Erik Ritland
“In an attempt to bring something new and positive out of the darkness surrounding the music world these last few months, I finally got my new music platform together.” – Dan Tedesco
For more information about the Dan Tedesco Music Channel, and to sign up, click here.
As a songwriter, I know that there are a dizzying amount of ways to release your music. It really gets overwhelming.
Do I release on BandCamp, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, or any other music hosting sites? Is streaming right for me? Should I start a page for patrons? How do my social media accounts factor into promoting all of this?
Well, modern problems require modern solutions, and Midwest Americana songwriter Dan Tedesco has an intriguing one.
At the end of June, he launched the Dan Tedesco Music Channel. The unprecedented membership platform has so many layers that it’s difficult to summarize. Despite that fact, it’s far simpler and easier to navigate than the typical bevy of platforms that musicians currently release material on.
Each week, Tedesco shares an email with members of the DTMC with links to private pages. These feature demos, liner notes, videos, and more. He also uses the platform to engage personally with his audience, even going so far as to give guitar tips. Members also receive his entire back catalog.
Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the DTMC is his re-imagining of the process of releasing an album.
“The traditional album is dead,” Tedesco explains. “The album cycle is unnecessarily expensive and no longer relevant to both the pace and the way in which we communicate.”
He continues: “An artist can spend thousands of dollars and years of their life creating a new batch of music, and, once released, it’s old after a week or two. The industry, at large, is caught straddling the past and the future. Change takes time. But there is no time like now.”
Tedesco calls this re-imagining of the album “releasing horizontally instead of vertically.”
Instead of releasing albums or EPs all at once, songs are delivered one at a time, featuring distinct liner notes and artwork. This not only gives Tedesco the chance to share his artistic process, but also gives fans an intriguing inner view of how art is created.
“I’m really not saying goodbye to anything other than the format for how things have operated,” he says. “I’m re-imagining it and re-appropriating it for a way that satisfies myself, artistically, and connects with my audience in a way that’s relevant to our culture. I’m tired of just doing it the way its always been done because that’s just what you’re supposed to do. I think this is very much a look at the future.”
Not only is the DTMC an easy way to get all his material, it also bypasses all the grossness of social media.
“I don’t have to worry about algorithms and what FB or IG wants to put in front of you. My content goes direct to your email and is there waiting for you each week.”
While Tedesco still plans on having a social media presence, and releasing music on streaming platforms, they’ll be utilized differently.
“I will absolutely still be on social media. I have to be, promotions-wise (especially once shows get rolling again), and for discoverability. I’ll be creating teasers of content from the music channel to share.”
He also plans on reducing his content on streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music, “treating them like radio” by only releasing some songs from each project. His full albums, and entire back catalog, are exclusive to members.
We are living in a strange, transitory time for musicians. With his new music channel, Dan Tedesco has paved an innovative way forward that could very well be the new groundwork for how musicians share what they create.
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