# Best place to sell your music online



## constaneum (May 25, 2017)

Besides online services like Catapult Distribution and CD Baby, are there any other better options? Just looking for alternatives. Thanks !


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## Phryq (May 30, 2017)

http://bandcamp.com/


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## Michael K. Bain (May 30, 2017)

First, I would suggest moving this to the Working In The Industry forum. You might get more responses there.

If I were you, I'd self-distribute. 2 reasons:

(1) You keep all the profit
(2) Opportunity for better exposure

Create yourself a good website using WordPress. Use the WooCommerce plugin for the store part, or if you don't know anything about putting together a WordPress website, use a theme that pretty much handles the commerce part for you, like Slam https://themeforest.net/item/slam-music-band-musician-and-dj-wordpress-theme/3646671 or Sonik https://themeforest.net/item/sonik-...ns-singers-clubs-and-labels/16691545?s_rank=1 .

Use Yoast plugin to optimize your site for search engines. You will need to study the tutorials, but once you do and implement good SEO strategy, your chances at being found for your type of music increase greatly.

And then - very important here - don't forget to blog on your new website. Do it weekly. WordPress is very good about placing high in Search Engine rankings if good consistent blogging is done. But be sure to blog about things related to your music or your music style. Blogging about subjects not related to your music won't do any good.


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## Firstfewbars (May 30, 2017)

https://www.emubands.com


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## Phryq (May 30, 2017)

So *Michael K. Bain*

What about building a site around embedded soundcloud (or other hosting site) links, in order to save bandwidth? And then linking to Bandcamp only costs 10%.

Then you also have triple chance of getting found, either Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or your own personal website.


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## Michael K. Bain (May 30, 2017)

Phryq said:


> So *Michael K. Bain*
> 
> What about building a site around embedded soundcloud (or other hosting site) links, in order to save bandwidth? And then linking to Bandcamp only costs 10%.
> 
> Then you also have triple chance of getting found, either Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or your own personal website.


Those are good ideas. I don't like Soundcloud. I quit them because the way I understand their policy, their usage rights are too broad. I don't know about Bandcamp's usage policies, but if they're reasonable, they would be a good hosting alternative. Maybe one could integrate the Bandcamp audio clips into the WordPress theme but use the theme's cart and keep that 10% to yourself. Either way, the 10% isn't bad, but the money's not my main reasons I would want to handle it on my own website. 
(1) I don't like these music-hosting websites' terms and policies
(2) Wordpress (especially with consistent blogging) is a very good way to get good search engine rankings.


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## Phryq (May 31, 2017)

Ya, I think that's the key of what you said; blogging on your site. I'd like to start that, it's just that... more time blogging means less time making music.


Also, I built my site in Adobe Muse (took me forever). I'd have to start again from the ground up.


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## Michael K. Bain (May 31, 2017)

Here's a guide that gives you good tips for SEO with Muse. Seems like good info. One thing I can caution; don't spend much time on keyword meta tags in the header. Keywords are still very important, but in alt tags and in the content, but not very important in the header meta. https://www.muse-themes.com/blogs/news/6103624-seo-in-adobe-muse-search-engine-optimization

Also, Yoast doesn't have a plugin for Muse, but reading the guide and watching the videos will probably give you good general SEO info anyway. https://yoast.com/wordpress-seo/


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## Michael K. Bain (May 31, 2017)

Oh, and if you do use WP, you should know that WP is the most hack-attempted platform on the web. You must keep up with security (using a plugin like WordFence) and updating the theme and plugins. If you pay daily attention to things like that (a few minutes a day), you'll find that your site is very secure.


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## Phryq (Jun 3, 2017)

Well, if I let BandCamp handle the sales, and only use my site as advertising, I don't need to work about hackers. I'm not worried about the 10% right now (if I ever have enough sales that 10% matters, I can switch).


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## Michael K. Bain (Jun 3, 2017)

Phryq said:


> Well, if I let BandCamp handle the sales, and only use my site as advertising, I don't need to work about hackers. I'm not worried about the 10% right now (if I ever have enough sales that 10% matters, I can switch).


I knew you didn't have need to worry about hackers with Bandcamp. I was actually talking to the OP, in case he decided to go the WP route. But it seems OP's not really interested in the thread he created, so why should I bother.


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## higgs (Jun 3, 2017)

I've been knee-deep in WordPress land for the last few months helping setup and launch a local non-profit. Wordpress is pretty great for this stuff. The two WP themes I have the most experience with are AVADA and X. 

AVADA is well documented & supported, constantly updated, and plays well with Yoast, WooCommerce and includes lots of other useful plugins and premium slider plugins. However, the $60 price tag (at the time of writing this post) for AVADA is not quite as attractive as X @ $39.

X comes with a number of useful plugins like Cornerstone & Visual Composer (really simple drag and drop page builders), Layer Slider, Essential Grid, Slider Revolution, WooCommerce, and several more.

I messed around with Muse and a couple of templates I found, and I guess I'm just more comfortable with WordPress. WP's built-in SEO stuff is topnotch and becomes even topnotch-ier with Yoast. The slider plugins for both options offer embeddable media, and with a little bit of effort you could host all of your music using any number of plugins from CodeCanyon (sister site to Themeforest and the other Envato sites) - https://codecanyon.net/item/fullwidth-audio-player-wordpress-plugin/1321160?s_rank=4 (this is one), but I do not have experience with it.

BandCamp is an interesting option that I hadn't considered. The only caveat would be having a ready-made license for the tracks. I'm not sure what some of the larger library sites (premium beat, etc) do for enforcement of the licenses, though I'd want to check that info out. If they don't offer any sort of recourse for a licensee re-using a track without additional licenses, then I can't see much benefit in using them over your own online store - aside from large exposure.



Michael K. Bain said:


> it seems OP's not really interested in the thread he created, so why should I bother.


I appreciate that this thread exists, and I appreciate your input. This is a worthwhile discussion to have for the DIY'ers.


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## Michael K. Bain (Jun 3, 2017)

higgs said:


> I appreciate that this thread exists, and I appreciate your input. This is a worthwhile discussion to have for the DIY'ers.


Thanks, and thanks to you as well!


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## Phryq (Jun 4, 2017)

Ok, for me personally, someone re-using my music isn't a worry. If I have people actually buying my music, that'll be a start and I'll take it from there.

So maybe I'll switch over to WordPress for the easy blogging and SEO, but would a site like mine be possible on Wordpress? I like my flying fish, raindrops and baby goat too much.


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## higgs (Jun 4, 2017)

I can see why you'd not want to let go of the flying fish and psychedelic raindrops. They float hither and tither, and who doesn't like that? There are certainly plugins that can do the foreground parallax thing, but I don't have any experience with them...yet...

WordPress has a way of making one ponder how to organize and display information. If you can make an orchestral template then applying those analytical skills towards templates for information shouldn't be too much of a stretch - odd comparison, I know. 

Send me a PM if you need tips or whatever.


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## Michael K. Bain (Jun 4, 2017)

Phryq said:


> So maybe I'll switch over to WordPress for the easy blogging and SEO, but would a site like mine be possible on Wordpress? I like my flying fish, raindrops and baby goat too much.


Zappa would be proud, my man!
You can get a WordPress template that would allow you to keep your psychedelic background image. Don't know if you could reproduce the raindrops, though!
You really might like the Sonik template. It gives you lots of customization options.https://themeforest.net/item/sonik-...io-stations-singers-clubs-and-labels/16691545
Plus, there are many free WP themes available from the WP repository.


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## José Skertchly (Feb 14, 2018)

What about www.reverbnation.com?


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## mac4d (Feb 15, 2018)

http://aristake.com/post/cd-baby-tunecore-ditto-mondotunes-zimbalam-or

The above links to an article comparing a number of music distributors.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Feb 20, 2018)

I don't think it really matters, it's all about directing your audience to a site in order to buy your music (which is very difficult these days). CD Baby is great because it includes a ton of additional sites, such as iTunes and Amazon (or at least they used to).


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