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Another good idea is to have someone, preferably cute and friendly :-), to sell your CD's for you while you play. Set up a table near the stage if possible, and have the person sit there through your gig to sell discs and gather signatures for your mailling list, then circulate through the crowd while you are on break or tearing down. We printed up vinyl stickers with our logo and give them away to everybody who signs the list. When my band tours, we try to have someone travel with us to sell merch, we've noticed when we don't have someone in the crowd and it's up to us to sell, we sell a lot less. My band has sold a couple thousand copies of both of our discs in the last 2 years, and the vast majority of them have been at shows. The next best sales have been via CDBaby, then we have a couple of cool local stores that carry our stuff, but in general, retail has not been good to us. Selling the disc when the customer has just heard your gig (and is possibly drunk enough to think you sounded great) has been what works the best for us. It's really variable too, we've played for crowds of thousands and sold no discs, and we played for an audience of 12 once where we sold 12 CD's. Perhaps the pity factor came into play. We have no conventional distribution, only CD Baby right now. We put our first disc online at a number of distributors, including EarBuzz, and CDBaby is the only one that generated any sales at all. So our 2nd disc is just being carried at CDBaby, for now. We do our digital distribution via CDBaby as well, which has really just been a trickle, I think we made $3 last month. In my opinion, until you're getting some national press, or have some kind of wide-based niche market recognition, conventional distribution and retail sales just won't happen. Our answer has been to gig as much as possible, tour as much as possible and build a fanbase that way, it's been a ton of work, but it feels like it is paying off, slowly, though. On Monday, January 9, 2006, at 10:50 AM, joe rut wrote: > My friend Lucio (my musical foil in Lumper/Splitter) read an article > once about CD sales at live gigs wherein the author suggested the > following: > > When you are done playing you have, as a generalization, about 5 to 10 > minutes to capitalize on any interest you have created during your > set to sell CDs. Set down your instrument, grab a stack of CDs, and > walk into the crowd. Do not walk up to your friends and receive > obligatory pats on the back about how good your set was. Walk up to a > stranger and ask if they would be interested in purchasing a CD, > holding one out towards them as you do so. Repeat as necessary. > > Now to sensibilities, this sounds a bit crass. I feel a bit cheesey > doing it this way. But when you are on tour, and need to buy gas, > food, and > lodging, and you to sell some CDs, damnit, you might try this. He > tried this when touring with his old band Ramona The Pest and reports > that CD sales went WAY up. He would walk towards people and they > would often reach for their wallet before he even said anything. > Remember, *playing* music is NOT the same thing as *selling* music. > If you want to live in a idealized world where CDs magically sell like > hotcakes because your set was so smokin', that's OK. But if you want > to actually "move some units" there are other ways to sell your CD. > > It can also be rude if there is a band coming on after you that is > waiting to set up and you leave your stuff where it is and start > selling stuff. > Maybe you can inform them ahead of time that you are spending 5 -10 > min selling directly after your set. Maybe you can have a friend > break your gear down for you while you sell? > > Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. It's hard for me to > use this approach (I use it sparingly) because I often feel guilty, > like I'm > putting people on the spot. But I've also had people buy CDs this > way, and then email me later telling me how glad they are to have the > CD! > > Cheers > > Joe > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "hazard factor" <artists@hazardfactor.com> > To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com > Subject: RE: WAYS TO SELL OUR SELVES: LIVE > Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 22:37:58 -0500 > >> >> And for those that sell them at gigs- what do you use to transport >> them? And >> what do you use to display your CD? Do you bring someone with you to >> sell, >> or do you wait until you are done playing and try to get people to >> buy? >> >> Currently, I have my g/f who comes with me and sits by the CDs. I try >> not to >> do the hard sell/begging thing during gigs over the mic, which, when >> I am an >> audience member, I can't stand. I carry them in a round piece of >> vintage >> luggage, which has some foam in there so the various CDs don't bang >> around. >> I have a laminated insert for each CD so people can pick it up and >> see what >> they are buying. I don't have any kind of display rack, so I am open >> to any >> ideas. Small and durable are the requirements. >> >> Dave Eichenberger >> http://www.hazardfactor.com > > -- > _______________________________________________ > > Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos > Yellow Pages > > http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/ > default.asp?SRC=lycos10 >