In the music industry, a new trend is moving to the forefront. It is called digital music retailing. Understanding what a digital music retailer is and what they can do for your band is important to any new recording artist.
To be concise, a digital music retailer is a company that makes it possible for musicians and singers to put their music in front of a wide online audience for sale. Using the mp3 format, you can record your music, upload it to a digital music retailer and sell your recordings to fans around the world. Popular digital music retailers include Amie Street, 7Digital, iTunes and EMusic.
While the digital music retailing system has existed for a number of years, it's popularity and value is rapidly soaring to new heights. To illustrate the value of these outlets, HMV bought a half interest in 7Digital in late 2009. They paid $12.6 million dollars for the privilege of owning half of this popular UK based digitalmusic retailer and saw a 16% increase in their sales from the previous year.
Those are big numbers but what do they mean to the recording artists? They mean that the music industry has seen that digital music downloads are the next wave in media. Recording artists no longer have to deal with expensive overhead that leaves them paying the recording companies to produce their songs. Using a home recording studio and a little tech savvy, the independent recording artist can now create, upload and sell theirmusic online through a digital music retailer to see long term income in the form of royalties every time their song is purchased by a digital music retailer's customers.
The digital music retailer provides recording artists with a ready made fan base consisting of thousands of people and a hands off approach to sales. The artist provides the retailer with the content their customers look for. It's a Win-Win situation all around.
