You’re becoming serious about distributing your own recordings., You’ve heard all the horror stories about how artists are ripped off by the entertainment industry and have memorized Courtney Love’s wonderful speech to the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference on May 16, 2000, “Courtney Love Does the Math” (http://salon.com/technology/feature/2000/06/14/love/):
Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist’s work without any intention of paying for it. I’m not talking about Napster-type software.
I’m talking about major label recording contracts.
Frank Zappa and Janis Ian have also written or given talks in this vein, which you should be able to find online.
Or maybe you aren’t worried about possible unpleasant experiences from signing with a major label, but you want to retain control of your own destiny and your own work. You want to release recordings engineered to your specifications and tailored for different uses, rather than dumbing everything down for the lowest common denominator. You want to work when and where you feel like it and not have other people telling you what to do. When someone actually wants to buy your work, you want to make it as easy as possible and then keep the money. So, what do you do?
I can’t help you with attaining fame, glory, and groupies. Getting noticed is still the hardest part. But I can point you to resources for online distribution and tell how to package your recordings for different uses such as high-quality audiophile, lo-fi promotional MP3s, streaming audio, and CDs.