UPDATE - 29 October 2008: Alex from Soundcloud wanted me to let peeps know that Soundcloud is now available to the public. This is a correction from what I’ve originally written that new users needed an invite.

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The music industry, under the model it’s been using for many decades, is fighting for its survival amidst a wave of defections from consumers tired of feeling treated like children.

A new model has yet to reign, but a number of them are out there vying for the attention of not only the consumer, but for independent artists and labels as well. Digital media is allowing anyone to create music and put it out there for the world to listen. Still, the artist will only be known to maybe a few of their friends unless they know a way to get them noticed to a wider audience.

Tunecore is a relatively new service that helps the independent artist out in a big; the service is a virtual “middleman” between the artist and the online music stores. Whereas an artist has to visit each online store to get his or her music ready to be sold, Tunecore will get the music onto multiple online stores at once. There’s a lot more to Tunecore besides being a one-stop digital distribution center, including assistance with artist promotion, among other things. The MP3 Insider, a CNET podcast about digital players and music, has done a special episode interviewing Jeff Price, the founder of Tunecore. He explains how the service works in a way that’s easy to grasp. People in independent music, as well as aspiring musicians, should have a listen to an informative and enlightening discussion with host Donald Bell.

Another online service that’s making waves is Soundcloud, which has launched its site this month after a private beta period. It’s hard to believe that many of the artists played on the radio show are also members of Soundcloud (some of them are even part of the company). It’s an online community and service where artists can post their tunes online for others to listen to. If you’re tired of using YouSendIt, Mediafire, or similar services that have restrictions and limits, Soundcloud allows tunes to be uploaded with no size limits and can be as permanent as you want it to be. The free service allows five song uploads a month, while three tiers of Pro plans offer anywhere from 15-50 tunes/month.

You can visit one of the members to listen to available tunes and leave comments.

View the video to learn below more about Soundcloud. Membership is now available. As for Tunecore, there is no video. But feel free to browse through its “tour” page.

So check out these services; hope they become useful for you!

Categorized as:Music News> News

Posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 10:58 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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