei]

Agreed. For that matter, through CD Baby, they can sell on iTMS, Rhapsody, Napster, MSN Music, MP3tunes, AOL's MusicNet, Yahoo MusicMatch, etc. There's never been a better time for distribution for independent artists.

Re:Why a publisher?

[bitingduck]

What, exactly, do they need the publisher for? It's certainly not to publish.

For marketing, but most bands don't really get much marketing from their record label anyway, and then get dropped, often without the rights to their own music.

Getting CDs made is pretty easy, but it's a big capital expense-- a friend of mine (who's made a lot of CDs) once had one all set and then the band broke up, leaving her with ~800 CDs and no band to promote with them. I like CD Baby, but the CafePress idea that someone sug

Re:Why a publisher?

[uqbar]

So what you are saying is you really have no clue what a publisher is when talking about music.

Publishing is a major source of revenue for many songwriters - so it might be worth understanding the business model of the industry before making these sorts of dismissive pronouncements.

A note:

[MobileMrX]

Dear Recording Artist, Please cease and desist from attempting to make money using illegal P2P networks for distributing your work, and also for trying to make money without signing to an RIAA Approved Record Label (TM). Any further mention of p2p will force us to crush you with immense legislative force. Love, The RIAA

CD Baby

[mapinguari]

Depending on the musicians' needs, CDBaby [cdbaby.net] may fit the bill. While more of a distributor than a publisher, they're one of the biggest online independents in the business and seem to have a pretty good rep.

Re:CD Baby

[KILNA]

They have a digital distribution service [cdbaby.net] that is quite appealing as well, you can still get your music into pay-for-download services for a cut of the profits, but you don't have to negotiate deals with a bunch of places yourself.

Magnatune.com

[Yonder Way]

Magnatune is a great place to check out for alternative distribution. They won't take "just anybody", though. But it's worth looking into.

Re:Magnatune.com

[tclark]

I like Magnatune, and I would definitely check with them. I don't think they distribute cd's; they're download only. They do, however, meet all of your other criteria, and they would still allow your brother's band to distribute cd's themselves.

A non-evil record label

[gnarlin]

magnatune [magnatune.com].

Their motto is: We are not evil. Check it out.

If it ain't cheap...

[Fuzzle]

Plan-It-X [plan-it-x.com] records seems to support this kind of thing, as do many other small independent punk/indie labels. Check out any of them like Hillbilly Stew, Dirtnap, etc. At the same time, why not just do it yourself? Trackers are easy to set up, or you can use a public one, it has virtually no impact on a webserver short of just serving the pages (as long as you're not Loki or Demonoid).

look past the jar

[TheSHAD0W]

The tip jar will give them some income, but they should reach for other sources as well. Merchandise can bring in some bucks. They should also consider running a blog and a forum, and advertising on both. Gigs and concerts can be a great source of income, and if your friends are good, their fans may be able to come up with a touring schedule for them without their having to find their own venues.

Re:look past the jar

[Cultural Sublimation]

Indeed! They are actually very well aware of this: even though they will have to invest some money into decent studio production (even if most of the stuff is done with a computer at home), they say they typically get it all back from gigs.

Merchandising is a good idea anyway.

Some Suggestions

[yamcha666]

I used to roadie for an indy metal band a couple of years ago, and that experience introduced me to a few online methods of distribution.

First, here are some websites that might fit your bill:

Garage Band [garageband.com]
Sound Click [soundclick.com]
Independent Music Online [ind-music.com]
And a list of other sites that might interest you: http://www.rmpmusic.com/ [rmpmusic.com]

If you choose to use a third party website to promote your music, I and many others in my local music scene, still believe a web site dedicated to your band is the best idea. Offer full CD or near CD quality MP3 downloads of your best singles, demos, etc. Add a list of your gigs, news and updates relating to your band, perhaps a press kit full of print-sized logos, promo photos, and posters, in addition to a physical CD to send to record labels and credible review sites and mags. And also offer a way to buy your band's CD off the official website. Use something like PayPal for that. It's easy enough.

Good luck.

Re:Some Suggestions

[Uber Banker]

Offer full CD or near CD quality MP3 downloads of your best singles, demos, etc.

If you do this, I'd recommend using Bittorrent because a small band could get beaten up by bandwidth charges should they get popular.

Not ure of CD quality because a new band probably havn't produced to studio style before, reducing the concept of 'quality' to 'raw skill'; 128kbps (or even substantially less) should be fine as more general studio production issues dominate kbps above this.

Try Lulu.com

[Sundroid]

Lulu.com is founded by Robert Young, a co-founder of Red Hat, the famed Linux distributor. Lulu publishes books, images, music, etc. They use on-demand technology, and the creators own all the rights.

I've never tried their music publishing side of the business, but I have a novel published through them (http://www.lulu.com/content/138218 [lulu.com]). Lulu's technology of fulfilling customers' orders is topnotch, as good as Amazon.com. If you order a product from them, they inform you every step of the way -- wh

Thanks to everybody!

[Cultural Sublimation]

First of all, thanks to all the people who have replied with ideas and suggestions. Your help is very much appreciated!

Some have asked why do they need a publisher at all. Well, their previous EP was distributed in a large "brick & mortar" chain here in Portugal, and having physical CDs does help in getting the album reviewed by dead-tree newspapers and magazines.

As for internet distribution, P2P is definitely the way to go. It is easy to give copies of official ogg vorbis to a bunch of friends an

Hosting live sets of your band at archive.org

[shakey_deal]

Free storage and people can post reviews! And you can just pass the URL to people that are intrested.

But if your band sucks please do not.

QuidMusic

[CrosbieFitch]

QuidMusic is an entirely new way to buy and sell music.

Instead of recording new music, retailing each copy to their fans one by one in music shops or online, QuidMusic lets musicians deal directly with their fans en masse.

Musicians can now simply put a Pledge £1 for my next release (via QuidMusic) button on their web page. This let's the musician sell their music and not the copies.

This pledge button represents a commitment by the fan to buy the musician's next release for £1. At last there's a

The Mechanic's Guide

[justforaday]

Although a bit dated, the Simple Machines Records Mechanic's Guide [simplemachines.net] has all the info you need about recording, releasing and promoting your band/record/label, along with information on publishing and copyright and a bunch of other stuff. I don't think it has anything about online distribution (like I said, it's a little dated), but all of the comments above should probably fill that in for you. Jenny Toomey, one of the people who put that out is now running the Future of Music Coalition [futureofmusic.org], a think tank (if you

Mod UP!

[uqbar]

This is a great resource. It is also a good way to understand what publishing is and why you need it. Publishing is NOT the same as having a lable or distribution. By publishing your song you are able to get another royalty stream in certain cases such as:
* another performer covers your song live or on recording
* your song is played on the radio
* someone wants to license your song for other uses

While there are more comprehensive sources such as the seminal book "This Business of Music," the advice in the

A bigger problem

[Skynyrd]

Making the music available is one thing, but getting people to hear it is much harder.

As much as I hate radio and traditional lables, I still haven't found a way to get recommendations for new bands that doesn't suck. At least I can hear new music on the radio.

What options are out there - a 30 second low-fi clip on a website doesn't do it for me. At all.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion