Mix It Up – New Music Distribution

The remix has long been a feature of music promotion, but it has taken on a new lease of life in recent times, particularly on the Internet. Major artists are offering stems to the public for remixing – gaining valuable publicity, fanbase interaction (and expansion) and new versions of their songs as a result. Perhaps it’s time to get in on the act…
(from Sales & Promotion)

Freemix – Counting The Cost Of Music

The issue of giving songs away for free is still very much alive – TechCrunch reported yesterday that AOL, RealNetworks and Yahoo! Music were collectively handed a bill for $100 million by ASCAP, as back payment for songs that were streamed online.

However, for upcoming artists, payment is not the primary concern – it’s all about getting people to listen to your songs in the first place, and getting them to want more. As such, giving a certain amount of music away for free is essential – as long as you do it right.

Bruce Warila has covered this topic on his site. He recommends that rather than simply setting songs free, musicians should create multiple versions of their songs and set them free.

Re:Version – Songs In Sheep’s Clothing

The simplest way of doing this is to create lower bitrate files for free distribution via your website or P2P, and perhaps try to sell the same songs for a nominal charge at higher bitrates, or on a physical CD.

However, why not go one step further and release several remixes of your songs? At the very least, it will give you some experience of remixing – and if you actually push the boat out a bit and remix your songs into different genres, you could possibly catch the ear of a far wider audience (don’t go too far though – if you usually produce downtemo house, there may not be much point in doing a speed metal remix, unless you’re taking the novelty angle).

Generally, though, you will want to push your best songs the hardest – people listen to songs before they listen to albums, and if they come across one of your lesser efforts by chance, they are not likely to want more of the same. Hit them with headlines, not novels.

Remixing The Big Boys

The closing date for Radiohead’s Nude remix competition has now passed, and we would have to put it down as another successful venture by the Oxford Webtists. Not only have they gotten many new (and excellent) versions of their song, they have managed to charge their wannabe-producer fans for the privilege of creating these remixes. Sounds like a good business model to me.

Create Digital Music have highlighted a few of their favourite Nude mixes on this page, which is certainly worth a look and listen.