Nobody’s Going to Help You…

Turning back to the old subject of this blog, how to promote independent music, Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, recently posted an article about how nobody’s going to help you out to advance your music career.

This is my experience on the subject. It’s not in anyone’s financial interest to help a struggling musician. The odds of turning a profit on someone without a huge existing fanbase are against you. So, it’s a tough road.

Good luck to you. Check out the article, read the hundreds of comments so far…

Derek Sivers’ Incubator of Musician Services

As head of CD Baby, Derek Sivers has been a go-to person on the web and at conferences for musicians looking to learn how to make it in the biz. Having recently sold CD Baby to Discmakers, Derek Sivers has begun work on a bunch of new projects, all with the similar goal of helping artists. They seem to be in the planning stages, but you can go to his website and sign up for announcements and see what he’s got cooking.

Also, you should download a FREE e-copy of his Music Marketing Advice book.

Why I Chose TuneCore over CDBaby

Back in 2008, I chose Tunecore over CDBaby to distribute my second EP. At the time it made sense for reasons that I no longer recall.

Since then, it couldn’t be any clearer to me.

I would never choose TuneCore over CDBaby ever again
.

TuneCore is a crap service that holds your music hostage indefinitely. You’ll have to keep paying their annual fee forever, which after a few years feels like absolute robbery. They actually go through the trouble of having your music removed from iTunes if you stop paying them.

I stopped paying them because I found it absurd and anti-human. I finally re-listed the album through CDBaby, which you pay for once and that’s it.

The one downside to CDBaby is they charge 9% of your sales. But if you’re an unknown musician like me, that will be about $0.00 after a few years when everyone who knows your music has already bought it. In which case you don’t want to pay just to have them keep your music listing active.

End of story. Sorry for the bad advice, nearly eight years ago now. If you expect your albums to sell for years to come then maybe TuneCore’s annual fee will end up cheaper than 9% of sales. But if you’re just a regular musician putting some music out there, you’ll regret using TuneCore.