Very difficult to be totally definitive on this one but the following list is a bunch of websites we consider to be essential bookmarks for music artists, bands, band managers and indie labels alike. Whether you’re just releasing your first digital EP and want it selling on iTunes or if you want to build up your ‘musicbiz’ network and don’t know where to start, these sites will help to get you up and running.

Digital Distribution

Tunecore - I use Tunecore to distribute Buzzsonic Records tracks to iTunes worldwide and AmazonMP3.There’s a signup fee of around $25 and then an annual fee of about $20 for maintenance. Adds up to peanuts for a worthwhile service that takes no percentage from your downloads which means you see something like 70c out of every 99c download straight into your own pocket. They also duplicate and shrink wrap short run CDs too.

Snocap - Founded by ex-Napster wunderkid Shawn Fanning, Snocap was supposed to be the first major legal P2P service in its formative years but licensing problems with the majors put paid to that. A change of business plan means that now Snocap powers thousands of MySpace artist music stores, using their store widget that you can paste into your MySpace profile and anywhere else online. Artists see something like 60c from a 99c download, though you can set your own price.

CD Baby - CD Baby and its founder Derek Sivers have an impeccably solid reputation with artists and its up there with Tunecore as the ones to go to. CD Baby’s digital deal has them take 9% of your revenue, though they distribute to a much wider array of download stores than Tunecore. Those short run CDs you got done at Tunecore? CD Baby will sell them via their much vaunted CD distribution channel.

Indistr.com - Another promising looking outlet is Indistr.com. Artists keep 75% of download revenue and get paid the same day of the sale via Paypal.

Music Biz Resources

Music Business Resources For Students - UK based college lecturer Daz Smith’s comprehensive website is packed to the rafters with tips and links on networking, manufacturing, record companies, promotion and diy record labels. Useful for bands and DJ’s hoping to make their next move, students of popular music and music technology and anyone else wanting to get involved.

Luke Hits - LA based Luke Hits specializes in placing unsigned bands music onto TV shows and film soundtracks by circulating compilation CDs with his contacts that he painstakingly picks from the bags of submissions he gets. He promises to listen to everything he’s sent. There’s no upfront fees, just a slice of whatever deal he sets up.

Hit Quarters - Database of A andR guys, record companies, songwriters and publishers. Useful if you are a songwriter trying to place a song. $15 annual fee sounds like a deal for the information here.

Moses Avalon - Moses Avalon is the author of three crucial books, ‘Confessions of a Record Producer’, ‘Secrets of Negotiating a Record Contract’ and ‘Million Dollar Mistakes’ which are required reading for all industry wannabes (and never has beens). His website has a bunch of useful artist friendly articles and advice.

Bemuso.com - Another astonishing labor of love from UK based Rob Cumberland. A very detailed and exhaustive collection of articles and links for artists going the DiY route. The site covers self distribution, publishing, do it yourself record labels and how the music biz works from a UK perspective.

Rap Coalition Intelligence Program - Astonishing site packed to the rafters with information, case histories and every fine detail you need to strike out on your own. Starting your own label, business basics, worksheets, writing a music business plan, start up checklist and every angle in between.

Music Tank - A business development network for the UK music industry, owned and operated by the University of Westminster. Run a unique programme of think tanks, conferences and events.

BBC 1Xtra - Great resource from BBC Radio 1 with tips on demos, music industry how to’s, studio and diy tips. Radio 1 is the most popular national radio station in the UK and the possibility of getting your music heard on national radio isn’t impossible. The Homegrown section of the site pick two unsigned artists/bands a week and play them on the air to a potential audience of millions.

Music Industry Forums

Velvet Rope - Legendarily frank and very busy music industry forums, populated by bands, labels, artists and wannabes. Littered with news of music industry happenings and rumors, unsigned bands and hype.

Harmony Central - Great musician’s community with discussion forums, industry news, guitar tabs and user reviews on music gear. Its the forums that make this site an essential visit though.

Just Plain Folks - Another very busy, long running and active forum community, this one squarely aimed at songwriters and musician networking. The forums boast over 40,000 members.

Planet Shark - If you want to creep your way into LA’s Hollywood film and music business community this is a great place to keep your eye on with news on parties, movers and shakers events, industry shindigs, casting calls and industry jobs. There’s an A&R 411 section on the site too thats worth bookmarking. If you live in LA that is!

Songwriter 101 - Another educational website and forum for songwriters with everything about the business side of the songwriter’s profession with information, education and advice from music pros and teachers.
Record of the Day - UK based subscription based music business news network but with a busy forum and UK music industry jobs board.

Recording.org - Professional recording studio forums bustling with over 30,000 members.
HomeRecording.com - And at the other end of the scale a forum for home recording enthusiasts discussing gear, techniques and the music industry in general.

Various Resources

Indie Music Bible - David Wimble’s Indie Bible is now into its 9th year and the 330 page book is crammed with thousands of contacts and articles on how to get your music on radio, where to get reviewed, where to sell music, where to upload it and 500 resources just on promoting your band.

Sister publication the Indie Venue Bible is a comprehensive directory of live music venues. It is in electronic (PDF) format and lists 26,000 venues and 2000 booking agents in the US and Canada.

The UK published tome the Unsigned Guide is an excellent companion to the Indie Bible and boasts 11,000+ contacts and over 800 pages brimming with every music contact you could ever think of.

Everyone already has a page on MySpace, like it or not its the number one destination site for networking bands and artists. But before MySpace there was Garageband. Now owned by iLike. Garageband has a neat community review process which works by encouraging bands to review other tracks in return for free webspace. Eclipsed now in terms of popularity compared to Bebo and MySpace but a great tool for getting real critical feedback.

Industry Bodies

For news on the business side of the industry the BPI (UK) and the RIAA (USA) are good for keeping your eye on the industries ruling bodies. The IFPI covers the rest of the world and in the UK the MCPS/PRS cover copyright issues whilst the ASCAP do the same in the USA. The independent music organizational bodies are the Association of Independent Music (AIM) in the UK and American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) in the USA.

Blogs and News

Mashable and Techcrunch are the two essential destinations for keeping up with daily news on new music and web 2.0 apps and developments and the blogs I fire up first in my RSS reader daily are the newsy Coolfer and Hypebot and the acerbic and essential Lefsetz Letter, written by industry veteran, Bob Lefsetz and filled with no holds barred finger pointing, analysis and comment.

Related Reading

New Music Strategies
Future of Music Coalition
Music Week
CMU Music Network
MP3 Newswire

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)

A film came through the post this morning from Netflix called ‘I’m Reed Fish’, which I can’t for the life of me remember putting in my queue. Anyway, it was one of those cute OK movies I guess, not great and not bad either. When a movie is like that I have this awful habit of watching with my laptop open, just ‘in case’, y’know. And sure enough that ‘in case’ arose.

It usually means I’m going to be consulting the IMDB with some query about the film, like location, who was on the soundtrack and any other trivia only a blogger would care about. The trigger that had me reaching for the keyboard was seeing actress Schuyler Fisk sing in a bar scene in the movie.

By the end of the scene I’d managed to ascertain (via the Amazon owned IMDB) that Schuyler Fisk was actually singing the song in the movie, she was Sissy Spaceks daughter and the track was the wonderful, “From Where I’m Standing” (and I’m not usually a folk fan).

Googling the song title got me the lyrics and also a link to a YouTube video of the song in question. Trying to get my hands on a copy of the track in question wasn’t so simple. Bizarrely (as the most memorable track on the soundtrack) the track doesn’t even get a mention on the official soundtrack CD or her MySpace page.

It pops up as a ‘demo’ stream on her artist website but seems that the track is held up in major label (Universal Music) album limbo.

Searching various BitTorrent sites got me zilch, but an MP3 blog search eventually found me the track I was looking for (apparently it was on a 2006 EP called ‘Songs For Now’.

I don’t know, bar two tracks on iTunes and a couple of appearances on soundtracks (except the one that mattered!) I wasn’t able to actually buy any other music. Anyway as an aside, I also stumbled across (her boyfriend?) Joshua Radin’s folky cover of Yazoo’s classic, ‘Only You’ too which was an unexpected gem. You’ll find it on his album, ‘We Were Here’, which by marked contrast you can get quite easily from Amazon either as a traditional CD or as MP3 download.

Related Reading

Schuyler Fisk MySpace (MySpace)
Netflix Fan (Netflixfan.Blogspot)
Orbit Rich Media Downloader (OrbitDownloader.com)

hypebot: 100 Free and Affordable High and Low Tech Music Promotion Tips
100 Free & Affordable High & Low Tech Music Promotion Tips.

Create An Elaborate Plan - Bruce Warila’s Unsprung Wisdom
Revenue from the sale of music is slowing considerably for everyone. Reoccurring revenue, which is the ongoing stream of revenue you make outside of touring, is going to come from consumers that tune into and fall in love with your brand on the Internet.

Breeding Ground-AllHipHop.com
For most of the 16 years of Rap Coalition’s existence, we have assisted artists and indie labels with putting out their own records and negotiating major distribution deals for those who’ve done so successfully.

Stereophile: Chesky Launches High-Resolution Download Store
The founders of Chesky Records have soft-launched HDtracks, a download store that offers full-resolution FLAC files and 320kbps MP3 files.

Digital Destiny- New York Post
MySpace’s plan to launch a digital-music joint venture with the major record companies is picking up steam, as the social networking giant nears deals with Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.

Capitalizing On Fan Feedback - Music Think Tank
Imagine you’re an independent DIY artist that’s just starting out. You’ve recorded some music and started promoting it online. The initial response is overwhelmingly positive. You get emails from friends and strangers……

Music fans prefer Wikipedia to MySpace - Yahoo! News
Search for an artist on any of the popular search engines, and the top three results are practically guaranteed: the artist’s official Web site, Wikipedia entry and MySpace page — often in that order.

ToneShop now makes ringtones for Apple iPhone
Free multi-format Easy Phone Ringtone Creator for Windows. ToneShop Build 9 now creates .m4r ringtones for Apple’s iPhone.That means you can load your new ringtones into iTunes and sync them up to your iPhone in seconds.

Musicadium Blog - The 5 Things Every Band Needs on Their Myspace
You can’t read what you can’t see. So many myspace pages are destroyed by putting hard to read text over an incompatible background photo. Make sure your text is easily readable, easily accessible and logically set out.

IFPI - Digital Music Retailers
List of worldwide legal digital music download stores, listed by country and compiled by the music industry watchdog the IFPI.

Indistr.com
Indistr places all of the control, creativity, and financial gain back into the artists’ hands by allowing you to sell your own music online. Artists take 75% of all income and get paid instantly.

7 Steps to Successful Networking - Blogging Experiment
Yesterday I gave you the secret to networking with A-listers… they’re people too! Ok, so it wasn’t all that profound but believe it or not, realizing that will help you immensely in your networking efforts.

Extended Play Music News by Todd Martens - The Envelope - LA Times
As recently as four years ago, all the talk about a failing major label model didn’t seem to stop the annual South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, from sending hordes of A&R reps and journalists on the prowl for the next big thing.

Audio: Rip It Good: From CD to MP3, by Dennis Burger - Electronic House
Whether you’re bringing a huge music collection into the 21st century, simply can’t stand the thought of buying all of your music in the digital domain, or just want to listen to some Beatles on your iPod or Zune, at some point or another you’re going to have to rip a CD.

Industry insiders look for model to replace failing ‘tip jar’ system — Chicagotribune.com
AUSTIN, Texas — While most of the 12,500 registrants at the South by Southwest Music Conference were out playing on a beautiful early spring afternoon a few days ago, the latest plan to save the music industry was being scrutinized at a dimly lit panel.

The media industry’s rising stars: top 40 under 40 - Times Online
They are the young guns tuned in to the accelerating pace of change in the media landscape - the trendspotters and entrepreneurs who stand to reap the biggest rewards over the next digital decade.

These Crazy Musicians Still Think They Should Get Paid For Recorded Music
Why is it the Brits have all the crazy-stupid ideas about how to screw up the music industry even more than it is already?

I’ve heard lots of stories and theories about how to get your website indexed by Google and the other major search bots, (which basically boil down to Yahoo and MSN) in rapid fashion and my record up to yesterday from starting a new site to seeing search bots/crawlers activity on my server stats has been two days.

That record was trashed yesterday when the Google bot came a calling (crawling?) within two hours of my first post going up on the Musicbizhacks site. And I got a hit from a search query, “how do i get my cd distributed on itunes” that someone Googled, minutes after I’d posted this.

That’s pretty good going by any standards and is a good indication of how much faster and efficient the indexers have become. How did they do that? One simple method actually. I posted an incoming link on my MySpace profile and another in the header of my music directory, Buzzsonic.dj and that was it.

So. Anyone who tells you you need to submit your site to a search engine, or tries to sell you a submission service is living in 2002! Though you can still submit just to make sure of course. Cant get anyone to link into your website (basically all you need is an inbound link from another site that has already been indexed). Then add a link to one of your social network profiles (you have one right?). It really is that simple.

Related Reading

Search Engine Watch (Searchenginewatch.com)
How To Get Indexed By Google (Problogger)
5 Ways To Get a New Site Indexed Within 48 Hours or Less (SEONoobs.com)
Search Engine Optimization Forums (Sitepoint.com)
Search Engine Optimization (Digital Point)

I recently got hold of a copy of a promo video for one of my tracks from the mid 90s, the 99th Floor Elevators “Hooked”.

I was eager to get a copy of the video, which saw some MTV airtime in Europe, simply to use it as another online tool to promote my dance tracks which have recently been enjoying something of a revival in the UK with a series of new dance mixes.

Anyway, I posted the video on MySpaceTV, YouTube, Facebook and Last FM and it was interesting to see the difference in quality of the video stream and also the feedback reaction.

For a start most people associate online video sharing with YouTube, no ifs and buts about that one and that seems to be reflected in the amount of page views and feedback of my promo video, comparing the four services.

I’m pretty sure most people are still not fully aware that Facebook have branched out into MySpace territory with its Facebook Music spin-off and MySpaceTV has a while to go before it gets similar eyeballs to YouTube.

The difference is noticable (at least using this video as an example). The ‘Hooked’ - 99th Floor Elevators video so far has 2095 views on YouTube vs. 80 on MySpaceTV. The video was posted within twenty four hours on each service.

There does seem to be a noticeable quality difference though, with MySpaceTV winning quite easily with a noticeably superior quality stream compared to YouTube.

Though there is a settings change mentioned here to up the default YouTube stream quality. Facebook have a bigger pixel stream though on the downside there is no embed code like the other sites, just an email link to send the video link.

Related Links

Social Impact of YouTube (Wikipedia)
YouTube The King of Video Sharing? (Mashable.com)
List of Video Sharing Websites (Wikipedia)
New YouTube Developer Tools…..(Wired.com)