The time is no-longer nigh — the time is now, when you can purchase, download, sync, downright “own” Two People Made This Mess.
It has been one year to the date since Brandon and I had our first in-earnest session for this album, after 200 of you decided I should get to make it and put your money where my mouth is, so to speak. I’m still so incredibly grateful for all of the support I’ve gotten to get this thing out!
A question of which vendor to pick always surfaces during this time, so I thought, in the interest of maybe even helping out other independent artists that field the same question, I would be proactive and give you a pro-pro list, a buyer’s guide for one product if you will. Click the link at the top of each option to go to that option!
Here goes everything:
Click here to download from iTunes!
iTunes — for the body who likes their lives easy, and owns a ton of Apple products.
PROS FOR YOU: iTunes holds your digital library on iCloud, so buying TPMTM on there immediately makes it available on your iPad, iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook, ApplePC, Mac Pro, Post Hoc Ergo Proctor Hoc Mac, etc.
PROS FOR ME: iTunes encourages customer reviews, and has a good charting system, so it’s a good thing to get noticed there.
Amazon — for the body who loves getting boxes in the mail.
PROS FOR YOU: Amazon is the world’s largest mall, and one-click ordering can get you either the physical or digital version. There’s also a fun novelty in unboxing an indie artist’s release stamped with that curvy arrow on it (please somebody make an unboxing video of TPMTM!)
PROS FOR ME: Amazon, the ultimate example of the High Tail in action, has so many products, getting so few purchases individually, that it’s very easy to get my product shot to a decent number on their charts. Your purchase has an impact.
Go granola at BandCamp!
Bandcamp — for the body who likes the grit and granola of buying straight from the source.
PROS FOR YOU: You get your choice of digital format, and if you buy the CD, you also get your choice of digital format, so you can listen while you wait for the disc to arrive!
PROS FOR ME: Most outlets, I get 60%-70% of the revenue — with Bandcamp, I get 90%. That’s good in cold hard cash numbers, but the tradeoff for me in the other venues is free advertising by way of upped rankings, so really: whatever is easiest for you is fine with me.
…you could just sync it. I won’t be mad at ya.
Spotify — for the body who thinks the world’s music supply is worth 9.95/mo.
PROS FOR YOU: First, I’m kidding. I understand that many people don’t have a whole lot of disposable income, and that Spotify is economically an amazing choice. I use it, and I use it to listen to indie stuff, often. I have a habit of buying people’s discs at shows, actually, then just putting them into My Music on Spotify so that it shows up on my News Feed on Facebook when it plays. Either way, I had a choice about making Spotify an option, and I made that choice.
PROS FOR ME: If you listen to my album on Spotify and share your activity with your facebook group or spotify followers, that’s huge. Eventually they’ll see that you seem to be listening to this Paul Tarashnahsh guy a lot, and maybe check it out for themselves.
As I’ve mentioned, there is no wrong answer. I’ve left off a few examples — for instance, I’m pretty sure that if even one person buys my album at Zune Marketplace, I become the hottest thing on the Zune Marketplace — but you have a starting point. Thank you all so much for your support, and please make your voices heard with Amazon and iTunes reviews — every bit helps!
Love,
Paul