That’s the easy part e.g. http://www.recordunion.com, http://www.cdbaby.com
etc
Major labels sell music! And it´s not always good, but they market it with a flashy design and a cool video, but the sound is bad.
So I am wondering how do you get on the frontpage of itunes or on the suggest lists or if there are other options to get your music out there.
That’s the hard part… and usually involves large sums of money 
It seems like all record companies do is get it on radios and in newspapers mainly and on itunes frontapages. And they take like 60% of all record sales. It would be cool if you “made it” on your own. Talking to radio stations and newspapers. Newspapers or itunes should listen to a person also if the music is good or take it serious. Right?
It would be cool if you made it on your own. The are millions of artists and bands worldwide trying to do just that. A newspaper or magazine will listen to anyone who wants to spend money with them on advertising but I doubt they care particularly about the music itself, unless you’re already famous! They’re primarily interested in selling advertising as are most commercial radio networks. You may however find a local ‘indie-friendly’ radio station that may be willing to give your music a spin and perhaps a lesser paper or mag that will do a review.
Personally I have been thinking about advertising with a image ad(pay per click) I have seen artist advertise before. Another option is to have your music reviewed by indie websites or sending your stuff to the newspapers for review.
Your experience may differ if you look into this.
I’ve however have had 6 or 7 CD’s reviewed in local musicians mag over the years, a mag that is distributed nationwide and widely read. Several of these reviews were very favourable. Total CD’s sold as a result of this valuable exposure has been zero. As an ‘experiement’ I even paid for an ad ( i was invited to do so by the editor) in a popular music-related USA magazine, using the glowing review I’d received for the album as part of the ad. CD’s sold as a result of that endeavour was zero. I realised the editor only made the suggestion so he’d get the sale. I fell for the flattery and the ‘ego-stroke’ that went with his pitch. That was a $300 ‘life lesson’! 
I’ve also done two radio interviews, where we talked about and played tracks from my then new CD. The first one around 8 years ago, was on a national talk-back show. CD’s sold as a result of that was 5. A couple of years ago I did another interview - similar thing. We even took calls from several enthusastic listeners. CD’s sold as a result of that valuable exposure was zero.
As a more recent ‘experiement’ inspired by an article I’d read I thought I’d try out an ad campaign on Facebook. I was very skeptical, a skepticism that was soon validated. After a 6 week pay-per-click ad campaign my bandpage on Facebook increased it’s number of ‘likes’ from 1 to 38. Of those 38 fans no one purchased a single digital download, entirely consistent with my expectations! 
Fortunately with only 37 clicks it wasn’t very costly! 
I reckon it all really comes down to significant advertising, promotion and marketing…and to achieve that at a level that is likely to yeild a worthwhile result is usually out of reach for most of us and usually requires the sort of budgets that only a major label can afford. So all we are invariably then left with is shameless self-promotion! 
And remember, noone enters the name of someone they never heard of into a search engine!
I have been reading a lot latley and it seems that for me the best thing to do is a online newspaper ad. 1000dollars for 1 million impressions( frontpage, 300x300 ad on a sat or sun) on a day in one of the main Norwegian newspapers. Seems like the best deal and idea I have come over.
With a click through rat of 1%= 10,000 and maybe I will sell 200 albums.
I don’t want to sound overly negative but personally based on my experience and understanding of how things are I’d be pretty cautious about spending $1000 on an ad to be honest. I rather suspect your estimated click through rate, one that results in a actual sale could well be more like 0.01% ! And I of course also realise your CD’s aren’t going to sell themeselves sitting in a box under your bed either! It’s a tough one.
Anyway, if you do decide to pursue this… let us know how you get on. As I said earlier, your experience may well be different to mine. Good luck!
