If you are a musician, Google Music just gave you and us a chance to hear your Music
During this afternoons announcement from Google about all things music, a lot of fantastic features were gone over briefly. Everything from purchasing music in the market on our devices and the web to sharing it with friends via Google+. They locked down over 1000 record labels and some where in the neighborhood of 13 million tracks for music lovers to have instant access too. All of that sounds great to any music fan especially any music fan with an Android device. There were a lot of things that we will go over in more detail tonight and some of them tomorrow. What I really wanted to make sure was showcased though is the one of the best additions to the market and to both industries, the Google Music Artist Hub.
Google has taken the opportunity and the foundation of an open market platform and transformed it into something that has been done before, but never done this well. If you happen to be a musician with your own music that you have the rights to, you have an outlet available to not only make money on your music but your music heard. As an independent artist you know the struggles of the most important factor of your passion, being heard. Getting the word out about your band or music, getting show dates, selling CD’s and dreaming of being on a record label someday. Although Google can’t help you out with all of that, they can help you get your music heard by millions and help you sell your work.
With the Artist Hub, you can sign up for a Google Music Artist account for 25$, this is like a developer account for publishing apps. Once paid for you have access to your account forever with no recurring fees or charges. Many of the same features will still apply, you create your Artist page with photos and album covers and upload your music. You can upload individual tracks or your entire album if you wish too. You can then set the price for each song as you see fit and for the whole album. I would recommend making the whole album less than the total of each song purchased individually. If you are more interested in just being heard you can always set individual tracks of the whole album up for free. That is completely up to you as the artist. As said before the cost is 25$ to open, everything else is free and unlimited. You can upload 10 songs on two albums or a hundred songs on 10 albums. You also can alter the music you upload at anytime. Taking certain tracks and making them free or only offering a certain album for a limited time on the market. The choice is all up to you.
Once you have all of your information set up and your music uploaded to be sold you are set. Google takes a minor 30% of all sales and you, the artist receive 70% of profits deposited into your account once a month. A 70/30 split for very minimal work is pretty darn good. Of course you but a lot of work into your music, but this sure beats hitting the streets and handing out singles all week. Once you get the ball rolling, you can self promote the album and sales via your YouTube channel and by sharing it on Google+. Social networking is always going to be the way to go when getting the word out about a new song or record.
I have already been on the phone with a few friends who have some local bands that are great and should be heard in more locations. I have a feeling I might be getting in over my head, but I am certain I will getting them all going with an account very soon. I can see this being something truly amazing in a very short time. A way for artists to reach out beyond their normal abilities with out the backing of a major record label to get their music in the hands of millions with in a few days.I hope anyone out there that is in a band or group whatever, gets themselves signed up. If you know someone with a band that you love to see locally, give them a call, tell them where to go and offer to help out. Maybe they will give you a cut of the 70%. I look forward to hearing some great music soon and not all the crap that is on the radio everyday.
