Sho!Mag Issue 2 August 2015 Sho! March April 2016 Final Issue | Page 3

BRANDIT
BRANDIT
which really empties the musi-
cian’s pockets in a big way. There
has been a serious dip in CD sales
which on its own offers opportu-
nities for retailers which are able to
quickly adopt to this growing trend
and serious threats to those that fail
to adopt their business model to
suite this growing trend of distribut-
ing music digitally. Globally, digital
music distribution has in some cases
been blamed for certain music re-
tailers closing shop permanently.
But on the flip side, digital music
distribution has brought with it a
breath of fresh air to unsigned mu-
sicians and independent musicians
as gives artists more control over
their music in terms of ownership,
rights, creative process, pricing and
profit from copies of music pur-
chased.
“The introduction of internet has brought
advantages within the music industry and
within this issue we discuss one of those
advantage Digital Music Distribution”
D
igital music distribution.
What is digital music
distribution (also called
content delivery, online distribu-
tion, or electronic distribution
(ED), among others). The term is
generally used to describe music
distribution over an online deliv-
ery medium, such as the Internet.
This means that one distributes
their music online, simply mean-
ing that the actual music is dis-
tributed and sold online as com-
pared to the music being sold via
traditional means such as physical
distribution.
With the introduction of inter-
net to our daily lives, with this
there were many benefits in the
way we conduct business and trade.
One of those benefits, for the sake
of our topic was the introduction of
E-Commerce (trading or facilitation
of trading in products or services
using computer networks, such as
the internet). Musicians have bene-
fited hugely from E-Commerce as it
essentially mean that, an unsigned
musician or an independent music
label can now compete with major
record label and play in the same
arena as the “big boys” of the music
industry. This, I say because now-
adays unsigned artists and inde-
pendent labels can get to distribute
their material in the same platform
where major labels distribute their
material. All thanks to Digital Music
Distribution.
The list of benefits would go on
to also include the ability of releas-
ing singles for the artist instead of
a full length album, lower distribu-
tion costs, worldwide distribution
of their music, multiple online store
music distribution, and so on.
As we go on we need to discuss the
options an artist has at their dispos-
al and the best route an unsigned
musician or independent music
label can take. There are quite a lot
of options one can take, for this
article I shall mention only the fol-
lowing websites for more informa-
tion (www.symphonicdistribution.
com, www.tunecore.com and www.
cdbaby.com), but for this article we
will not mention them in-depth as
we are not indorsing any particular
distribution label or business. them
to give you the information:
So, it would be wise or
highly advisable for the musician or
label to do some research on them
individually.
The good thing, I have called on
some experts who have distributed
their music digitally and are at a bet-
ter position to give you guys more
information. Let me push through
a brief introduction and then allow
you to see what information they
have for us.
Straight on the go!!! I had to call on
Maplank Da Legend from Deepho-
nix Entertainment.
Then we followed with a one on one
with Wit Dj from WitDj Produc-
tions,and yes he had his take on this
topic.
To top it all up, I called on King-
Bayaa to have his views.
By choosing to distribute one’s
material digitally, an artist can
easily create a wider reach for
their fans as their music is not
only distributed nationally. But
the distribution of their material
is not by any means area bound,
but limitless. Meaning that folks
even abroad can get hold of the
artist’s material. What digital music
distribution has done for an un-
signed musician and independent
music label is, it has significantly
decreased the “red tape” associated
with the distribution of music and
not to mention lowered the costs
of distributing music for an un-
signed musician and independent
music label. This essentially means
that, we as music consumers can
get to finally enjoy the music we
love and support at a lower cost
and also artists get to make a living
from their artistic trade.
With introduction of digital music
distribution and sad to say piracy
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