Should I Sell Or Should I Go?

Many of the bands I meet through my artist development practice (http://spincoach.com) ask me about how to make and sell records. In the twelve releases I've worked on, my experience has been uniform: selling that compact disc is actually harder than actually making the record!

Here's why.

Let's say you've spent a large amount of time and money to capture your sound and your soul. Maybe you've hired in an artist to design a great cover. And you've shelled out for all the bells and whistles at the disc pressing plant. If you've done your homework, your CD now looks and sounds wonderful.

Unless you've already established a solid fan base, and unless you've made solid relationships with radio music directors and music journalists, your record will be just another drop in the bucket along with the tens of thousands of new releases that we'll see this year. And that's just in the U.S.!

We'll talk about building those relationships in future articles. Right now, let's look at the boxes of CD's taking up space in your Dad's garage. How can you clear it out and, hopefully, make your money back in the process?

First, listen critically to your album. Listen to it like you would listen to a new release. Get honest opinions from your friends, and from anyone you think is willing to give you a critical review (like the reviewers at http://spinme.com). If you're ready for those recordings to live in people's houses, take the next step.

Second, get a friend or a relative to run a merchandise table at your gigs. Your live shows are the best opportunity for you to sell your records. This is even true for established artists! This sounds SO obvious, right? I am always shocked to see cool, new bands with NO TABLE. (If you haven't got anything to sell, that's fine - get names and addresses of everyone who approaches you and mail them a postcard when your album is ready.)

Third, get a web presence. If you're thinking long-term, shell out the $70 for a domain name. If you can't get the name of your band at .com, .net, .cc or .to, then get something that's easy for your fans to remember - and something you won't have to spell while you're on stage. (Don't get caught being clever - remember what happened to the Oneders in the film that thing you do!) Once you have your domain name, you can either run your own website (don't spend too much time or money) OR use a forwarding service like http://namesecure.com to bounce visitors right from your domain to a free page at MP3.com (http://mp3.com) or Riffage (http://www.riffage.com).

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