 Selling
Your Music Online -
Starting
from Zero
Article by David Nevue - July
2005
Back to Internet Music Promotion 101
The
nice thing about selling your
music on the Internet is that
you can get started with
very little cash up front. If
you already have a computer
and Internet access, you can
get going for as little as $50.
Below you'll find a
short list of items you will
need to get started, along with
estimated costs. Much more detail
is provided in my book, How
to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet.
The
‘Right’ Computer System
Most
any computer system you purchase
today will come with built-in
Internet connectibility. While
you can easily purchase an Internet-ready
computer system for less than
$1000, expect to pay $1200-$1300
for a system that comes with
all the most up-to-date goodies.
I highly recommend buying your
system from a local, respected
dealer. That way, if you encounter
system difficulties, you can
take your system right to the
dealer for repair. Find a local
dealer with a good reputation
for taking good care of their
customers. When you are ready
to buy, find out what kind of warranty
you are getting. For a new system,
your warranty should cover labor
for at least one year and parts
for at least three.
A
Fast Internet Service Provider
Once
you have the computer system,
the next thing you’ll need is
an Internet connection. Most
systems you buy today will come
with several ISP (Internet Service
Provider) choices preconfigured
for you. All you have to do
is decide which of the suggested
ISPs you want to go with. The
cost for this service, on average,
is about $20 per month for unlimited
Internet access.
If
you don’t have preconfigured
options on your system, ask
someone you know for a referral
who is already hooked up and
happy with their service. You
can also look in your local
phone book Yellow Pages under
“Internet.” Your local providers
will be listed there. If you
still have difficulty finding
one, try searching The
List.
For
the absolute fastest Internet connection possible,
I really recommend you look
into a cable modem or DSL
(Digital Subscriber Line) connection.
I currently use Comcast
Digital Cable, and if you
can afford to plunk down $50/month
to get this kind of connection,
by all means get hooked up.
If you’re doing business on
the Internet, you’ll need the
speed. To research other companies
providing fast cable connections
in your area, check out Broadband
Reports.
A
Personal Firewall
If
you decide to go with a cable
connection, you MUST have a
personal firewall to prevent
unwanted tampering on your system.
I recommend Norton
Internet Security from Symantec,
which comes with their award-winning
Antivirus Software built in.
I've been running with
Norton Antivirus for years,
and have never had a single
virus infect my system.
Choose
Your Browser
Internet
Explorer dominates the market.
Netscape
Communicator is an old favorite.
Mosaic's
Firefox is what everyone
is talking about right now.
There
are dozens of other
web browsers available if
none of these suit you.
Finding
the Perfect Web Host - A Place
to Call Home
You’ll
need a place to call ‘home’
on the Internet, a place to
put your web pages so others
can view them. A web hosting
service will allow you to put
your web site on their servers
for a monthly fee. You are,
essentially, renting the space
from them. The fee for web hosting
varies, but generally lies between
$8 and $30 dollars a month
depending on the options you
need. The more space and bandwidth
you want, the more it will cost
you.
The company I currently
use for web site hosting is
PowWeb.
Their hosting price
($7.77 per month) is nearly
unbeatable, particularly when
you consider all the features
they offer. The down side is
that they have no real customer
support to speak of, though
they do offer detailed support
FAQs, tutorials, and a very active
community forum where you can
ask help from other users.
Another
option I recommend is HostBaby,
a web hosting service that caters
specifically to musicians. HostBaby
is run by the same great folks
who operate CD
Baby.
Want more options?
See TopHosts.com.
Claim
Your Domain
In
addition to a place to host
your web site, you’ll need to
register a domain name (such
as mywebsite.com) to serve as
your web site address. I use
DirectNIC
to register and manage all of
my domain names. The cost of
their service is $15.00 per
year, per domain, and while
you can find cheaper registration
services (such as GoDaddy.com),
you’ll be hard pressed to find
one that’s easier to use.
You
can search DirectNIC to see
if your desired domain name
(you web site address) is available
right from the home page. If
the name you want is already
taken, DirectNIC will make some
suggestions based on your initial
search. As you explore your
options, do your best to choose
a web site address that’s easy
to remember. Keep in mind, as
you search, that you’ll be repeating
this web site address to not
only your fans, but to important
contacts you make. Avoid the use of hyphens (such as my-musicplace.com)
or oddball naming conventions ans spelling (such as 4starmuzik.com). Keep your name simple and its spelling
obvious. Finally, if at all possible, use a dot.com (*.com) extension. Although
.net, .us, .org, .biz, and other extensions are available, the .com extension
has become synonymous with the Internet and will be the easiest for your fans,
contacts and visitors to remember.
Designing
Your Web Site
One
of the first things you'll need
to decide is whether or not
you want to design your own
web site. If your goal is to
simply have your music available
somewhere online, you
might want to just sign up for
CD
Baby's services. For $35
bucks, they'll take your CD
and put it on a beautiful web
page for you. And that will
give you somewhere to direct
your fans to purchase your music
online if they wish.
However,
if you wish to grow your online
pressence into a long-term income
generator, at some point you
really must have
your own web site. The next
question then becomes whether or
not you have the know-how to
design a quality web site that
will sell CDs for you.
If
you know nothing about web site
design, your options are many.
First, consider your fan base.
Are any of your fans talented
designers? You may find a fan
will design a very nice web
site for you for little or no
money. My fans do a LOT of great
things for me just because they
want to support my music.
If
not, there are many places on
the Internet where you can search
for and make contact with professional
designers. At GetaGraphic.com
for example, you can post your
design requirements and graphic
artists will bid for your job.
You can evaluate each bid, including
each bidder’s portfolio before
committing to anything. Similar
options are available at Compare
Web Designers, Elance,
and HostBaby.com.
You'll also find a list of designers
in our online
directory.
If
you wish to design your web
site yourself, you'll need to
decide what kind of web page
design software you want to
use. Macromedia's
Dreamweaver software is
a popular choice. However, I
like a simple, WYSIWYG (what
you see is what you get) page
editor. So, for simplicities
sake, I recommend Namo
WebEditor. I LOVE this software!
You can download a free trial
version from Namo’s web site.
If you decide to buy it, your
cost is only $99, as opposed
to nearly $400 for Dreamweaver.
FTP
Client Software
FTP
is an acronym for “File Transfer
Protocol.” The basic function
of FTP client software is to
upload and download files to
and from your web host’s server.
Once you have your web page
designed, the HTML document
and graphic files that make
up that page need to be transferred
from your computer to your web
host’s server via an FTP client.
FTP client file utilities are
readily available on the Internet.
I recommend CuteFTP's
software, but CoreFTP's free
FTP tool is a good alternative
for those of you just starting
out.
E-Mail:
Your New Best Friend
Electronic
mail makes it easy for potential
customers to contact you. Most
services, including web hosts,
ISPs and online services will
provide you with a free e-mail
address to go along with your
web site. If you’d rather, you
can use one of the many free
web-based e-mail services on
the Net, such as Yahoo!
Mail or Google’s Gmail
program. The advantage of going
this route is that you can check
your e-mail with ease from any
computer with an Internet connection.
For a quick study on all the
services available to you, check
out the Free
E-mail Address Directory
In
Summary...
The
tools mentioned above are all
you should need to get started
on the Internet. You will use
these tools just about every
day as you run your online business.
If you are new to this kind
of technology, some of what
I described above may sound
a bit complicated, but it’s
really not. If you take the
time, you can learn all this
stuff pretty quickly, and soon
you won’t even think about it
- you’ll do it all automatically.
Much more detail
on this topic is provided in my book, How
to Promote Your Music Successfully
on the Internet.
-----
David Nevue
is the founder of The
Music Biz Academy
and Whisperings:
Solo Piano Radio. He is also a professional pianist,
recording artist, full-time Internet musician, and author of the book, "How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet."
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