Indie band Uniform Motion posted an extremely interesting blog post a few weeks ago coinciding with the release of their new album One Frame Per Second.  In the post they break down the economics of digital distribution through channels such as iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and more.

It is a struggle for an indie band to try and make money, especially without a distributor to get the album into record stores.  The iTunes / Amazon model has reasonable potential.  Spotify, while seeming great for the consumer, has very little profitability potential (less than 30 euros for 1000 full album listens).  Their best option appears to be direct selling through Bandcamp; if the Pay-What-You-Want model is respected then all of the money goes directly to the band.

For a newer band exposure and building a fanbase is just as important as making $$, but why can’t they have a bit of both?

The article if very detailed and very interesting, so head over and check it out.

Thanks to Paste Magazine for pointing me in the direction of this post.