A musician’s guide to digital marketplaces

This article presents an overview of digital marketplaces available to South African musicians.

Which marketplace should I choose?

To date, digital marketplaces have proven successful for some musicians, while others still await positive results. For instance, the potential of crypto technologies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the music business remain demonstrated in only a few success stories, while the majority of adopters are still waiting for these investments to yield dividends.[2] 

To adjust for this risk, the majority of the marketplaces reviewed below are subscription-based, with relatively low premiums that could yet translate into career-changing investments if the platforms in question happen to take off. Needless to say, not every marketplace will be ideally suited to your needs. Choosing a digital marketplace to try out should be guided by your individual goals and skill set.[3]

Momint (for NFTs)

• It’s still too early to predict if NFTs will benefit musicians, apart from the biggest names in the industry. However, there are already platforms in place to kick-start what could be a revolution for the music business. Momint is South Africa’s first NFT-based marketplace for content creators, where musicians can choose to either sell their actual music as NFTs, or else create other digital art pieces – such as illustrations – that users could be interested in purchasing and owning.[4] 
• Similar marketplaces: Catalog, Binance

SA Music Instrument Store

• This Facebook group has nearly 30 000 members and is the definitive instrument and gear marketplace for South Africa-based musicians. Sellers post photos of the instruments or gear they’re selling, including the amount they’re looking to make from a sale. Members then send each other personal messages to exchange further information. Facebook users first need to be approved before they can join the community. This is the ideal platform for musicians aiming to buy and sell instruments, PA systems, audio interfaces, effects pedals, mixing desks, preamps, etc. 
• Similar marketplaces: The SA Music Store Facebook group has more than 23 000 members and functions similarly to SA Music Instrument Store.

SoundBetter

• SoundBetter is one of several marketplaces for musicians, producers and engineers to exchange their services for a fee. On your profile as a musician, you list the skills you have on offer, together with your rates and some examples of your work. If anyone requires your service, they reach out to you and book you to add a guitar solo, sing backing vocals or mix their song – and you are paid your stipulated fee.[5] 
•  Similar platform: AirGigs, Entourage Pro.

Video: Tom DuPree III, SoundBetter’s No 1-rated session musician, shares some tips on how to make the platform work for you.

Musicbed

• Musicbed is a marketplace for third parties such as filmmakers and content creators to get access to high-quality, royalty-free music to use in their productions. It was founded in 2011 and is reported to have paid out more than $100m to artists by its 10th anniversary. Musicbed works with a roster of musicians who the company handpicks to produce music for its various categories – such as chill beats, travel, energising, enchanted, etc. While, at the moment, the Musicbed team isn’t open to submissions and applications from musicians, artists can leave their contact information on the site for future opportunities.[6] 
• Similar marketplace: Soundstripe

 Shopify

• Shopify, a website/application for online retailers, is important for selling artist merchandise. Custom-made websites are costly to set up and maintain, but Shopify’s template makes the process far easier to manage. Using Shopify – or any similar online retail platform – also reduces costs through the automation of customer relationship management, SEO monitoring, inventory management and the logging/recording of financial transactions.[7] 
• Similar platforms: The Merch Church, WooCommerce, Ecwid.

Though, at the time of writing, the live music industry has shown tentative signs of recovery, its future remains uncertain following the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] Therefore, artists should take advantage of emerging digital marketplaces to supplement their revenue during these lean times for the music industry. According to Music In Africa’s Revenue Streams for Music Creators in South Africa 2022 report, online platform monetisation can yield an average monthly income of R6 743.

Resources and citations 

• [1] Cooper, L. (2020). “Change the tune: how the pandemic affected the music industry”. The Guardian. Accessed on January 20, 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/18/how-the-pandemic-affected-the-music-industry 
• [2] Schwartz, D. (2021). “NFTs Won't Save Small, Independent Musicians—But the Blockchain Could”. Vice. Accessed on January 20, 2022: https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqweb/nfts-non-fungible-tokens-and-the-music-industry-blockchain 
• [3] Original interview for Music In Africa with Mayuyuka Kaunda, South African music journalist: January 6, 2022. 
• [4] Lotz, B. (2021). “Momint is South Africa’s own NFT marketplace”. Hypertext. Accessed on January 20, 2022: https://htxt.co.za/2021/04/momint-is-south-africas-own-nft-marketplace/ 
• [5] Ferguson, E. (2020). “How to Make Money with Music: 6 Reliable Ways for Musicians to Monetise”. Shopify Blog. Accessed on January 20, 2022: https://www.shopify.co.za/blog/sell-music 
• [6] Musicbed. (2019). “Reflecting on 10 years of Musicbed”. Accessed on January 20, 2022: https://musicbed.com/blog/at-musicbed/reflecting-on-10-years-of-musicbed 
• [7] Haileyesus, S. (2021). “What is Shopify, and How Does it Work?”. Small Biz Trends. Accessed on January 20, 2022: https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/08/what-is-shopify.html 
• [8] Interview with Mayuyuka Kaunda. Ibid. 

This article is part of the Revenue Streams for African Musicians project, supported by UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity in the framework of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the Siemens Cents4Sense programme, Siemens Stiftung, Goethe-Institut, the National Arts Council of South Africa and Kaya FM. 

Editing by David Cornwell and Kalin Pashaliev