Our CD, Distracting Strangers on iTunes!

Today, our CD Distracting Strangers (Fixture Records, Feb 2008) was added to the iTunes catalogue for digital download. Have a listen! You can download the tracks for 99 cents each.

Distracting Strangers by Brave Radar

>>Listen on iTunes

We set it up through CD Baby. For $35, plus $15 for a barcode, CD Baby lets you sell your music on their website and sends it to about 50 other download sites). The barcode was something we wanted to get anyway, to print off and include with any CDs we end up distributing to record stores on our own. We’ll use it to keep track of sales in places where we can’t walk around the corner and check in.

We already have our CD for sale on Indyish, and have been able to sell quite a few that way. But we wanted to test out distributing mp3s on some of the monster sites that deal exclusively in downloads, like iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, and eMusic. Anyone can apply for distribution on these sites without going through a record label or website like CD Baby. But because of their size, most sites like iTunes only deal with big distributors who can carry thousands of smaller distributors, who in turn carry hundreds of record labels, who might each carry a dozen indie labels who work with a handful of indie bands. It’s a matter of scale. Being independent only works in this model if you collect with other independents in little pockets that get collected into larger pockets that can then deal directly with people like the Manager of Online Sales for Apple iTunes. Our tendency is to try to connect directly with whatever system we’re looking to be a part of, but often this means going through aggregators that make the content digestible for people trying to find it, as well as for people trying to sell it.

Because of the high risk of shipping physical goods across the world in hopes of selling a few in the places they end up, distribution companies tend to care most about whether or not they can sell your product in order to not be stuck with 600 CDs taking up space in their warehouse. This is scary if you’re self-releasing your first album by burning copies on your computer and cutting and gluing the cases in your kitchen.

That’s why we tried CD Baby; they take everything, regardless. That means we’re probably not going to sell a lot of CDs off their website, where there’s no one discriminating content based on taste. But rather than relying on people to stumble on it by browsing, we link to the CD Baby page from places where people and things we like are being talked about and displayed (like here on Indyish!). These connections form a context of distribution that we can stand behind and trust to get our music to folks who would appreciate it. We also saw the signup fee and creation of a product page on CD Baby as a step toward getting visibility on iTunes and the rest of those download sites, whether or not people buy our album off CD Baby. And CD Baby is non-exclusive, so we can walk away and do whatever we want to distribute and share our music in other ways.

Our label, Fixture Records, is releasing at least 2 digital-only albums in the next year. They will be sold directly from the Fixture website, and here on Indyish. For these sales, there is no cut being taken by CD Baby, iTunes, etc. except 3% for using PayPal, and 2% for using Indyish. But we’re happy when we sell something on Indyish and Risa and Elran take their cut to put back into the web tools that they put basically all their energy into building for us.

Digital distribution is an experiment for us, so we’ll let you know how it goes.

Read more about How to Release an Album and Making CDs and Cassettes.

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Listen to Distracting Strangers on Indyish.
Brave Radar on Myspace