How to Sell your music on Myspace and Beyond

Sell your music on online. Use Myspace to promote and sell your music online.
If you have a Myspace band page, why not sell your music online as well? You can make money by selling your music online. Make money without the use of a recording contract.

1. You've recorded your song. Now it's time to take it to the next step. Sell your music and make some money. Make sure your song is in digital format, such as WAV, or MP3. It helps to have at least these two files formats to sell your music online.

2. Step 2

   Making a business plan is easy. Make some key decisions about how you would like to sell your music online. There are a number of options for example: Song Cast Music, sells your music to retailers like itunes, amazonmp3, Rhapsody, Emusic, Napster, and Yahoo music. Song Cast Music charges $5.99 per month, and a set up fee of $19.99 and you keep 100% of your royalties, they also have free UPC barcodes for your songs. Generally speaking most artists are starving. So, you want to look for lower fees.

3. Step 3

   Universal Product Code Barcodes or UPC codes, are expensive and needed to sell your digitally recorded music online. Your CD duplication Company may be able to handle this for you. Disc Makers have been on a marketing campaign for years and they have a track record of delivering services for there clients. They have a $20 fee for DigsStation which is a digital distribution station. Disc Makers will distribute your music to CDBaby and it's affiliate member retailers. The package typically however is tied to a purchase of discs. They will give you the code to place in your Myspace page for the option to purchase your song. The code can be placed on any website. This is critical for the next step in your recording career. With UPC codes the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of American) can track how many sales you have done for the year. Record labels will be interested in you if you come to the table with large sales.

4. Step 4

   Put a budget together. It's going to cost you some money to market your music. Your objective is to make money on your music. So, knowing how much it will cost up front will help in your decision making, and add 10% as a buffer to your budget, then analyze your audience, and potential money returns to your investment. Placing music on Myspace or other websites for sale is going to cost you some money. You aren't going to do it for free.

5. Step 5

   Research the companies that you will use. Search by looking for negative reviews or scam alerts. Search by "is company XXX a scam?" Look for agreements that do not cross with each other. In other words, explore marketing with not just one company, but with several. Look for non exclusive agreements. The success of your song is dependent on you being able to reach as many people as possible. Having an option for someone to purchase and download your song onto there music player will improve your songs success as other people will introduce your song to someone else.

6. Step 6

   Open a blog on myspace announcing your new song. Have other people discuss your song, and try to market your music to other people on Myspace with tour dates, and other facts about your band or music. Let them know that you have your music available for download.

7. Step 7

   Placing the code onto your Myspace page is fairly easy, but if you are not gifted with computer skills then try to find a person that you trust to walk you through placing the code onto Myspace. Generally speaking Discmakers and Songcast or blastmymusic.com walk you through the process of getting your code, and installing your code onto any website where a player is located. Or they have players for you to install on Myspace.

8. Step 8

   Speaking of blastmymusic.com and bandbox.com is offering a service that is advertised as free, you sell your music for $.99 a song, you will keep 65% of the sale with regards to blastmymusic, where bandbox.com claims you keep 100% of your earnings, you get to decide the price. This is a promising leading direction for companies offering online sales. The internet is full of code to place on your website to sell your music for free, using your PayPal account to collect the money. These other companies will use PayPal. Open a Paypal account.

9. Step 9

   Thoroughly read your agreements. Make sure you understand your rights in the agreements that you are thinking about going into. Protect your copyright, if your song is not copywritten then you should file for a copyright with the U.S. copyright office. Create an environment with partnerships with a few company's for your online music sales. By knowing and understanding your agreements you can reach a greater, wider audience for your music.