It used to be that if you wanted to get your music distributed, you had to get sign a deal with a music distribution company. Getting such a deal would be dependent on how well the company thought your music would sell. So they would look at who’s promoting your music, how they were doing it, how well known you are and whether or not their A&R people thought your music would sell in their own opinion.
In short, getting your music distributed was very difficult for independent artists. A record deal was nearly essential.
Thanks to the internet, things are somewhat different now. Selling music online is an inherently cheaper process than selling physical music through bricks and mortar record shops. Fundamentally, distribution is a one-time process that requires nothing physical to be moved. As such, many online music distribution companies have popped up offering cheap distribution to anyone.
Not only does it cost next to nothing for the distributors to get your tracks out to places like iTunes, but it costs the shops next to nothing to store them. As such, music distribution has opened up to anyone with the money, and many distributors accept one off payments to get your music out there, rather than taking a percentage cut as they used to (and still do for physical distribution).
Coupled with all the free tools available to independent musicians in the digital age, it means that in principle, musicians can release and promote an album on the same footing as those signed to major record labels.
Selling music online has made a tremendous difference to the way music is distributed and consumed. Now that anyone can get their music onto iTunes and spread the word about it on the internet, there are far fewer ‘essential’ releases, as people’s listening habits are no longer dictated by a certain few radio stations and magazines, and even less so by who is given access to limited shelf space.
The way music is distributed has fundamentally changed the way people discover and buy music, as well as musician’s own approach to their music .Rather than endlessly chasing investment from a record company, many musicians now take the opportunity of digital music distribution to promote and sell their own music, cutting out the middle man and learning the business in the process. Some people may say musician’s should concentrate on their music, rather than business, but selling music online offers tremendous freedom.