Musician 2.0

How to earn money writing music to sell it online

Stefano Calicchio

• Publisher: Stefano Calicchio
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9791220217538
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

How to turn your passion for music into a source of income? Is it possible to sell your music directly on the web? How can you promote your work at low cost while achieving important results? The whole truth and much more is available in "Musician 2.0", a complete guide to the art of producing and selling your music thanks to the new tools offered by the internet.
Inside you will discover why the music market today is able to offer excellent earning possibilities to all independent musicians, how to realize step by step your marketing plan and how to distribute your contents on the main world music stores (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and many others). Finally, you will find tips and step-by-step guides to promote your music business.
Stop waiting for the great opportunity and start creating endless career opportunities in the world music market with the tips, guides and step-by-step examples in this manual.

Chapter 1: The online sale of your music products

Thanks to the internet, today every independent musician has a market worth billions of euros in which they can distribute and sell their music. In this chapter we will see how to use the great digital music revolution to turn your passion for music into a source of income.

Why sell your music directly online

Selling your music directly on the web can be a very enjoyable and rewarding activity, but at the same time it requires the development of sales skills that are not strictly in the music field.

When someone contacts me asking me how to develop the sale of his musical works on the internet, the first thing I explain is that the sales process is just as hard and tiring as the production of the work.

If this were not the case, there would be no need for this manual, but neither would it explain why one of the most important and most budget-conscious areas of any music label is marketing.

So the first thing to understand is that the internet will not magically bring you many sales as soon as you release a new music album. In order to achieve this, you will need specific skills and know-how, and at the same time you will need to work hard on your marketing plan.

For anyone who decides to really commit to this path, the good news is that almost all e-business studies in the industry ensure direct distribution of music on the internet as the leading digital marketplace of the new century.

The biggest problem for an emerging musician is not the quality or style of his or her music, but the lack of an audience large enough to get interesting feedback, both in terms of music style and financial income.

The lack of specific knowledge in marketing is the cause of many well-known problems experienced by a large audience of emerging musicians. This manual therefore aims to open your eyes to some possible solutions on the web.

The new music distribution model

The Internet has profoundly changed the model of music distribution: it is now strongly democratised through a new distribution of royalty income downwards. Thanks to large online stores (e.g. iTunes and many others) it is now possible for any musician to self-produce his or her music and earn a real income.

At the same time, this process has contributed to questioning institutions and professionals who struggle to maintain the same relevance in the music ecosystem. Thus, all the staff who until yesterday crowded the headquarters of major record companies can easily be replaced by the few people who make up an independent label, with the advantage of better flexibility and effectiveness in adapting to the dizzying changes in musical tastes of the public.

The key word to gain in music seems to have become access to the web, a real new world that for small independent musicians has much to share with the metaphor of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America. Many experts and opinion leaders belonging to the world of music thought they would find on the horizon a place already known, the Indies ; in reality the continent is completely new and unexplored. This is how the previous skills that characterized the successful musician 10, 20 or 30 years ago have profoundly changed.

Today, those who want to make music a lucrative profession have to give computer accessibility to their creations, allowing their fans to exploit the very medium they love so much: the internet. It means having a broad understanding of the tools offered by web 2.0 and knowing how to use them to improve your role as an artist to the public. In fact, it is from the passionate buyer that the most important turning point comes.

It is he who has profoundly changed his practices of buying and enjoying music. Today those who buy music first want to listen to the piece in streaming, watch the video on youtube and interact with the music artist on the facebook or instagram wall. And so, as it is rarely the case in the history of culture, not only the big majors but also all those small independent musicians who will have understood in time the great leap allowed to the music distribution sector from the web will benefit. A challenge not only useful to distribute the revenues of this large economic sector in a more democratic way, but also to offer the buyer the degree of customization and quality that is indispensable for success.

The most powerful tool ever invented to promote your music

If you take the data presented in the previous pages seriously, you will understand that the web is the most powerful tool ever invented available to musical composers.

It is an extraordinary means of promotion, but this does not mean that it is the panacea for all evil. In fact, with the web, the revenues of many record companies have dropped: what has changed is the access to the market. It is now possible for anyone to publish their music in the big digital record markets and this can offer opportunities, especially in the field of visibility.

What many people forget to remember is that with the web, the music industry's revenues have risen, just as the record industry's revenues have fallen. This means that there are a whole range of opportunities that independent musicians can take advantage of through the internet to fuel their careers, even without using the traditional recording industry.

The potential of the market that has...

Table of contents

• Cover
• MUSICIAN 2.0
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The online sale of your music products
• Why sell your music directly online
• The new music distribution model
• The most powerful tool ever invented to promote your music
• The question of quality
• Chapter 2: The independent musician's marketing plan
• The importance of a good marketing plan dedicated to music on the web
• How to choose your market
• From segmentation to demographic marketing
• The creation of the marketing plan
• Are you ready for music marketing management?
• Chapter 3: Creating music with a marketing perspective
• Suggestions on the creation of the music product from a marketing point of view
• Writing a song online
• How to organize the packaging of your product
• Building your online presence
• Submit your music to search engines
• Manage the pricing policy of your music product
• The practice of lead generation
• The curriculum vitae for musicians
• Chapter 4: The Online Music Marketing Toolbox
• Making correct use of Podcasting
• Take advantage of e-mail marketing
• The Seo for musicians
• The press office for musicians online
• Writing and publishing press releases online
• Available on iTunes "Sereno", the new single by Mario Rossi
• Building a good press kit
• Create link circuits for your music
• Take advantage of online forums and discussion groups
• Chapter 5: Selling in online distribution platforms
• Publish your music on iTunes
• Why target distribution on iTunes
• The step-by-step guide to bringing your music online
• Promote your music on iTunes
• Chapter 6: Music 2.0, exploiting social networks
• Exploiting the power of social networks
• Facebook for musicians
• Linkedin for musicians
• Youtube for Musicians
• The secret technique to get visits with Youtube
• The marketing tools of citizen journalism
• Conclusions
• Notes