I know a guy who says his CD got lots of sales from having his music downloadable for free. But it was just certain songs, it wasn't the whole CD. He was very happy to have his music downloadable online because of that. But I think the place that did it asked him first.

Dave, are you saying that the whole CD is available for download? I wouldn't be happy about that.

Yes, Skeptic, there is a way to deliver music from the artist to the fan without these inordinate middleman expenses. Start your own publishing company, and give ownership of your songs to the publishing company. Then you have control of the Publishing part of the royalties.

I learned this in a songwriting class given by Bill Staines. He said that if you've submitted your songs to the copywright office at the Library of Congress (USA) then you need to resubmit the song to give the ownership to your publishing company. Then the publishing royalty can be used by yourself as a bargaining chip when selling to larger entities. You can give up as much or as little as you want.

Margo