Review: How to Sell Your Music on Patreon

Are you looking for a more personal way to share and sell your music? Would you prefer a way that you could express, and share some of the work, tips and techniques you used on a new track? Personally, I've been using services like CDBaby, Bandcamp, and TuneCore, iTunes, and so on. And, I've had good success. But, when I came across Patreon, some of my long term desires of really being able to interact, and have fun with the dissemination of my music became realized. Let me share with you what I found!

What Is Patreon?

The most popular methods for buying music would definitely be iTunes. And, as a result, most services follow a similar model. You can buy individual songs, and you can buy full albums. No surprises there.

Patreon offers somethings different—A method of bringing your listeners in, and really making them feel a part of what you're trying to do by sharing your goals, and creations and giving them a method of easily sending you monetary assistance in continuing your work, in exchange for rewards. Essentially, it's like a self moderating artist page that handles transactions, in the form of pledges, that occur as you release your work. Let's take a look at how this works.

Goals?

This service gives you a venue to post your goals, and provides the communication to your listeners, patrons, fans, or friends in a friendly way, letting them know what you're trying to accomplish.

Goals are creation milestones along the lines of 'finishing an album', or 'need to raise some money for gear'. As I do not have any goals, per say. And, I don't have a million followers, I chose to leave this blank, until I have a campaign worthy of posting, and, well... Patrons. However, do consider the magnitude of this. This service gives you a venue to post your goals, and provides the communication to your listeners, patrons, fans, or friends in a friendly way, letting them know what you're trying to accomplish. And, gives them a friendly, easy method of helping YOU build your creations. Through the reward system, you can share your gratitude. This is the part that I really love.

Rewards?

For myself, I set my rewards up on the low-end. Again, I don't have many patrons... Yet. And, honestly, I just want to have some fun sharing my music. For myself, I set it up where if you commit to buying a song for a dollar, each time I release a new song, you're entitled to my full library. This is a steal! And, plus—I can post all the information I want, like a blog post, about my song, add a picture to accompany it, like liner art, and more! In my blog post, I tend to post information about the song, and where I am in my project, and even anecdotes and thoughts that occurred during the making of the song. It's a real chance to share, presented in a beautiful way, that doesn't just wind up being blown off. 

Conclusion

Patreon offers a powerful, and personable way of saying 'Hey guys, I love doing this, and I would love some help and love to share it with you'. And, this basic credo is what really won me over. I love being able to share my music. Like all musicians, artists, photographers, etc., I put a lot of thought, and a lot of time into it, and I want to be able to really talk about the craft, as well as share the craft. That's the big distinction for me. Bandcamp is awesome, but I think for the moment, Patreon might be the one for me.