Sell Music Online

There are a variety of audio formats to choose from to sell music online. We’ll be looking at the top 5 & why these particular audio archetypes are so popular with consumers today. The most widely recognized audio format for consumers and musicians alike is the mp3.

History of the MP3

The mp3’s origin starts in the 1990’s by Electronics Firm Philips, French Research Institute, CCETT and Germany’s Broadcast Institute Technology. MP3 is short for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3.  Although two audio formats were up for review, the scientific community decided to settle on the mp3 due to its simplicity, lack of errors and efficiency with new computer technology. Throughout the 90’s the mp3 became the golden goose of audio. In 1999 it reached its pinnacle debut with the free music sharing service Napster. Right on the heels of this new evolving digital age, Steve Jobs developed the iTunes marketplace and QuickTime. With this new addition a whole new type of audio emerged: The MP4

What’s the Difference Between MP3 & MP4?

It’s easy to think of the mp3 and mp4 as two separate bands. The mp3 hit it big in the 90’s. With long surfer hair, haunting lyrics and the perfect mix of flannel and army boots, the mp3 took over the world with its anti-establishment war cries and high spirited fervor. After making multiple hit albums and topping the billboard charts the mp3 currently tours the world, lives on a solid residual income check & serious brand notoriety from its 90’s fame. If you couldn’t tell, the 90’s was our era & we’re definitely Pearl Jam fans.

The mp4 hit it big during the 2000’s with its garage band loops and electronic sounds. Rather than play guitar like its fellow counterpart, it created and mimicked its own guitar sounds. Due to its unique musician-not-a-musician voice, it caught the eye of U2’s front man Bono. Instantly, these two became known as the i-brotherhood, dominating the apple landscape and i-everything world. As of 2018, the mp4 reigns as the standard hit single for the iTunes music market place. Now with its newly acquired Shazam features and Apple Streaming Service, the mp4 continues to grow a steady fanbase across the globe.

However, if we were to step out behind the grunge and think different era, one glaring difference separates the MP3 from the MP4. While the MP3 uses purely audio, the MP4 utilizes audio, video, still images and text. With this in mind, the mp3 and mp4 reigns as the most widely used audio format for consumers and artists looking to sell music online. Following in the MP3 and MP4 foosteps is the WAV, AIFF, AAC, FLAC, OEG. Below is a list of the 3 most widely used audio formats.

WAV

The WAV was developed in 1991 by Microsoft and IBM. WAV is short for Wave Form Audio Format. An example of a few artists who use this format include beat-makers and composers. These artists sell WAV files on their website as individual Tracked Out Files. What is a Tracked Out File? To put it simply, they are a group of individual tracks available for purchase by the author/creator. Usually these specific files are sold Exclusively. This gives the buyer one hundred percent creative freedom to add-subtract from the work and make it their own. In the hip-hop community, rappers and lyricists alike, purchase tracked out WAV files and import them into their sound studio. From here, they add their lyrics/voice over the top of the instrumentation/beat & create a whole new song.

AIFF

The AIFF is an acronym for Audio Interchange File Format. It was developed by Apple for MAC systems in early 1988. Many users who sell music online with AIFF audio format are Apple Subscribers and implement these audio formats into their Garageband and Logic Audio interface. All of these programs use the same AIFF extension and is more suitable for MAC users than the Windows/PC Operating System.

AAC

If Mark Zuckerberg was a piece of audio, AAC would be it. Short for Advanced Audio Coding this little sound gem was created in 1997 and its eye was on the golden prize. “Get Out with Mp3, get down with AAC!”  Unfortunately AAC didn’t have as much zuck as the real Zuckerberg and ran a lopsided race finishing second to its audio counterpart. With that being said, outside of world music domination, the AAC is much more advanced than the standard MP3 and retains a higher sound quality. Furthermore, while AAC might have lost the race with MP3, it still has many powerful friends using its compression including YouTube, Nintendo, iTunes, PlayStation, Android and iOS.

What’s The Best Audio Format to Sell Music Online?

The mp3 is still the standard for households worldwide due to its simplicity and compatibility across all digitized genres. Then again, this question comes down to personal preference. Apple users more often than not use mp4 or AIFF, due to Apple’s strict regiment. The standard audio format for recording software & sound-engineers in the studio is WAV. Once tracks have been recorded, the final step to sell music online is to master your tracks.

Master Your Audio to Sell Music Online

In the words of Mastering Website Landr: Mastering is the final step of audio post-production. The purpose of mastering is to balance sonic elements of a stereo mix and optimize playback across all systems and media formats. Traditionally, mastering is done using tools like equalization, compression, limiting and stereo enhancement. However, mastering is the final step in the recording process.

In the studio, tracks are recorded separately to get the most bang for the buck. For instance, the drum track might need more reverb whereas the guitar track needs more EQ/Treble. By recording tracks separately, sound engineers can pin-point where levels need to be increased or decreased and create an over-all balance. Once complete the artist is ready to compress each individual track into one sound wave and sell music online to fans.

Sell Music Online with Your TunePort Audio Store

Once the track has been mastered, it’s now ready to sell. To help you build your brand and sell music online directly from your website and social media get yourself a TunePort Audio Store. TunePort is every artist’s personal music website store built to give musicians & beat makers the name recognition they deserve. To start uploading music to the TunePort store, make sure all audio files are mp3 format. If you currently sell music on iTunes, convert your files from mp4 to mp3 with audio online converter. Although TunePort requires the standard mp3 to upload tracks, they offer an advanced option to upload zip files. Now you can upload audio in other formats including WAV, AIF, ACC. Furthermore, you can include music videos, licensing agreements, personal thank you notes to fans, the sky is the limit!

Upload Tracks in Style with A Brand New Pair of Pro-Studio Headphones!

To help you mix your next big hit, TunePort is giving away a free pair of Studio-Pro head-phones when you create a Standard or Premium Artist Account. With this in mind, you now have everything you need to mix your audio tracks and receive top quality sound from every one of your songs & beats!

See below for a Live Demo of the TunePort Audio Store.  Click Here to start uploading tracks now & sell music online directly from your website.