There are three important factors involved in deciding if you need to have your songs on the web - Credibility, Money and Time.

Jim Liddane examines your options.

1 Credibility 
Let's be honest about it - to us, songwriting is an obsession sort of like golf, but to the general public, it is a lucrative obsession, where everybody makes money.

Now, if I tell somebody I play golf - they are unlikely to ask if I will be playing in the British Open this year. They accept that not everybody who plays golf is necessarily up to Tiger Woods standard.

But if I say I write songs - I will nearly always get the inevitable "well what have you written that I would know?" reply.

How much more effective if I could turn around and say - "I write songs and you can listen to and buy my stuff on www.jimliddane.com".

And why? Because even the man on the Clapham omnibus knows that the music industry is increasingly web-orientated, and if Elvis is up there, and Jim Liddane is up there - then Jim Liddane just has  to be a serious player. (Even if I'm not).

But ego-tripping apart, it makes sense to be out on the same pitch where all the other stars (and wannabe stars) are to be found.

2 Money
People can sell their songs on the web - in fact some people make quite a living doing nothing but that. So if there is money to be made up there - why not grab some of it?

But then the web will also cost something - either to put up your own site, or to press some product to sell on a third party site.

3 Time
Being on the web can become an obsession of its own unless you remember what you are there for in the first place.

You are a songwriter - you write songs. Anything which interferes with your writing songs is a no-no, and if running the website becomes such an end in itself that the songwriting part goes clean out of the window, then you are in trouble.

The Verdict?

So there you have it - some pluses and some minuses - but somebody is going to have to make a call, so I will.

On balance, I think any songwriter planning a long-term career, should be at least examining his/her web options - and given it is getting mighty crowded - sooner rather than later.

The Solutions?

Now if you have already decided in the negative - read no further while the rest of us look at the options for launching you and your songs into cyberspace.

(1) Learn HTML (computer-speak for the language needed to create a site), and produce your own web site.

(2) Use A Program which more or less builds the site for you without you having to  know anything about HTML.

(3) Hire An Expert (hereafter referred to as a "webmaster") to do it all for you.

(4) Join A Site which allows the public to listen to your music for free (or to download it for a fee), or else a site which allows people to purchase your CDs from the site, to be delivered through the post.

Option 1 - Learn HTML
This seems the obvious route to go down, but unless you are a quick learner, it may prove a bridge too far time-wise.

Having said that, a large number of ISA members do it themselves, with varying degrees of success, and we know more than a few ten year olds who have learned enough HTML to launch some pretty impressive sites.  (Having said that, they can probably also program VHS machines).

Learning HTML means you can do almost anything you want to - when you want to.
It will be the cheapest option. Also, every time the internet comes up with a new gizmo, you can easily adapt your site.

Option 2 - Use A Program
This the option which the ISA has chosen for its own site, and it works for us.
It means however, that you will not be able to do everything you might want, as you may be limited by the scope of the programme chosen (although MS Front Page for example, more or less allows you to do most of the things you could ever possibly want).

Not all of the site-building programs are cheap, although if you already have a full Microsoft Office suite for example, then MS Publisher is bundled in there with it and that can produce reasonable websites.

Option 3 -Hire An Expert
This will usually cost money. The advantage of using a webmaster is speed, and having things more or less as you want them. The downside is that you can pay anything from hundreds to thousands of pounds - unless of course, you have a computer-literate friend who is willing to assist - but then, you will need him close by (initially anyway) every time you need to update the site.

Option 4 - Join A Site
This will cost less - but your own scope will be limited. Usually you will just get a personal photo, and a picture of your album artwork, plus perhaps a few lines about yourself. 

On the other hand, somebody else will be doing all the technical stuff, and as long as you have product to sell (so that the site can earn its percentage), you will be ahead of the game, because usually, just two or three sales will cover all your initial costs.

CDBaby

Back in 1997, Derek Seivers, a young musician in Woodstock, New York, tried to find somebody to sell his newly recorded CD on the internet - and failed. And thus began one of rock's strangest, and most wonderful inventions - CD Baby.

Now, most songwriters would have waited for somebody else to invent the wheel - but not Derek.

Within a year, he had a website up and running, selling not only his own CD, but also recordings made by other bands and writers. Initially, he ran the operation on his own, riding down to the local post office on his bike carrying the day's orders, but by the end of 1998, he had his first employee (John Steup - currently CD Baby VP) and one hundred acts available online.

But that was then and this is now (to coin a phrase), and today, CD Baby has over 50 staff, operates from a huge warehouse complex in Portland, Oregon (Woodstock apparently being too cold in winter ), and with no fewer than 105,000 different artists on its books.

To date, it has sold almost two million CDs - and more importantly, has paid out more than fifteen million dollars to songwriters and musicians worldwide.
Not bad for a hobby which turned into a sideline, and ended up as the largest outlet for independent CDs on the internet.

Since then, there have been imitators - you can offer your CD on Amazon.com nowadays for example, (although they will charge you an arm and a leg for the privilege), but CD Baby remains unrivalled in its field.

So how does it work? And, more important, how much does it cost?

Well first off, you need to have five copies (at least), of your CD available before going on the site.

The CD does not have to be professionally recorded, but obviously, if is is not up to par, it will simply not sell.

It does not have to be shrink-wrapped, or have a bar-code (although if you have one, CD Baby will report your sales figure to SoundScan for chart purposes), nor does the artwork have to be professional (although in our opinion - good artwork will help.)

All you need is a quality product in any style - CD Baby has sections devoted to Blues, Classical, Country, Easy Listening, Electronic, Folk, Gospel, Hip Hop/Rap, Jazz, Kids/Family, Latin, Metal, New Age. Pop, Rock, Spoken Word, and Urban/R&B.

But get one thing straight. Much of the product up on CD Baby may be by names you have never heard of - but most of it is very very good indeed.

Secondly, you need to decide on a resale price for your offering, keeping in mind that no matter what price you set, CD Baby will deduct a flat $4 per album sold by them. Obviously, prices differ on the site - some people are selling full albums (even doubles), while others are offering four track recordings, but on average, most prices we looked at seemed to be in the $10-$12 range.

Then, when you are ready to go, just click on http://www.cdbaby.com/ and take it from there.

First off, you fill in a form, which asks the usual details, and also requires you give an address to which cheques can be sent. (CD Baby pays weekly!).

Once past that page, you get asked about your CD and how you think you would like it promoted.

Finally, you are requested to send a one-off payment of $35 plus five CDs to Portland.

So what happens next?

Well, when your package arrives at CD Baby, they open one CD, and use that to digitise your recording (more about that later), and scan your cover artwork.
Next, they create a web page for your album, which includes sound clips of selected songs, reviews, and any text you would like included. They also include links back to your own site, if you have one.

Then, your album is entered into their onsite search engine (this site remember gets over one million hits a week!), and if somebody likes what they hear, they can order either online, or by phone (CD Baby even offers a toll-free number for orders).

Finally, each time an album is sold, CD Baby sends you an e-mail telling you who bought it, and whenever you like - they send you a cheque to cover sales to date.

One thing worth remembering is that CD Baby is not a label - it is an online record store, so there are no contracts to sign. You give up no rights whatsoever, and the arrangement is strictly non-exclusive, so you can go on to sell on as many other sites as you wish, and sign the album with any record label or music publisher who is willing to sign you up.

Earlier, I mentioned that CD Baby digitise each album as it comes in, and if you wish, you can also allow CD Baby to try and get your music on such legitimate music services as Apple iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, MSN Music, MP3tunes, AOL's MusicNet etc.

In return, CD Baby gets to keep 9 cents out of every dollar earned by your downloads - while you get to keep 91 cents! However, as you cannot have multiple digital distributors,  this side of the deal has to be exclusive to CD Baby for that particular album, and of course, all songs must be yours to distribute. In other words, cover versions are out, unless you can arrange to get the rights to use them on your downloaded album.

Continued