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Soundcloud or bandcamp or...


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I've recently put together a wee album and im wondering where would be best to upload it to so it can gain the maximum exposure possible. I'd not really given it too much thought till I noticed the growing number of sites offering free mp3 hosting and thought the best plan was to ask around before choosing!

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I wasn't planning on selling it really, it didn't cost me anything to make so i'd feel hard necked charging for it. I quite like the idea of people being able to download it so I reckon ill go for bandcamp.

Cheers for the advice!

I had exactly the same approach. I used Bandcamp and uploaded for free download. I got about 350-odd downloads in about a month without really pimping it much apart from a little bit on a forum and a little bit on Facebook. Be savy with your tags, though. A number of people really do use Bandcamp as a means of discovering music, and search via various favoured tags and give the results a listen.

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It's piss easy to set an account up on both Soundcloud and Bandcamp. You can stream on Bandcamp aswell, but I believe Soundcloud offers the ability to upload a higher quality format of files, so the audio quality is generally superior for streaming. Someone may be able to correct me, but that's how it appears to me.

Also, with Bandcamp, you have the ability to capture email addresses and postcodes for each download, which can be useful if you intend to market your music. Personally, I have no real interest in that any more, but it's still always interesting to get a vague idea of who your listeners are and where they are from.

If you're concerned about creating multiple accounts and all that jazz (which, admittedly, can get tedious), then just adopt the same username and password for both. It's not really a hardship if you think about it! I think having an account on both can still be beneficial if you maximise your use of them.

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I like both, for different reasons. Bandcamp is so good and simple. No bullshit social networking. Just your music, in a tidy layout.

Soundcloud looks fun, and when listening to a song, it looks like the wave cloud is a fuzzy, deformed penis. I like being able to comment on particular parts of the song/penis.

Band Facebooks look a bit guff though, and generally seem pointless, and Myspace used to have a reasonable layout despite having an awful built-in mp3 shittifier, converting your mp3s to an even more tinny, bassless and horrid format, somehow.

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You can stream on Bandcamp aswell, but I believe Soundcloud offers the ability to upload a higher quality format of files, so the audio quality is generally superior for streaming. Someone may be able to correct me, but that's how it appears to me.

Bandcamp only allows lossless formats doesn't it? Everything I've put up on it has been a wav file and took fucking ages to upload.

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Bandcamp only allows lossless formats doesn't it? Everything I've put up on it has been a wav file and took fucking ages to upload.

I'm an absolute computer and website idiot, so I don't know to be honest. I literally don't even know exactly what a "lossless" format is. :down:

I think I uploaded wav files to Bandcamp, but I don't remember feeling put out by the upload time, and I'm an impatient bastard.

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My intention is to use soundcloud as a dumping ground for mp3s of demos to put out for feedback and such and use Bandcamp for properly recorded, finished products that people may want to download etc.

Can you flog other merch from there too like tshirts and the like? If so it makes having a bigcartel page unnecessary in the long run too which will work in it's favour.

xx

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I'm an absolute computer and website idiot, so I don't know to be honest. I literally don't even know exactly what a "lossless" format is. :down:

I think I uploaded wav files to Bandcamp, but I don't remember feeling put out by the upload time, and I'm an impatient bastard.

It's true - you can only upload lossless formats so that if you choose to make it available as a paid download then customers aren't getting shitty mp3s.

My intention is to use soundcloud as a dumping ground for mp3s of demos to put out for feedback and such and use Bandcamp for properly recorded, finished products that people may want to download etc.

Can you flog other merch from there too like tshirts and the like? If so it makes having a bigcartel page unnecessary in the long run too which will work in it's favour.

xx

Yes, you can sell other merch.

See Tuff Wax Records as an example.

:up:

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Except your time and effort...

meh im not too fussed about that. What I meant was I don't have any recording costs to cover i.e studio hire etc. It was recorded in my spare time, on my laptop and using free editing software so I'd feel bad charging for it. Plus I'd be happy for it just to be out there and be heard.

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Another boost for Bandcamp - it's not blocked by my work server unlike Soundcloud which is blocked due to streaming content.

Also, regarding vinyl releases - where's the best place to get a price for a run of them? Be good to know for future.

xx

Depends on a number of factors, really. What you're after, size of run, coloured vs black vinyl etc.. If/when you're ready to get something off to be pressed fire an email to label@tuffwaxrecords.com and we'll tell you what we can based on what we've experienced to that point!

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