If the number of daily headphone, earphone and earbud sightings is any indication, music is ubiquitous. Thanks to the increasing accessibility and portability of music, listeners can throw a soundtrack behind their every waking hour whether on a commute, at the office, in the gym or camped out in bed after a long day. Ten years ago this was good news for the record companies; in today’s interconnected world of personal productivity software and file distribution websites, it’s good news for the musicians themselves. Artists now have the power not only to create but more importantly to distribute their own art by selling music online.

Gone are the days of stopping by the music store to search for a title that may or may not even be in stock and choosing a format that may be compatible with only one of several listening devices. Now a music lover has only to visit a website to download an MP3 file that can be played on just about any device a person owns: PC, laptop, phone, car stereo, and the list goes on. Thus it’s of utmost importance for a musician to put his or her MP3 music online where it can be easily distributed. Fortunately for the musician there is no shortage of websites devoted to this very task. That’s one less thing an artist has to worry about.

As technology progresses artists will find themselves more in control of their musical enterprises. An important aspect of that is a simplification of their means of income. Where once the profits of an artist’s work were sliced and diced among lawyers, producers, agents, manufacturing and packaging costs, the Internet has streamlined that process into a simple transaction between the artist and consumer, handled by a virtual marketplace where MP3 files can be bought and sold. For a musician this is an advantageous time to be productive.