5-10 Years ago if someone was to say that the music industry would be primarily digital where free music is a regular and both Hip-Hop & R&B artists like Fabolous, Rick Ross, Chris Brown, & Trey Songz would be releasing album like mixtapes for FREE, anybody would've thought the person who told them this would think they're crazy. However, this is the situation, artists aren't selling a 500,000-1 million copies the first week out anymore on a regular, new school artists like Drake, 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa, Frank Ocean, and The Weeknd are making their name off of mixtapes and even gaining album deals. Digital is the new Physical when it comes to music, physical copy sales are down and digital sales through digital distribution companies like iTunes and Amazon are way up. StudioPros.com defines Digital Distribution as "selling your content online in digital mp3 format." It goes on to say on StudioPros that "This is a sad reality for record stores, but at the same time makes distributing independent music much more accessible!", in a new video "48 Hours With Master P", his son, child rapper sensation Romeo, now 22 years old mentions how with the way the industry is now, his father who was known for selling thousands of copies of his music out his trunk when he first started rapping could've sold millions thanks to Digital Distribution and the use of Facebook and Twitter. Below is a list of what companies offer Digital Distribution that the StudioPros article mentions
instead of record labels taking the lead in developing these new ways to engage its all important end-consumer (which they just now seem to realize they need), they have allowed the innovation to come from the hands of others. Innovators like Apple, Pandora, Spotify, Nokia and many others have developed brands and earned millions (in the case of iTunes, billions) giving listeners new ways to experience their beloved music.
While the RIAA was busy building its case against piracy, Apple was busy building its content and took iTunes to the number one music retailer spot in the US, surpassing the all-mighty Wal-Mart. Companies like CDbaby and TuneCore further extended the blow to the industry by creating gateways for independent artists to get into iTunes for only $20-$50.
Overall the main point from this for an artist, labels, and entertainment companies with artists like my company Muzik MInd Entertainment is "it is extremely important for artists to build a digital presence in order to be considered a viable artist in today’s music environment (IndieHipHop)."
Bonus #1: Interview with Matt Laszuk, President of digital distribution company IRIS, does his best here to demystify the crucial world of digital music distribution.
Bonus #2: Video featuring Jun Mhoon, an expert in digital media distribution, argues that the traditional music distribution model can no longer sustain itself economically.
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