How do we publish our music to iTunes, Amazon Music, and Spotify without needing a record label? Independent artists like me today are very fortunate to have services like AWAL where we can publish to the major marketplaces where millions of people globally stream, buy, and listen to music!
After making now 48 songs in my first year and a half of producing music from no experience starting in 2017, I am grateful I finally discovered how to get my tracks into the place where I am actually a listener!
Where did I find AWAL?
My music mentor 
Why did I choose AWAL?
AWAL was listed alongside CD BABY, DISTROKID, EMU BANDS, RECORD UNION, SPINNUP, and TUNECORE at https://artists.spotify.com/guide/your-music. Honestly I clicked on it first because of alphabetical order. I liked https://www.awal.com/ along with a model of only accepting some artists without charging any fee to submit the music while taking 15% of earnings.
What did I say on my application?
Any time I end up applying for something writing about it feels awkward. I kept and am sharing my exact application text with the hope that if you want to apply, you can see what I wrote. While having a larger amount of followers often helps, this is not something most of us can control.
What we can control ourselves regardless of followers is having some people that help us with our music especially a mentor or a coach. If I was reading these applications, someone paying for music coaching every month would stand out as an application serious about their growth as a musician and worth accepting.
Note I started with the first sentence below because this one sentence addresses what AWAL's website says they are looking for in an artist as explained at https://www.awal.com/blog/what-we-look-for-in-an-awal-artist and matches what I have to offer. I left off positive engagement from the media because I am not aware of any.
My AWAL Application Response to "What else should we know about you?"
When you want strong creative quality, engagement from fans, other members on the team, and commitment to your brand, will you consider accepting me as one of your artists because these are my strengths?
We are here today because my mentor and music production teacher Tomas George as seen at https://www.udemy.com/user/tomas-george/ suggested I get on Spotify today during our weekly call on Skype. AWAL was the first service I looked at to get listed here and I chose to apply because of your focus on quality.
My public relations manager is Michel Gerard has been with me since 2014 as seen at http://www.michelgerardonline.com/.
My wife Laura Banfield is my attorney since 2011 when we met :)
My partners at https://jerrybanfield.com/partners/ help me with everything else!
In 2017 I started producing music with no prior experience as a hobby within my business online which already included teaching video courses, producing tutorials on YouTube, and investing. In less than a year and a half I have published 40 songs/music videos on YouTube as seen in the playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwjXVhbTO15NSJyo4OzbXJzbWn_0k5JCa. I have three more I will be releasing soon.
What you may be surprised to see is that in many of my videos I show how I am composing the majority of the song in real time in Ableton Live 10. I am listening to music every day with the intention of learning and growing as an artist alongside watching video courses to continue to improve my skills in Ableton Live 10.
My primary asset is my ability to live stream what I do on YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Twitter with Periscope, Mixer, and Steem with DLive all at the same time. When it comes to musicians that can show their creative process in real time to a live audience, I believe I have the #1 setup in the world today in terms of quality video and availability on different platforms which is funny given the relatively small hours of my actual experience making music.
When combining YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter I have over 2.5 million followers which demonstrates both my ability to self promote with digital marketing and online advertising combined with a strong global following in nearly every country where thousands of people check what I do every day!
You will discover my most engaged following on Steem a cryptocurrency where I am a top investor and author at https://steemit.com/@jerrybanfield
On Twitter https://twitter.com/JerryBanfield about 100,000 people are following me.
I teach video courses at https://u.jerrybanfield.com/
My podcast has over 100,000 plays from https://jerrybanfield.com/podcast/
I do have a Patreon also at http://www.patreon.com/jerrybanfield
Will you please invite me to join you as an artist because you will love collaborating with me especially now that I have the ability to compose a song live every day from start to finish?
Love,
Jerry Banfield
Accepted!
I am grateful AWAL accepted my application and kept me onboard after two months without submitting anything!
First Album Submitted Today!
A year after finishing my first 20 tracks in FL Studio 12, I just submitted them to AWAL to be distributed digitally where I can appear in many of the major places listeners hear music around the world. One thought that keeps coming to me today is the amazing amount of demotivation the world shows us with the goal of essentially discouraging us from trying. I am grateful for all of the music I have heard that my first reaction has been negative towards because this inspires me to try.
#1 Result to Aim for as a New Musician!
GET THAT FIRST ALBUM DONE + DISTRIBUTED! A year in learning music and producing now 48 tracks leaves me with the key lesson being to get that first album published through a digital distributor and available in the major places listeners show up every day. While the songs on my YouTube channel from my first album have been listened to thousands of times on SoundCloud and YouTube, I rarely listen to music using those myself. I am on Apple Music via iTunes and Amazon Music with a Spotify subscription coming soon also. For years I listened to Pandora and Slacker.
Inspiring You!
One of the big motivations for me to do music is to help inspire you to create and share your music too. As Armin Van Buuren (one of the world's top DJs) says in his masterclass as seen at https://jerrybanfield.com/masterclass/, everyone has a best selling album inside. Most of us never take a shot at and many of us that do many need to publish ten, twenty, or even fifty albums to get that best seller out. I am nearly certain that when I get 100 albums published with 20 songs each, I will have one best seller by sheer effort.
Album #1 is submitted already. I have album #2 ready right behind it and half of album #3 done. With my setup, I can make one or two songs a day in just a few hours even with an infant in a carrier attached to me! After a year of being consistently diverted from music into cryptocurrencies, today I am grateful I am settling down into my time as a musician. I share this with you to show you from the very beginning of the journey where you can be certain you can walk along with me!
Love again,
Jerry Banfield
