It seems that every day I hear of a new way to get your songs to the digital marketplace, so it's about time for an update on Digital Distribution methods for your music. In a more strict sense of the term, digital distribution relates not just to music but eBooks, movies, ringtones, photography, software programs and apps among other things. There are a lot of stores. . .
Online music stores:
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Amazon MP3
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Bandcamp
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Bandit.fm
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Beatport
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BigPond Music
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CD Baby
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Deezer Ditto
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Djshop
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eMusic
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GoMusic
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Grooveshark
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Google Play
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Guvera
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imeem
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iMesh
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iTunes
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Kazaa
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Last.fm
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Magnatune
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Mog
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MusicStation
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Napster
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Pandora
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PlayNow
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Puretracks
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Rhapsody
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Sellaband
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Simfy
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Slacker
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Spotify
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Songza
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Streamwaves
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Ubetoo
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Vodafone
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Walmart Music
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WiMP
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Yala Music
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Zune Marketplace
There are so many marketplaces out there it's hard to hit them all unless you have a record label doing it for you or have a lot of time. There are services out there for the independent artist. They aggregate the music marketplaces for you and distribute your music accordingly. I've seen that what most artists I work with are looking for a digital aggregator. An aggregator is an Internet company that collects information about competing products and services and distributes it through a single Web site. Here are some aggregators I've found.
Aggregators:
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TuneCore
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CD Baby
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The Orchard
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Reverb Nation
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Digital Musicworks International
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IRIS
For the most part, the aggregators are a paid service. They do most of the heavy lifting to get your music into many marketplaces all from one convenient account. Artists also have their own websites that they can put their music on. It can be for sale or just free download or whatever you choose. For those that don't have the time/money to get all that going on their own website, there are other direct-to-fan websites. These direct-to-fan websites usually are free if you are not selling your music, you can put your music there for fans to listen to or people to discover your music. Kinda like how myspace was. . . There are several of these websites out there.
Direct to Fan Services:
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Reverb Nation
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Nimbit
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TopSpin
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SoundCloud
Previous Blog posts about Digital Distribution: