I was looking at the hard-drive on my laptop yesterday in an effort to try and clear up some clutter so I made an issue of listing all the software apps I actually use on a regular basis and dumped all the ones I never use.

I’m a software junkie I guess so I collect a lot of novelty apps that I dont need at all

Publishing Online

First and foremost one of my most useful online ‘apps’ (well its not actually an app as such, more a service) is my webhosting account. For anyone experimenting with various websites as I do a hosting account is absolutely essential.

Just for the record I choose a Hostgator reseller account (though there are thousands of companies out there offering similar services) which gives me the capacity to host hundreds of websites all with their own online control panels and with a whole bunch of storage space and very generous bandwidth.

One of the most useful aspects of my webhosting account is the fact that I can have a new blog or website online within minutes, literally. Hostgator are one of the many webhosting companies that use an online script installer called Fantastico. You access Fantastico via an online control panel, called CPanel (what else?) and it will install a selection of free scripts with just a couple of clicks basically.

Those scripts include blog/content management sysytems like Wordpress, Joomla, Mambo, Geeklog and Drupal (amongst others). I choose Wordpress simply because it has a massive support network, free plugins and themes and its easy to learn and manage.

So an artist mangement company with multiple bands could have seperate blogs installed for each artist in minutes. And sites can be updated from any browser, anywhere. I swear by Wordpress, this blog is hosted on that platform and I have used it for almost four years now.

Extra Blogging Tools

I use Windows Live Writer to write posts offline and also the Live Writer Firefox plugin that enables me to quickly write a post on a page I might be viewing if I’m online. If you use Flickr for image hosting then I recomend the Flickr Uploadr app which sits on your desktop and ables you to simply drag images from your harddrive into your Flickr account. Windows Live Writer has the ability to insert Flickr images at a snap too.

RSS Tools

I’ll scan feeds daily to look for inspiration and ideas and the RSS tools I use most are FeedDemon as my main desktop reader, Sage for browsing in Firefox and Google Reader online. Sync all three accounts by exporting all your feeds in an OPML file onto your desktop then importing the feeds into your other readers. If I can get my head round that then so can you! Here’s some YouTube help.

Audio Video Tools

For Torrent files I use UTorrent, for ripping audio and video from webpages I use Orbit. Uploading music to sell online? Then you’ll want an MP3 encoder thats better quality than the encoder built into iTunes. CDex is a freebie that uses the acclaimed Lame encoder and will also rip to the higher quality Ogg format.

If you want to do simple audio editing (ringtones, mp3 editing) then Audacity is another great free tool with mutiple uses like simple recording or encoding old vinyl and cassettes into digital files. There’s even a VST plugin. I use it in particular to try out drum breaks as it has a really neat looping function.

Ripping DVDs? I swear by Magic DVD Ripper used in conjunction with the Cheetah DVD burner. Hey, they’re not system hogs and they just do what it says on the tin.

Related Reading

10 Must Have Office Apps (ReadWriteWeb)
Software-Hack The Day (HackTheDay.com)
Downloads (Lifehacker.com)

Before I started producing dance music I used to strut my stuff as the lead singer of an alternative rock band called the Fruit Eating Bears, who’s main claim to fame seemed to be the ‘unpredictable’ nature of the live gigs (ie: things tended to depend a lot on how much we’d been drinking that day). We also discovered another Fruit Eating Bears which meant we had to ditch the name as well.

In our rare sober moments we got a bit of a following in our local area of South Yorkshire, UK, played the legendary Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, London, appeared on Gary Crowley’s Radio London show, Demo Clash and even had (the then) Phonogram Record company A&R guy ringing us.

Getting to the point a little, we recorded a four track EP which never saw the light of day but which we have decided to get uploaded to iTunes to see how things go. So, starting today the ‘Uptempo Tantrum EP’ experiment begins. We decided to use the band name, the Buzzsonic seeing as its the only thing we could think of that hadn’t already been used for a band.

I got a contact to design the cover (which looks pretty neat) and am signing up for distribution using Tunecore, whom I also used for my 99th Floor Elevators remix project release.

So, step one. Encode hi-bitrate MP3s from my CD master using the CDex Lame encoder, add tags and upload to Tunecore as we speak. Now to put together some kind of readable PR sheet!

To help the project with some much needed PR, one of the tracks, ‘Remember’ has been picked up by an independent film company for usage briefly in the film, ‘Behind The Scenes of Total Hell’. BTSOTH apparently gets it premier at the Curzon Cinema in London sometime next month and is the work of film maker Andy Wilton. I think the film is going straight to DVD but there’s supposed to be a CD tie in which should be good.

Related Reading

Fruit Eating Bears (MySpace)
Get Your MP3 Tags In Order (Wired.com)
Bob Bakers Indie Promotion Blog (Bob-Baker.com)
Cyber PR (Ariel Publicity)

Back in the 90s when I self released my first twelve inch single the main problem I had was trying to physically distribute the product. I remember trailing around London’s (then thriving) network of vinyl stores with a box of white labels trying to drum up a buzz with retailers. Around London it was physically possible to leave ten copies of a single at each individual retailer. Problem was you then had to go back and chase up money from each and every one (if they actually sold any).

The easier alternative was to get your product on the vans of one of the many (at the time) vinyl distributors. If you had a track with a club buzz on it this was pretty easy, you’d drop off your boxes of vinyl at the warehouse and wait for the orders to flood in. Well in practice, at least. What happened to me (three times) was that I’d commit to a distribution deal with a company and then they’d go bust right before I’d ever get paid or get my product back. Great.

Nowadays of course everything has changed to the extent where there doesn’t actually have to be a physical product to distribute (no inventory to lose) and your customer/the consumer actually takes care of any physical manufacturing (CD burner).

So, where to start? Like it or not Apple’s iTunes is the biggest music retailer on the planet so if you want to sell downloads it pays to have your product in the biggest shop window. That is not to say that its the only shop window you should concentrate on but you have to go where the shoppers are looking. Much the same as I’d want my 12inch single in the hip little record store in London’s Soho, I also wanted it on sale in the Virgin and HMV megastores on Oxford Street.

A newer breed of distributor has flourished in the current music industry climate, a digital music aggregator, where the artist or label submits/uploads the content and the aggragator queues it up for placement with the main online retailers, which in mainstream terms means iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic (for DRM free indie music) and more recently AmazonMP3.

So. There’s a number of aggregators around now and they seem to be multiplying weekly so its important, nay, essential to choose a company with a nice ’shiny’ reputation. That means a company that is reachable, reputable and accountable and of course, a company with some solid music industry background. I use Tunecore for digital distribution, though you can see a useful comparison of services here via Moses Avalon.

The biggest pull for me that made me choose Tunecore over CD Baby DD was simply one of percentages and control. CD Baby has a much wider list of stores it sends your music too, but you cant discern which ones you want your music on specifically. With Tunecore you can. CD Baby also take 9% of any money from each download. Tunecore take nothing. After iTunes (to give a specific example) takes its own cut I see 70c per download which goes straight into my Paypal account (if I choose that payment method). Bypassing any distributor cut or record label share.

Consider back in the 90s I had no concrete way of keeping track of what my distributor was up too. Now I can have data tracking each individual sale on a monthly basis.

Do remember though, that despite all the hype about download stores, they still only account for around 10% of music sales so having music available on iTunes is an ‘as well as’ rather than an ‘instead of’. People are still buying CDs, even vinyl.

The sign up at Tunecore (or CD Baby if you choose) couldn’t be simpler. There’s a sign up fee of around $25 for Tunecore, with an annual maintenance fee of roughly $20. Sign up at CD Baby is $35 with no annual fee. You’ll need a finished mastered copy of your release, which you can either upload or physically post in to the distributor. You’ll need CD artwork too, even if its only a digital release. Either diy, get a mate who’s a whizz on Illustrator or pay someone else (or here).

Your album, EP or single also needs a unique UPC (barcode number) and each track needs a tracking number for sales called an ISRC, (”International Standard Recording Code”). Tunecore take care of both these services free of charge at the moment, CD Baby charges $20 for the UPC barcode.

And a one (or two) final points to remember, the number one thing to look out for in a digital distributing partner is a non-exclusive licensing agreement. Make sure that you will continue to own all rights to your own music and also, don’t forget to promote your digital downloads!

For even more options you can get your own download store to paste on your website or MySpace page via companies like 7 Digital (in the UK) or Snocap (in the USA). Though take into account these services are separate options.

And yet another option if you’re without a physical release (CD or vinyl) is actually selling downloads at gigs using a download card service like Dropcards or Disc Revolt.

Related Links

Tunecore vs. CD Baby For Digital Distribution (CNet Blogs)
Digital Distributors-Choose The Right One For You (MosesAvalon.com)
Why Most Digital Distribution Start Ups Will Fail (CNet Blogs)
Tools For The Stay At Home Musician (Coolfer)
iTunes Store (Wikipedia)
Drive-By Truckers Founder Seeks Vinyl Glory (Boston Herald)
Apple Accused of Stifling Rivals with iTunes (Guardian UK)
iTunes No. 2 Music Retailer in the US (Business Week)
So, One Week Later is the Album Dead Yet? (The Seminal)
MP3 Cover Design (Simon Idol)
The Rise and Fall of Snocap - What Did We Learn? (Penny Distribution)

Other Distribution Services

If you want to add more services besides the already mentioned mainstream download stores.

SongCast Music (USA)
KJER (Scandinavia)
Artists Without A Label (AWAL) (UK)
Consolidated Independent (UK)
Wild Palms Music (France)