By Disc Makers' Author Chris Huff Estimated reading time: 8 minutes You’re new to music and have just made your first recording. Congratulations! Now, how do you share it with people in an impactful way? The landscape of releasing new music online or physically (e.g. music distribution, music marketing, and music promotion) is far different from in the past. With all the music available today, it can be difficult to stand out as an independent artist. Here are some tips to teach you how to release new music and reach an audience. Table of Contents: • Preparing For Your Music Release • What Ar ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Chris Huff Estimated reading time: 4 minutes As time keeps on slipping into the future and the music landscape continues to shift and change, it can be hard to know where all your possible income streams are as an independent musician or recording artist — especially if you are just starting out! In fact, digital performance royalties are one income stream that many are not aware even exists. Table of Contents: • What are digital performance royalties? • Differences between digital performance and other music royalties • The mechanics of digital performance royalties ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Scott McCormick Estimated reading time: 6 minutes You’ve written and recorded original songs and maybe even signed up with a digital distributor like CD Baby, Distrokid, or Tunecore. That’s a great start, and you may be forgiven for thinking you’ve covered all your bases when it comes to collecting the royalties you are owed for the use of your music. Table of Contents: • Introduction to SoundExchange • Understanding SoundExchange in the digital music era • Understanding interactive vs non-interactive streaming • Understanding the four different kinds of royalties • How ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Chris Huff Estimated reading time: 7 minutes As long as humans have been making music, they’ve been writing songs to express the feelings inside them. Most songs fall into similar thematic categories, as the North Carolina State 2014 study on American popular music found (12 common themes to be precise). Table of Contents: • Exploring timeless songwriting themes • Love and heartbreak • Personal struggles and triumphs • Social commentary and rebellion in lyrics • Mental health and self-discovery • The art of storytelling through ordinary experiences • Nature and the worl ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Tony van Veen Estimated reading time: 6 minutes I want to talk about what price you can sell a CD or vinyl record for these days and whether you can actually make money selling physical media. Artists ask me about this a lot, particularly about vinyl, since the investment in manufacturing a vinyl record is more substantial. Table of Contents: • Manufacturing costs • CD sale prices • Vinyl sale prices • Factors that affect vinyl prices • Let’s break down the numbers • Let’s review the numbers Manufacturing costs In the quantities most commonly ordered by independent art ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Philip Kinsher Estimated reading time: 6 minutes When you open Spotify, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, Apple Music, or any other streaming music service to search for your favorite song, there’s a lot going on under the surface, and most of it has to do with metadata. Metadata is the information attached to a track that identifies the song title, who made it, who owns it, and more. Table of Contents: • What is music metadata? • Why metadata matters • 4 steps to optimize your music metadata • Avoid common mistakes • Keep best practices in mind • Credit co-writers, producers ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Andre Calilhanna Another year in the books, and for all the exciting moments and developments in music there are to celebrate, tragically, there were many notable musicians who died in 2023. Every year, this task seems to get more difficult, and while I try to be comprehensive, it’s impossible to create this homage without inadvertently leaving people off the list. This is NOT by design, and anyone left off this list was merely an oversight — a product of my human error. Please add your remembrances in the comments section and add anyone who is not included in this tribu ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Chris Huff Estimated reading time: 8 minutes Current wisdom holds that streaming music is great for listeners and bad for artists — especially indie music artists. Its convenience makes it a listener’s delight, but for artists, the meager royalties make streaming seem like a rigged carnival game. Table of Contents: • What is Tidal? • What is Spotify? • Comparing royalty models and artist compensation • Tidal’s royalty structure • Spotify’s royalty structure • Transparency in royalty reporting • User experience and music discovery • Tidal’s focus on curated content • Spo ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Tony van Veen Estimated reading time: 9 minutes I’d like to discuss a topic that is sure to spark a lot of passionate debate: I want to talk about sound quality. Specifically, I want to try to answer the question, Does your music sound better on vinyl vs. CD? Now, I want to start by stating that the preference for the sound of any one format over another is completely personal. If you love the sound of vinyl better than the sound of a CD — or vice versa — who am I to argue with what you like? Table of Contents: • Dynamic range • Compression and the CD medium • The volum ..read more

By Disc Makers' Author Scott McCormick Estimated reading time: 8 minutes Here’s a shocking statistic: Music streaming makes up 84 percent of music industry revenue in the US. In other words: the vast majority of people listen to music via streaming services like SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music. This also means if you’re not streaming your music you’re missing out. Thankfully, it’s never been easier to upload your music to the world’s biggest streaming platforms. What’s more, many of these streaming services make it easier than ever for indie artists to get discovered and further their mus ..read more