Updated Musicians’ Guides To Digital Distribution & New Business Models From FMC

The Future of Music Coalition (FMC) provides a number of resources for indie artists about how musicians make money and how they might make more. Recently they updated both their directory of Digital Distribution services and their guide to New Business Models in Music. Both are worth checking out as well as their Artist Revenue Streams project and their section of articles On Artist Compensation.

FMC's resources update is one aspect of what they consider their basic mission:

"helping musicians and songwriters understand the mechanics of the emerging music/technology landscape, how they are compensated, and how they can participate in this marketplace."

Digital Distribution

Their directory of Digital Distribution services focuses on major distributors for indie music such as CD Baby, TuneCore and ReverbNation. It provides a brief description of costs, services and how much musicians make in the process.

It also includes descriptions of Amazon's Createspace, Bandcamp, Nimbit and IODA/The Orchard. It's especially useful for those just sorting things out or who need a reminder of who's available to help you get your music into digital music stores.

New Business Models in Music

FMC's updated guide to New Business Models in Music is now a Google doc.

The guide is organized in business model categories, such as Digital Retail, and lists examples of services with basic information about what they do. They also include info about compensation to labels and to artists.

It's an interesting hybrid in that it's not just a guide to the business models of music-related companies but also includes an Artist-To-Fan category with examples of experiments by Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails.

Additional Resources

In addition to those updated resources, FMC created the Artist Revenue Streams project that currently features 42 ways that musicians get paid. Definitely worth a look to make sure you're not missing out on possible revenue streams.

FMC also provides a list of their many articles on the topic of Artist Compensation.

More: Case Studies: How Do Musicians Really Earn Their Living?

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) blogs about music crowdfunding at Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.