Welcome back to the second part of Sounds Unique's guide to self releasing. Last time we looked at being self critical and testing the market place, this time it's the assumption that you believe your product will sell so lets get it out there earning those spons (translation=Euros,Dollars,Pounds etc.).

There are a number of ways of providing your material to the world but in the days of digital downloads it makes financial sense to get it in an internet store. I'm sure you've heard of iTunes, there are of course many more, they seem to be springing up all the time : 7Digital, Beathut, Emusic, FineTunes, MusicNet, Napster, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, Whippet... even Amazon have their own download store now. Did I miss a few names? Probably, but that's not important. So are you going to approach all of these stores now about virtually stocking your product? Well you could but in my experience they don't generally want to deal with 1000's of individual labels, this is where a distributor comes in, or in digital lingo, an 'Aggregator'.

Aggregators
An Aggregator works very much like a traditional physical distributor in that it delivers your product to the stores with all the relevant paperwork saving you the legwork. They also act as your contact for the store and therefore provide you with details of sales and payments, the money you earn from the stores is paid to you by the Aggregators, after taking their cut that is.

dittomusic is a popular British Aggregator, Koopa used them to great effect to conquer the UK charts. I'm not going to go into promoting individual Aggregators, that's their job, but I will give you an outlined idea of what they do, this may vary between Aggregators therefore you will need to do your home work here.

Firstly you'll need to be operating as a record label as you can't officially release a track without one. You'll either have to choose one for yourself (not a big deal) or some aggregators will act as one on your behalf. Once you're registered with the aggregator you will need to upload your track(s). There are often restrictions on the length or size of the tracks, plus formats and bit-rates of the audio files so make sure you research this before-hand.

Next you'll need a barcode. OK, we've all seen barcodes on products that we've bought, just about everything has them these days. They are simply a collection of numbers which are used to uniquely identify your product, a barcode is also known as a UPC (Universal Product Code). Apparently even if your product is never going to be sold as a physical and therefore be scanned, it still needs a barcode, don't ask me why. I've used Tunecore in the past and they give you the option to provide your own barcode if you have one or they'll generate one for you (at the time of writing this is provided free). If y ou do decide to release your product as a physical then you can use this barcode provided, so that's pretty cool.

OK, next you're gonna need an ISRC (International Standard Record Code) which is needed per song. With this code the industry can keep track of sales therefore providing sufficient accounting information but also providing information to charts (wehay!). Again you can provide your own or let the aggregator take care of it for you, do keep in mind though that if you use more th an one digital download store and allow them to create a ISRC each things will start to get confused. I've noticed on the mid week charts the same song by the same artist in 2 different chart positions, my guess is that it had 2 ISRC numbers.

With your label and ISRC for your track(s) you're now able to register the track with the PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited). They have a system called CatCo which allows members to submit release details electronically so that they may be tracked for MCPS payments and Charts. Aggregators will provide this service meaning that you don't have to become a member of the PPL, very handy. NOTE: PPL is a British company therefore your track will be eligible for the UK chart only. Check with individual aggregators if they provide this service (if you require it that is) as non-UK aggregators (such as Tunecore) may not .

As mentioned above, the Aggregator will now get your digital product into key digital download stores, they will collect your money and sales information, passing it onto you.

That's pretty much it with Aggregators although some do offer marketing services, merchandising and even services to provide your tracks as physical releases. Another to keep in mind with them is release dates. It will take longer to get your track into some stores than others therefore if you're looking to hit all of the stores simultaneously make sure you submit your tracks early.

Your Own Store
As well as aggregators a few sites give you the opportunity to be able to sell your wares from your own store. Indiestore allows you to set-up your own mini-site and store within it's pages and Artists First allows you to create a store which will be linked to your own site. These options may suit some more than others, what you have to remember is that the large digital download stores such as I-Tunes hold so many tracks that yours will easily get buried. If you're doing well attracting people to your own website or Myspace page then a store linked directly may be a better option.

Giving It Away
Since the problems with illegal downloading of music began on the internet, artists have dabbled with giving their music away. There are plenty of arguments for and against free music, some say that free depreciates music as a whole, some say it's going to be stolen anyway so why not give it away as a type of marketing. Amid all this controversy We7 has popped up with a slightly different approach. What We7 do is give music away on your behalf but are able to pay you a royalty because the track is loaded with an advert. Money from the advertising pays the artist/label. The idea seems to be catching on and We7 have now started stocking Sony/BMG tracks.

Physical Releases
Last but by no means least we come to the physical releases. Sales of physicals products are still relatively high worldwide, people like to feel in possession of something and don't forget about the DJ's and collectors.

First off you're going to have to decide which medium you're going to create your product on CD single, CD album, DVD, Vinyl and even USB sticks are all available options.

Which medium you chose is entirely up to you but do keep in mind that they're all going to cost different amounts to manufacture and based on size/weight to distribute as well. There are many companies providing manufacturing services so get googling to find the most reliable/cost effective.

With at least one music store in just about every town across the country it instantly becomes apparent that getting the product there yourself isn't such a good idea therefore you're going to need a distributor. This is easier said than done, many distributors work in select genres and they will all undoubtedly want to hear your product first before deciding if they want to take it on, don't forget it's their money too.

The other thing to keep in mind with physical releasing is the dreaded returns. Many stores operate a sale or return policy on music, therefore if it's not sold you'll be expected to pay for the carriage back to the you or distributor. If it's going to be stored in the distributors warehouse also be aware that you may just be charged for this.

A more appealing option for some may be selling on-line. CD Baby has been operating since 1997, they manufacture the CD's and sell them from their Portland, Oregon (USA) based warehouse.

Well that just about wraps it up for part 2, hopefully you've now got the tools and the knowledge to get your product out there. Look out for part 3. Byeeeee!

Welcome to part one of Sounds Unique's guide to self releasing your own music which was originally published on my now closed site TheDIYMethod. Over the coming months/weeks, how ever long it takes, we'll be exploring every avenue of how to benefit from DIY releasing including formats, artwork, testing the market, online stores, aggregators, physical releases, distribution, the free option, generating income, royalties, marketing, gigging, utilising the web etc. etc etc. etc etc. etc. (and one more etc. for luck).

So lets start by discussing your product, what have you actually got there hey? I'm going to assume now that you've got a finished product, by that I mean a recording that you can work with. In this guide I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty of writing, recording, studios, software, contracts etc, it's starting from the 'we've done that, what do we do next?' part. Well that's a damn fine question, find out the answer next time!

OK, joking aside, have a look at what you've got. Be it a single or an album, decide for yourself if other people are going to appreciate it. Be honest with yourself, do you like it? If the answers 'no', then give up now! I'm hoping the answer was 'yes' and you're still reading, so next question and again, be honest with yourself. Is the quality any good? By quality in this instance I'm referring to the recording/mastering quality, how does it compare to commercial recordings? Obviously there are differing opinions about this, a raw/rough recording could well be one of the draws of your music, look at 'Badly Drawn Boy' for example, but be honest to yourself, is it listenable? (Don't check your dictionary for that word, it's probably not in there). Do you cringe at any point?! Does listening to any point of it make you uncomfortable? If so it's probably time to rework it, if you're not comfortable with it it's very likely that other people will also feel the same. Now, are you happy with the quality of the material? Again, be honest with yourself here, is there anything perhaps lyrically you feel a bit embarrassed about? Is there part of the melody that's a bit monotonous, obvious, over complicated, blatantly stolen from another song that you're not 100% comfortable with? How about the standard of musicianship, are you out of time, out of key anywhere? Is the mix bad? Are the drums drowning out the vocals? If the answers 'yes' to any of these, sort it out now. Don't be lazy and think, 'Oh, it'll be fine', you'll spend the next few years making excuses about it and wishing people hadn't heard it. Think about this, 'If you not 100% happy with your product then you won't believe in it 100% and you're not going to be confident enough to push it 100%'.

Single or album? You may already have an album which is fine but if you're considering this conundrum think of it like this. Does your music work in single pieces? When you think about it there's not much music that doesn't work as single pieces, classical works and concept albums such as Pink Floyd's work come to mind as material that doesn't necessarily work. On the whole though, if you have a single and you're thinking of recording an album before releasing anything then it's probably best to think again. A single is a great means of 'testing the water', if it goes down well, then record some more. Why waste time recording dozens of tracks just to find that your project isn't popular? The other thing to consider here is that there is a growing belief that albums are a thing of the past. Where albums are available via download sites the stores now report that people are 'cherry picking' what they want off of it. When you consider that many albums in your collection have 3-4 good tracks and the rest you could do without, it's no surprise really.

OK so you've got a product you're 100% happy with, but will it sell? That's the million dollar man, I mean question, it's what everyone launching any product into any market place wants to know, needs to know. So what kind of research do you need to do, well the clues are in this paragraph, look for the word 'market' and the word 'research', bolt them together and what do you have? Mesearch? Rarket? No not like that, as a mini sentence, 'Market Research'. The beauty and possibly the downfall of the web is that you can expose your music to everyone who wants to listen and, if you're lucky, you can take those opinions and decide if releasing your product is going to be worthwhile. There are billions (OK a slight exaggeration there) 10's (OK, a slight xagerration there (xagerration is the opposite of exaggeration isn't it?) of websites where you can trial your product for free, see the links below, just read these nuggets of advice before you do so:

- Take what friends and family tell you with a large pinch of salt. Most of the time they don't want to upset you and will praise what you've done for that reason, or for the genuine reason that they are proud of you. It's all nice but it doesn't help to find out the truth.

- Don't expect everyone to comment. People are generally lazy and there's a huge glut of music out there to be trawled through, not everyone has the time to comment.

- Don't expect everyone to like your work. Remember the saying, 'a watched kettle never boils'. No hang on, this one, 'you can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time'.

- Be aware of ripping. Most sites can easily have their content ripped, consider low quality versions of your music or previews.

- 'If you build it they will come!', erm, not entirely true this one. Don't expect people to flock to hear your music, you need to make them aware and give them reason. This will be approached later on in this guide.

Well that's it for this episode, tune in next time when I'll be discussing the next step, getting your product out there generating revenue. Bye for now and good luck!

Free Sites for Airing Your Wares
Myspace
Youtube
Soundclick
Garage Band