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MP3 Guide

How MP3 Works | Download & Playback | Create Your Own | Distributing Music

Distributing Original Music

If you are an artist who is recording music at home or in a small studio, you can use MP3 files and the Web to distribute your music to an extremely large audience. The first step is to create a song, either on a cassette tape, mini-disc or on a CD. If it is on a CD then you can use the ripper and encoder tools described above to create an MP3 file. If it is on a cassette (or minidisc), you can connect the output of your cassette (or minidisc) deck to the line-in or microphone jack of your sound card and record the music digitally on your computer. Then you can encode that file to create the MP3.

Once you have an MP3 file in hand you have 2 distribution options:

You can go to a site like MP3.com and let them distribute your music. The advantage of this approach is that MP3.com gets millions of visitors every month, so the potential audience you can reach is very large. To sign up with MP3.com go to the artist area. You will need at least one MP3 file, a photograph of your band and/or album cover and some information about the band in order to sign up. The process is simple. MP3.com has other programs for artists as well.
You can create your own web site for your music or band and promote your website yourself. This gives you more control and individuality, but requires you to get the word out on your site.

One good option is to make your MP3 files available on MP3.com and then link to the MP3.com download area from your band's web site. This lets you get the best of both worlds and also lets you take advantage of MP3.com's servers for the large MP3 files.