Top Spin is probably the most comprehensive Music Service out there now – but is it right for you?

Some of their Features:

1. Topspin Media Players – where you can stream high-quality audio and video that can be played or shared anywhere!
2. Connect with your Fans via E-mail and other social networks – collect analytics and send out targeted e-mails.
3. You can get Digital Distribution and sell digital or physical goods, merch, tickets, fan club memberships, and more!
4. Add a custom store to almost any website platform!
5. Top Spin also allows Small Record Labels to buy up spaces for their acts – but then that label has to FILL them or RESELL THEM!

There’s a host of information in their FAQ SECTION and I recommend reading them all!

http://www.topspinmedia.com/faq#different

The only real drawback – is do you need ALL of that in a one-stop shop place and for that price.   $100/year for basic services or $500/year to the PLUS version and Topspin keeps the highest percentage of Royalties at 15%.  Are you doing ENOUGH business to justify the costs?

Overall this could be the PERFECT solution for many bands, artists or even small labels – but before you go jumping into the fray – one should carefully weigh what EACH other service offers – as in this writers humble opinion – you can spread your options amongst several music services – especially FREE services that only take a percentage of what you sell – or just FREE services that allow you to have just one more way of finding you.

So I haven’t dropped my dime into the slot yet – as I’m not sure I’m ready to play their game – but they are at the TOP of the list (no pun intended) to look at very closely before I make my next move!

Steve Moore

The Truth about the Music Business

High Cotton Records

Steve Moore & the New South

ButterMilk Media

A NEW SOUTH DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

CD BABY is probably one of the BETTER SERVICES GOING for artists, bands, duo acts, etc.

I’ll first give my readers a little background anecdotal story.  I was speaking at a Music Conference in Louisville, KY back in 2005 or so shortly after my book was released.   I was actually asked by Stephen McCord of “The Service Station” from Nashville along with Scott Keniley, ESQ, music attorney, from Atlanta who were two of the many nice folks that were hosting this event to speak about my Book – “The Truth about the Music Business” and break it down into a brief talk about setting up your music as a business.  I also was able to back up one of the Artists “Flower Sumida” (Wife of Stephen McCord)

It was kind of funny as I was a featured panelist the first day along with some pretty heavy hitters from the Record Labels, BMI, and others that well – they all worked for “THE MAN”  as it were – and I was the next to last speaker of about 9 or 10 people.  Most of them were just preaching about how great it was to be affiliated with their publishing company, label, or “WHATEVER” – but this was 2005 and the music business was in a massive state of change.  I TOTALLY DISAGREED with 90% of what was said by MOST of them and made it KNOWN – as I didn’t care – I was probably the ONLY PERSON on that panel that had actually played as a professional musician for years, I was also the only one that had been a singer/songwriter as well for 20 some odd years, and I owned my own publishing companies and my own Record Label -
“High Cotton Records” and of course, I was a former Entertainment Lawyer, music promoter, etc.  Many of these people stumbled upon their jobs by LUCK of NEPOTISM and few had any of the above experience if at all…but I’m not saying they were not good at their jobs – they just didn’t see things from the ARTIST or SONGWRITER’S Point of View and I did!

Be that as it may, my other Guest Speaker at one of my seminars was Alex Steineger of CD BABY – At the time I think Alex had to have been younger than 30 and already doing extremely well – as was CD BABY.  And WHY people asked Alex has CD BABY done so well?  I’ll never forget his answer and it was “Brilliant”:
“WE DO ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY and we do it RIGHT”

What a novel concept – pick ONE THING and do it as good as you can – that’s some GOOD ADVICE for anyone!

Naturally the times have changed and the internet has continued to KILL the majors and changed how we listen to music and there’s a whole lot of new services and other companies offering a host of things – so CD BABY stepped up their game and now offer a PLETHORA of SERVICES – but here’s my Bullet Point List of why I like CD BABY:

• Digital Distribution for a ONE TIME FEE!  Yes, they keep 10% but that’s cool – you pay for each release or $35 for a FULL CD or $9.95 per single – but that’s a ONE TIME FEE!  Less their 10%
• They will send your music to almost any music service that you need to listed on for Digital Distribution
• They offer affordable CD Replication or Old School Vinyl!
• They offer download cards to give out at your shows – an incentive for people to download your music from CD BABY and CD BABY pays better than iTunes, Amazon, Last FM, etc
• They offer EMBED CODES for WIDGETS – and these also allow for people to BUY your CD from the WIDGET (this is completely different from Reverb Nation – and I’ll get into them on the next POST!)
• HTML LINK MAKER! – A simple way to create a “Buy the Album” to put on your website and and many other places – they just don’t have the deal with FACEBOOK has with REVERB NATION – but both FB and REV NATION totally screwed up – again, next post!)
• Web Analytics that IMHO are a little better than REV Nation.
• Credit Card Swiper – if you’re not already using the cool device for you iPhone or iPad.
• UPC BAR CODES – this is KEY so that you can get on Sound Scan and track your sales, etc.

So that’s a lot of services that are offered by Reverb Nation – but IMHO – a better deal than REVERB NATION – plus CD BABY stepped up their game and added some really cool partnerships!

1. Musical Instruments and Pro Audio Equipment (deals!)
2. “Cover Song Licensing” – this is KEY – as it’s tough for a band to break out with TOTALLY original music – it’s great to do “COVER SONGS” – and just redo the song in your own style – as long as you’re not creating a derivative work – or using sampling – you can release a cover song – by just acquiring a “compulsory license” from the original publisher or publishers -  so this can be a HUGE HELP if you’re unfamiliar with that process – and I LIKE THIS – and I know a TON about copyrights and compulsory licenses, etc – as I wrote and entire book about the music business!  (Shameless plug – “The Truth about the Music Business”
3. Guaranteed CD Reviews – don’t mean you’ll get GREAT reviews, but you’ll get reviews which HELP in selling more MUSIC!
4. Digital Delivery to Radio – yep world wide access to international, national radio (terrestrial or Internet) which is PRETTY COOL but of course, it’s a paid service.  If you’re music is GOOD it will get “spun” and if it’s really good – those who hear may just request to hear more or better still – find you on CD BABY, iTunes, etc – and BUY your songs!
5. Rock Band Authoring – if you’ve got a good enough song!
6. Internet Radio Play – get on Jango – you pick the artists whose fans you would like to target (any artist/genre) and Jango places your music into the play lists!
7. Sonic Bids – so you can TRY to get GIGS!  Which lets’ face it – that’s what most bands need is GIGS!

All in all I would say that for an solo artist, Duo, Band etc – CD baby is one of the BEST services – and they’ve been around for a long time and have a SOLID REPUTATION – so I’d say for sure check them out for at the very least your Digital Distribution needs -  but as stated in my former POST – I’d still go with Band Camp as well – just one more place to find your music and Band Camp is FREE – most of the services on CD BABY are paid – but worth the fees!

Lastly they offer some really cool FREE TIPS and TRICKS that you can download that range from using Social Media, to making great records, etc. It’s FREE INFO so you should be reading it!

Check them out at this LINK:CD BABY WEBSITE  

Hope you find this helpful!

All the best, as always….

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D.

Author of “The Truth about the Music Business”President and CEO at Music Square One

High Cotton Records

Steve Moore & the New South

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

So here’s a short – not complete list of features that they offer:

• You can set up a REVERB NATION ACCOUNT for a BAND or RECORD LABEL for FREE – this is a little different for CD BABY as I may have missed it – but CD BABY isn’t label Friendly – you may want to take a look at TOP SPIN for LABEL SERVICES!
• You get a band PROFILE – and they’ve got some good “widgets” for placement on your website and other places.   In fact, their WIDGETS are quite good – easy to copy/paste the code etc and work in HTML, XHTML and PHP, etc.
• They are the ONLY MUSIC SERVICE  “to my current knowledge” that have integrated with FaceBook so you can create a Landing Page for your FaceBook Fan Page with a pretty cool looking and customizable widget for FaceBook – (more to come on how FB Screwed that up!)
• You can Sync your Account with My Space – and that means that ALL of your FANS show up on your REV NATION ACCOUNT – but there’s a slight conflict – as do you set up to BUY your music Via My Space or Reverb Nation – (I’ve never really cared – but more to come on HOW I suggest you work all of these services to your advantage – in another post!)
• You can “pay for digital Distribution” which is pretty much the same as CD BABY – HOWEVER, they charge you every year for your CD or even a single release and the PRICE IS THE SAME – that’s a RIP-OFF!  (Again, more to come about the BAD PRACTICES at REV NATION!)
• You can upload your music for FREE – but you only get 8 MB of FREE space and then they charge you like $29.99 for mega song storage and people can buy your songs direct from Reverb Nation but I don’t recommend it.
• They have a “BAND EQUITY” service where they pay you a miniscule percentage for ADS that are on their site and/or your profile – but don’t expect to get rich – it’s like a penny per month and they have CAPS on the number of WIDGET PLAYS – so even if you’ve got widgets all over the place – they won’t let you make any more money – unless YOU work to PROMOTE THEM more-so than YOUR MUSIC!
• Their site stats or analytics are NOT very helpful – and you have to use theirs – so at least you can get an IDEA of your listeners – but not nearly what you can get from Google Analytics.
• You can promote your shows with WIDGETS – but that’s assuming that you have a LOT of fans per their FAN REACH – and of course they want you to get the PRO FAN REACH – just like most of their FREE stuff – it’s so limited that you almost have to PAY to get anything out of them and when you do – unless you’re just blowing up with FANS and people buying your songs – you won’t even reach an ROI for their costs!
• They offer STREET TEAMS but then you have to hit up your friends or fans to help you do some legwork – and unless you’re under 25 and so are your friends, forget it – as most people have DAY JOBS and can’t mess with PROMOTING your band!
• They have FAN REACH – but again, they want  you to PAY for the PRO package, widgets, auto responders, etc
• They offer a website builder but I wouldn’t go there – I’ve never seen a DECENT LOOKING website done with this service – get a PRO like “ButterMilk Media” to do your website and social media marketing!
• They offer the ability to “try to get gigs” but I haven’t tried it….you get a “digital press kit” but it’s a paid service and I doubt you’ll earn your money back – as I doubt people booking clubs even look at these!
• There’s a few more things that they offer – but I can’t recommend them as getting an ROI on the money they make you pay is just not worth it!

So with all of this out of the way – let me share my NEGATIVE Experience that I’ve had with Reverb Nation.   I have a few band names that I’ve used over the years and have accounts with Reverb Nation for several bands including my label – High Cotton Records, but the main band is:

Steve Moore & the New South

But I also play under the band name:

The Cowboy Killers ™

This is just a band name that I use from time to time and been using it for 20 years or so – also the WEBSITE I did a LONG TIME ago – and I haven’t updated it due to Trademark Infringement issues – with SEVERAL OTHER BANDS that are using this band name – and there’s just NO WAY that ANY of these bands used that name first in commerce – but I digress -

However, it’s important to note that DUE to the TM infringement of ONE of the other bands that also have Digital Distribution one of my songs was listed on “Rhapsody” with this other band that was STUPID ENOUGH to use a picture of ELVIS for their Album Cover – that’s a violation of ELVIS’s Publicity Right and DEAD CELEBS have some serious power to protect their publicity rights.  Which could have caused ME some SERIOUS LIABILITY issues!

SEE LINKS -

PUBLICITY RIGHTS &   DEAD  CELEBRITIES

BE that as it may, I released ONE SONG “HOLD BACK THE NIGHT” from the Meridian Compilation CD  via REVERB NATION – and I DID read REVERB NATION’S Terms and Conditions – and they were supposed to NOTIFY by E-MAIL when my year was up – and BEFORE they Auto-Charged my credit card so I could have OPTED OUT.   Well they did NOT send me an e-mail – and I can prove it – as I have an AUTO-RESPONDER on that account so if I get ANYTHING from REVERB NATION in regards to having to PAY any more money – I not only SHOULD get the E-mail from Reverb Nation – but I would also get a NOTIFICATION that my Auto-Response FAILED – which I got NEITHER!  So I contacted Reverb Nation – and asked to TAKE DOWN that single as I wanted to release my entire RECORD or CD  by:

Steve Moore & the New South Band Site“-True Meridian-” My CD and Singles On Band Camp!

Well they explained that I would have to pay a $30 FEE to remove ONE SONG from Digital Distribution and PAY another $39 to release the Record!   They also charged me $29.00 for the “Mega-Song Storage” so I could host more than 8MB of songs on their service.  This really – well – I was pretty upset.  I explained that I was NOT NOTIFIED as per their terms and conditions – and they said that I was “IN FACT NOTIFIED” – when I asked them to PROVE IT – they couldn’t!  The customer service guy was rather smug to say the least and needless to say:

“I’ll NEVER release a SINGLE or EVEN A CD for my label or any of my BANDS with REVERB NATION EVER AGAIN!

And I’m not too fond of the CAP they put on Widget hits – as I have them all over the place – so I fill up for the month in the first week – and the ONLY thing I can do about that is to PROMOTE – REVERB NATION’S widgets on other sites or get more people to JOIN my Reverb Nation fan page – which for the most part is only other BANDS – so to me it’s pretty much a scam!

I’m not saying to NOT use REVERB NATION – just do NOT give them ANY of your money – use all of their FREE SERVICES – take your CD (let’s say 10 – 12 songs) and create “samples or one minute and 20 or 30 Second Snippets of your songs” – and put them up on Reverb Nation without exceeding your 8 MB BANDWIDTH – do NOT let them talk you into upgrading anything – but still use their FREE WIDGETS for FACEBOOK – unless you want to use Involver or other services and create you own Static HTML custom pages or Tabs on Facebook – and just use their BASIC FREE STUFF – and go elsewhere to get Digital Distribution – if you’re a BAND, ARTIST, DUO, etc – go to CD BABY – if you’re a label – go with TOP SPIN MEDIA!

And definitely tie in your My Space Fans – with Reverb Nation- but you may want to check out Sean Fanning (Napster) and SNOCAP - assuming they are even still around – looks to me that they were hurting some time ago – they may be closed by now – but I don’t have the time to dig around and look!  Nor have I actually had the time to get on all FOUR of my “MY SPACE ACCOUNTS” and update the song lists- I’m getting quite a bit of plays – and for some reason – it’s mainly FEMALES between 38 and 44 years old – sounds like my STALKER TO ME! – But that’s a whole other story.   But I think I’ll just put up SAMPLES of my songs on MY SPACE as well Unless the BUY FUNCTION would pay out well – but I doubt it- and then redirect people to my WEBSITE and/or other Social Nets or Music Services where I get paid for STREAMS – or people can buy the CD’s or purchase my singles!

I realize that there are many fans that just want you to “GIVE YOUR MUSIC AWAY”  but they have NO CLUE how much time and money just recording a CD can cost – much less artwork, Bar Codes/SKUS, manufacturing, etc – and I don’t mind if they STREAM my songs from sites that pay a decent ROYALTY – via Sound Exchange – which I “HIGHLY RECOMMEND” – or from the actual service itself such as iTunes, Last FM, etc – I rarely buy songs as I can find pretty much all I want on YouTube OR I just fire up Pandora and set up a  station for that artist or Genre – and there are other ways of hearing the music you like without paying for it – but if it’s a band I truly want to support – I don’t mind paying for them!  And I for sure do NOT use Bit Torrent or any other P2P service to get songs for FREE!    I think it’s only fair that a band that puts out some good songs – that I want to hear WHEN I want to hear them – then I’ll buy them – same with my songs – if you like one or two songs – then buy them – or better still – go to my Band Camp site and just buy the whole CD’s as they are NOT that expensive and you get the WHOLE LISTENING experience of hearing a CD from beginning to end – but that’s up to the buyers – and I don’t have a problem with that – I don’t purport to be some great artist, singer, musician or even a great songwriter – but I do have some pretty GREAT FANS that do support my music and – for that – I’d Like to say

THANK YOU TO ALL MY FANS!

But getting back to REVERB NATION – it has it’s uses – just look elsewhere for PAID SERVICE as you’ll get a much better deal with CB BABY or TOP SPIN.

TOP SPIN is next – but I’m going to give it rest for today!  Top Spin is going to a pretty hard POST – as it’s great for bands, artists, duos and they figured out that offering LABEL SERVICES  for a fair price with a TON of features for Labels and/or Bands, artists, etc – But TOP SPIN is more for the SERIOUS people that are TRULY wanting to make the MOST out of their offerings!  But even still – a Label or BAND, etc – Should use the RIGHT MIX of ALL of these music services – just DO NOT GIVE ANY MONEY to REVERB NATION and maybe they’ll feel the PINCH – or they’ll continue to engage in ILLEGAL TRADE PRACTICES and RIP YOU OFF by NOT giving you a chance to OPT OUT after your YEAR IS UP!   They won’t get ANY MORE OF MY MONEY!  But I’m still going to USE THEM – and their server space, widgets, etc – but see how long they LAST when FB does a deal with another company and people refuse to pay for the PREMIUM SERVICES!

I’m NOT GOING to link to REVERB NATION HERE!
They don’t deserve it!

If you want to sign up with them ONLY USE THE FREE STUFF – and GO ELSEWHERE – as Reverb Nation is more about promoting their own BRAND and company rather than the ARTISTS, BANDS, or Labels that actually PAY for their services!

TOO BAD REVERB NATION – had you resolved my issues in a fair and reasonable manner – and NOT been so smug about RIPPING ME OFF – for $70 or so – I would probably have written a better review – but as it stands – you guys get a C – (minus) at BEST!

All the best, as always….

Steve Moore

Author of “The Truth about the Music Business”

High Cotton Records

Steve Moore & the New South

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

Signing up with Band Camp is pretty much a NO BRAINER!  Why?

• First it’s FREE to join – ZERO start up costs!
• You can upload singles or albums or both
• CD sales outrank single download 16 to 1 – (that’s STRONG!)
• You can set your own price or let your fans set their price for a single, LP or Full on Album/CD  (download only)
• Band Camp keeps a modest 10% – until you reach more sales
• Create your own profile – you can tweak it some -  enough to make it look pretty decent.
• You can send out 200 Codes for FREE to sell you music and then it’s just a modest fee for more.
• They incrementally increase your space based upon sales – so if you’ve got a LOT of CD to sell – and are SELLING you can add more of them.

Not a lot of frills, widgets, and the like but you can put a graphic icon link or even a link to your Band Camp Account anywhere you want or can get away with.   It’s just a great place to start – as it’s easy to understand, simple to set up and simply a GREAT DEAL!  They sort of leave it up to you to promote your music – which is FAIR – so place your links to Band Camp Profile everywhere you can!  Simple!

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D.

Author of “The Truth about the Music Business” 

President and CEO at:

Music Square One

High Cotton Records

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

THE SERVICE STATION

The Service Station in Nashville, TN, is a Full Service Brand Marketing, Artist Management, Artist Development, and Entertainment Consulting Company.

They also offer Record Label Services, Website Design, Social Media Marketing and Music Business Consulting via other Strategic Alliances!

We look forward to working with them and Stephen McCord brings over 20 years of SOLID MARKETING EXPERIENCE!  He has worked as VP of A&R and Marketing for Two Major Record Labels and has worked as overseeing the marketing and sales of over 20,000,000 Records!

We’re lucky to have him on our side!

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D. Author“The Truth About the Music Business”  

High Cotton Records

Music Square One

steve@musicsquareone.com

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

I first met Steve in the 1980′s when I was chief recording engineer for Jack “Cowboy” Clement in Nashville. Steve arrived in town and we met through a mutual friend Bob Clement (Jack Clement’s 2nd cousin). At first, about the only thing I knew of Steve was that he was a songwriter and music producer from Mississippi. When I learned that he also had a law degree from ‘Ole Miss., I was obviously impressed.

Throughout the next several years I followed Steve’s ambition over building his own recording studio that he designed, and did all the work with his own hands in the basement of his house and his ongoing efforts to produce songwriter demos and record projects for various Nashville recording artists.

What I wasn’t aware of until well after, was that Steve by day was also building a rather large entertainment law practice and was an advocate for artists, singers, musicians and many performing artists who had fallen on times quite less than successful as well as creating deals for many that were huge successes! But Steve was a tireless advocate and often times worked PRO BONO for so many people who had been steam rolled over by network TV production and record companies that he became the “to go to ” person to hire as a bulldog attorney for the disenfranchised and cheated performer. I wasn’t surprised at all with this as I had already seen this earlier on. Steve just wants what’s right for creative people. It’s pretty much a “no brainer” generally speaking but you’d be surprised how so many people in powerful positions have a tendency to forget the people who helped them get there. Steve is the kind of guy who helped to remind those people of their moral responsibility and in a nice way, but if that didn’t work, was not afraid to defend the moral high ground and take these people or companies to court!

In the late 1990s and until about 2004, I hadn’t heard much from him, due to my moving to Florida and taking on a long distance job at Intel in California, but we’ve reunited over this internet development and have had an ongoing one on one relationship via Skype, telephone and emails about various matters since 2004…, a lot still focused on music and where that industry has gone…or better yet, gone away…

We still have a very robust and frequent conversation about all of that and now website development. As a contractor at Intel Corporation, I was responsible for developing online tutorials for the IT department in Folsom, California. This expertise has been part of a rekindling of interest with Steve and what’s going on at New South Development. I look forward to working on many new video & audio ventures with Steve….He still spends 12 to 14 hours a day almost 7 days a week using his vastly wide variety of skills doing all the many complex and technologically varied things that he can do and yet still finds time to pursue his true passion, which is what we both have in common – and that is our MUSIC!

For me that qualifies as the One Centered Tireless Worker that he has been and continues to be.  Everyone should be so lucky to have someone like him in their corner!

Jack “Stack-a-Track” Grochmal

Thanks Jack!

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D. Author
Music Square One & High Cotton Records
steve@musicsquareone.com

High Cotton Records

www.musicsquareone.com

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

Our parent company, Music Square One,  has got a LOT of irons in the fire – and are soon to be partnering up with quite a few companies to offer a HOST of MORE SERVICES!

We’re also talking to a few bands about signing up with High Cotton Records – and Steve is planning on going into the STUDIO in August to do basic tracks for a NEW EP!

Lot’s in the works -

STAY TUNED!

Steve Moore, BA, JD. Author

“The Truth About the Music Business“

You can Buy the BOOK HERE at AMAZON! JUST CLICK THIS LINK!

You can find all kinds of  GREAT INFO in this book!  I’ll have another website up soon for this book and my other published works – so Stay Tuned!

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D. Author“The Truth About the Music Business”

High Cotton Records

Music Square One

steve@musicsquareone.com

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

Well it’s finally done – or at least done enough so that you can check it out!

Lot’s of work to get done – but at least we’ve got it underway!

You can visit our NEW WEBSITE here:

Steve Moore & the New South

High Cotton Recording Artists – Steve Moore & the New South

High Cotton Records is a Division of:  Music Square One

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)

In the meantime – as we continue to UPLOAD more songs for sale – visit:

http://stevemooreandthenewsouth.bandcamp.com/

You can also visit our new website – Steve Moore & the New South

MOORE to come!

Stay tuned!

Steve Moore @ Music Square One

Music Square One

High Cotton Records

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D. Author“The Truth About the Music Business”

High Cotton Records

Music Square One

steve@musicsquareone.com

(Click on any link above to visit that site or social network!)