New Music Biz: How to Sell Your Music
posted in: Features
These days, artists need to make their music available on high traffic sites like iTunes, Napster, and Rhapsody in order to create and maintain consistent online sales. However, these third parties only offer solutions for selling digital tracks. Besides selling music directly through an individual Web site, how else can the struggling DIY musician distribute their hard goods? One answer is Amazon.com.
For those who don’t know, Amazon does support the sale of Mp3. Lets begin by briefly discussing the process of getting your MP3s on the site. The easiest way is to go through a third party distribution aggregator such as CD Baby and Tune Core. Signup for either one and you can get your music distributed to major online players for as little as 10 bucks. The instructions are simple to follow and you can have your music up in no time.
Getting your physical album on Amazon, is a bit more complex, but still very worth while.
- First things first, make sure you own all distribution rights to the material that you’re selling. This is important as it could come back to bite you hard if you aren’t careful.
- Create an Amazon Advantage account. You can start that process here.
- Add an item by logging into your account and clicking Add an Item.
- After selecting the product type, you’ll need to enter the item’s UPC code. Here are some tips on getting a UPC code if you don’t have one. You’ll then have the chance to enter the details of your CD.
- Return to the main advantage page and in the left column click on image upload to upload your artwork.
- Expect that your album will show up on Amazon in about a week.
With this type of Amazon account, you’ll be required to ship your own products. When an order comes in, Amazon will notify you via email. You’ll then follow the online instructions to print out the address label and pick sheet provided in digital form by Amazon.
This process is simple but, if you have any questions, please leave a comment below!