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Looper's Delight
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loop.pool wrote: > After reading the thread about how to increase CD sales for one's > artistic recordings > I wanted to share my experience about the whole phenomenon of making > money with CD sales. > After gigging in 12 countries in the last 3 years and playing with > literally dozens of different and very diverse artists, > I have definitely seen a very strong trend away from CD sales in > general by independent artists. > ... > I'm really curious to hear what everyone has to say. All this talk on the list about "Putting Out a CD" and "Decreasing Sales" makes me think of my situation. Last night, I was at a party where a friend told me that he saw my entire new album for free download at some Sweedish site. WE HAVEN'T EVEN RELEASED THE DAMN THING, YET!!!! I'm a NOBODY. My band is UNKNOWN; not Genesis reformed or the Beatles reincarnated. Holy moly. In the little niche of Progressive Rock, we're not even Spock's Frelling/Fracking Beard!!! Who the hell would want OUR music? Ignore the cost of instruments, computers, software, interfaces, cables, amplifiers, speakers, years of learning how to play, write, and arrange music, gas costs and vehicle maintenance to get to sessions. We paid $BIG to have this mastered at the studio owned and run by Jeff Glixman (Producer of Kansas, Yngwie Malmsteen, etc.). We paid $BIG for the cover art from someone with some cache to his name. We will pay $MODERATE to the guy who is doing the layout. Will will be paying something on the order of $1500 to have 1000 CDs pressed LATER THIS MONTH!!!! Total cost of this CD is well over $3000. Small budget as far as pro CDs go. Chump change to some. Skipping breakfast, eating peanut butter for lunch, and eating spaghetti for dinner until December, 2007 for me. 1) Should I bother to spend any more money on what the world can already get for free? 2) I might be flattered that SOMEONE wants my music to be exposed to the world. But at what cost to me and my band? Can we afford to even FINISH this CD? Can we afford to ever make another one ever again? 3) I feel betrayed that some trusted friend let our music out to the world to allow this to happen. All trust worthy friends will now be punished by not getting so much as advanced CDRs of tunes in progress, all because of one bad apple. 4) What is my hard work and dedication worth? Cheers, Bill