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What is an impressive number for an independant band


Poker99

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There is not an internet band that can come close to the distro and promo leverage of a major label, for the simple reason that the internet is a "go to " medium where the consumer has to be online and seek out sites to be exposed to the music. Labels use the "come to" media of TV, radio, magazines and posters in public places to sell and place product awareness in front of the consumer.

 

 

 

True. The marketing budget for a new release easily goes over a million and that can be just for radio promo (payola). But, I think some degree of "internet sensation" will be expected by a band before a label gets really interested.

 

I think it is an interesting bet though. If you're good enough to get a label to invest $1 million in you, you might be good enough to sell 100,000 copies on your own in, say, a year's time. You would probably have to sell 1 million to 2 million copies on a major label to make the same money as you would from selling only 100,000 on your own.

 

However, to answer my own question, it looks like major label bands seem to earn about 10x the CD revenue when they tour, so a band that made $2 million of off a recording seems to gross in the neighborhood of $20 million on tour (ticket sales I think, not necessarily merch too). U2 sold 9 million copies of Atomic Bomb and grossed $393 million on the tour - which must include merch. But that 10x number may only be possible with the big time marketing spend by the major label.

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I have a couple friends who were signed to a major and a large indie who sold approximately 300,000 and 150,000 CDs respectively. The first guy still owes the label money and the second guy hasn't made any money from his label yet. (Both were dropped eventually.)

However, both of their bands have the clout to get really good paying gigs now.

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If you could sell 100,000 units of a CD indie, holy crap, I don't know what the label could offer you to make you want to sign under them. Figure you're making easily a few dollars per unit being indie, you have the money to hire marketing/PR companies pushing you in every continent and a manager to oversee the project if you want to concentrate only on the music. Keep releasing albums and do whatever you did to sell those 100,000 copies of the first one and you'll live a happy life I think.

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Similar Artists: Jaybird Coleman , Memphis Jug Band , Tommy McClennan ... of the

group is where the action really is in terms of impressive history, ... Texas

blues fans will be happy to brag that independent studios and ... The Dallas

String Band's most well-known tunes are "Dallas Rag," which is a popular number

 

 

Um........what? :confused:

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