Have you ever wanted to write music with an artist who isn't local? Well do I have something cool for you. It's called file sharing. This wonderful technology gives modern day songwriters, mixing engineers and business people in general the ability to share large files over the internet. Sites like Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive Are probably the three biggest competitors in this ever popular market. We will explore some ways artists can
use this to help further their careers.
First of all I will explain how this technology works. Google Drive, for example, launched on April 24th, 2012 allows users to store files on their servers, synchronize files across devices and share files. Sounds cool doesn't it? You do need a Google account to use this service, so sign up if you don't have one. I think most of us in 2019 use Google for some purpose or another though. Google will give you 15 GB of cloud storage for free. You can upgrade to a paid plan, but they aren't expensive. 200 GB is $2.99 a month! If you need larger amounts of storage for music file sharing then you can get 2 TB for $9.99 a month. The storage is split between Drive, Gmail and photos. But 15 GB is a lot of storage. If you keep mailboxes clean and don't upload a ton of pictures you will be just fine with 15 GB. In my opinion,Google Drive is the best option for file sharing.
Microsoft One Drive is a free/premium file sharing service. You can start off with 5 GB of free storage, or get 50 GB for $1.99 a month. Mind you the service free and 50 GB is storage only. No file sharing. If you need the file sharing option, which you need if you want to collaborate, you will need a premium plan. The lowest level premium plan is $6.99 a month and comes with a ton of features. You will get 1 TB of storage!!!! Wow! Plus this plan comes with a full license for Microsoft Office 365. At $6.99 a month, this is my second choice if you need the luxury of Office. The top plan gives you 6 TB of storage for 6 users. 1000 GB per user for $9.99 a month. If you have a songwriting group or any other collaborative effort that shows no signs of changing, this is a great option for you in my opinion.
Dropbox is the last of the big three in my opinion. The free version only offers 2 GB of upload space. That really isn't much if you're going to be sharing large song files. You can upgrade to one of the plus plans however. The plus plan is $9.99 a month or $99.99 annually. 1 TB of storage is included with this, as well as offline folders on mobile and priority email support. The professional plan is $19.99 a month or $199.000 for the year. You will receive 2 TB of storage space as well as a host of Professional level features such as Smart Sync, priority chat support and advanced sharing controls. I am a Presonus Studio One user and know you can access Dropbox from inside the browser in Studio One. That's pretty handy if your a professional songwriter or mixing and mastering engineer. Dropbox is the most commonly used service I hear musicians and engineers refer to. I feel this is due to ease of use, but all of these platforms are very easy to use.
There are many other great file sharing services out there. From MediaFire to 4shared to iCloud. In this writers humble opinion, any of these amazing services offer everything you could need to run your music business. They all share common features, but it will be up to you to decide which one is best or more easily accessible on devices you and your team use. Do some research before deciding. See you in the next article.
Mike Naber
Peace Valley Audio