Watch Me As I Record And Sell 1 Million Albums!

[Pankot]

 

The concept is to generate buzz. I give him some props for at least trying something. .... This campaign of "sell a million records" really isn't a great idea, though. It sort of sets him up as arrogant to every musician who is trying to sell their own CD.

 

 

He's certainly not going to get much good publicity here, that's for sure.

 

Of course the whole "sell a million" thing is mostly to try and get some buzz. I imagine that one hope is that a bunch of people follow the story for the whole year, and then buy the album either out of curiosity, or to support him for having the balls to set such an ambitious target. And make no mistake just how ambitious it is: to sell a million albums would put you in or very near the worldwide top 50 for the year.

 

It could have a similarity to the RATM Christmas No 1 campaign in the UK. "Come on everyone, if we all pull together

 

we can show that anyone can sell a million! Let's break the corporate deathgrip on the mass music market! Yeah!"

 

In this instance it doesn't matter (in one sense) if the target of a million is missed by a long way - as long as more people buy the album than would otherwise have bought it. But the gimmick might destroy any chance of long-term credibility..

 

All of the above assumes that the actual album is at least decent, of course.

 

 

Translation - "if you buy my album".

[richardmac]

 

But the gimmick might destroy any chance of long-term credibility..

 

 

Yes, that and mixing the thing with headphones.

[BlueStrat]

The whole thing reminds me of a book I saw in 1987, being hyped all over the place, called '88 Reasons Jesus Will Return In 1988". The guy sold a bazillion copies. And where is he now? Oops. He made a few bucks, and is utterly washed up as a writer.

 

Remember the dire Y2K predictions? Same deal. People who make bold predictions with no way of backing them up have to be very brave or very stupid. Same goes for people who buy into them, only in their case, just skip the brave part. .

[Mcfontio]

Dude, I'm going to sell 2,014 records by.....

 

hahaha, I totally missed the part where he's mixing with headphones.... What kind are they? Did you catch that RMac? I've heard of people mixing for headphones.

[3shiftgtr]

yes, the goal will be to attain 1 million sales (cds and mp3 downloads). I'll be posting updates on my YouTube channel

 

it's called sarcasm

 

But seriously, we are seeing a trend. Set a goal, then do your own tv show (v-log) on youtube or blog or whatever on achieving it. Just saw "Julie and Julia" about the chick who did Julia Childs whole cookbook and blogged about it. Happening all over the place. If this guy has some talent, he'll be getting some minor press. If he writes and produces some decent music, he'll be getting some national press.

 

I can see it now.....

 

Matt Lauer: "Next up on the Today Show, we've got a middle aged family man from Poughkipsie who has been documenting the recording of his album via V-Log on youtube. The difference is that this man has claimed to sell 1 million albums. We have him here via Skype. Welcome to the Today Show Mr. Sellourmp3. How many discs have you sold so far?"

 

Mr. Sellourmp3: "Well Matt........."

[soundwave106]

Wasnt sure if this was in reference to me being married, but my reference was to pretty much every band I was in from age 14 to 30 lol.

 

Heh. I was more referring to the OP.

 

Some spouses can handle a lot of traveling and touring. A lot of them can't though. I've seen even executive level travel (which earns, on average, considerably more cash than music travel does) contribute to marital problems.

[sellyourmp3]

it's called sarcasm But seriously, we are seeing a trend. Set a goal, then do your own tv show (v-log) on youtube or blog or whatever on achieving it. Just saw "Julie and Julia" about the chick who did Julia Childs whole cookbook and blogged about it. Happening all over the place. If this guy has some talent, he'll be getting some minor press. If he writes and produces some decent music, he'll be getting some national press. I can see it now..... Matt Lauer: "Next up on the Today Show, we've got a middle aged family man from Poughkipsie who has been documenting the recording of his album via V-Log on youtube. The difference is that this man has claimed to sell 1 million albums. We have him here via Skype. Welcome to the Today Show Mr. Sellourmp3. How many discs have you sold so far?" Mr. Sellourmp3: "Well Matt........."

 

I never set out to be video or reality tv star. I don't have the personality for that, I'm a very laid back kind of guy and it took a lot of contemplating to decide to post a video blog

[Surrealistic]

 

Saying I have nothing to back up that belief is an empty statement with no merit

No it isn't an empty statement. No-one in the history of the music biz has ever been able to reliably predict success for a new artist, let alone promise to sell a million.

 

You may think you have a plan. Maybe it's a great plan. It's not inconceivable that it could actually work; it's just very unlikely. Opening lines like "Watch Me As I Record And Sell 1 Million Albums! I will show you how" look very much like the lines of a snake-oil salesman to me.

 

How many times have you already sold 1 million albums? An answer to this other than zero would be something to back up your belief. An answer of zero means, as I already said, you have nothing to back up that belief.

[richardmac]

 

No it isn't an empty statement. No-one in the history of the music biz has ever been able to reliably predict success for a new artist, let alone promise to sell a million. You may think you have a plan. Maybe it's a great plan. It's not inconceivable that it could actually work; it's just very unlikely. Opening lines like "Watch Me As I Record And Sell 1 Million Albums! I will show you how" look very much like the lines of a snake-oil salesman to me. How many times have you already sold 1 million albums? An answer to this other than zero would be something to back up your belief. An answer of zero means, as I already said, you have nothing to back up that belief.

 

 

I agree with all of this. I'd add two other reasons it rubs us the wrong way as a group - one, it's boastful in a really big huge colorful way, and two, it's the "fake it til you make it" approach, really, in the sense that he appears very convinced that this is going to work.

 

It reminds me of the story of the Hundred Dresses where the poor girl always comes to school with the same dirty dress on but claims to have 100 dresses at home. I'm going to sell a MILLION records! Just you wait and see. Um, no, you're not. I think non-musicians would be maybe amused and maybe slightly interested in this approach - curious, maybe. Because they don't really know anything about the music biz. But for us, the musicians, it's boastful pretending that some will find offensive.

 

I have to comment on the headphones thing since I brought it up. Headphones are indeed good to mix on for certain things - to see how much reverb you actually have on the vocals, to check out the stereo spread, to see how the mix sounds, um, on headphones. But the reason that no audio engineer would use headphones as their primary monitors is because they won't give you an accurate mix, accurate to what the music will sound like on a variety of real speakers. They're almost impossible to EQ on. Go into any serious hardcore recording forum and tell them you mix primarily on headphones and they'll laugh you out of the place.

 

The proof is in the mix. Once you've got a song totally done, if you are willing, post a link here in this forum. If the mix is great, I'll eat my words. If the song is absolutely stellar, you'll change the minds of almost everyone here and we'll be pulling for you. This is all speculating at this point.

[BlueStrat]

 

I was a producer and ran a studio for a while. Since 2004, i've been out of the music business.

Well, this is pretty funny right here. You've been out of it for 5+ years, but you're going to come to a music biz site and brag about selling a million copies of your album (remember, you said album, not songs) in a year? (EDIT: You also said in your post title you were going to RECORD a million albums in a year. I'll assume that was a poorly constructed sentence and you meant "record an album and sell 1 million in a year").

 

You might be surprised to find that the music business of 2004 is as different from the music biz of 2010 as the Model T is from the Prius. Among the biggest differences: Fewer and fewer people buy albums anymore, especially pop dance cuts. The buying of single tracks ala carte is a phenomenon that is growing exponentially in popularity. Secondly, fewer and fewer people are buying hard copy CDs. In fact, one of the leading consumer magazines just ran a "10 things not to buy in 2010" article, and CDs were near the top of the list. And thirdly, paying for recorded music at all is fast becoming thing of the past. With file sharing and every start-up band in the world using CDs and now even mp3s as little more than business cards, the buying public is increasingly expecting recorded music to be free. With literally millions of people now giving it away just to get it in someone's hands and on their players, it is getting increasingly difficult to sell anything except the things that can't be ripped, like schwag and live performances.

 

I hate to sound like a naysayer, but I've seen this movie before, again and again and again. Guy re enters music biz after being gone for awhile, tries to apply same rules that applied years ago, and thinks people who find problems with his plan are just negative Nellies. But the fact is, anything that gets remotely popular will be up on Bittorrent or Limewire before you can cash your first royalty check. Today's young people just don't think they should have to pay for recordings, and don't feel the least bit guilty about taking it. Dance music is some of the most heavily pirated stuff out there.

 

To think you're going to sell a million albums is one thing. To think you can do it without live performance of any kind is wishful thinking. The days of Steely Dan are over.

 

But good luck. I have my doubts that you can come close to pulling it off, but I sincerely hope you do.

[Scafeets]

"You never get too big, and you sure don't get too heavy, that you don't have to stop and pay some dues sometime."

--- D. Sahm

[soundwave106]

 

I'm not really counting on tours or merchandising at this stage. My genre is top 40 pop/dance which can be promoted through nightclubs initially

 

 

Just some thoughts on this. One thing that I've seen, is that in many genres, the people who do well *are* actively involved in the scene. The bands / talent that gets ahead often are friendly with others in their niche and kind of work together to move upwards.

 

I'm going to say that, based on what I saw when I was briefly in the techno scene, the same dynamics apply even more so to dance. A lot of times, your core audience you are selling records to is DJs. So it is especially important to be friendly, outgoing, and at least noticed in a club, or at the very least work with DJs to produce the music they want to hear on the floor.

 

I don't think you are going to do well in original music these days, if you do not have genuine interest in a scene. (So if you feel uncomfortable hanging out at the club-dance places, I'd personally be leery of writing that style.) If the only goal in music is to get rich, I'd be very, very skeptical of any plans. I think it's possible to make some decent side change or even make a modest living writing what you like, at least.

 

This is just my .02, for what it's worth...

[gtrbass]

"One thing that I've seen, is that in many genres, the people who do well *are* actively involved in the scene." - +1000

 

That's how an artist gains their initial foothold of sustainable and grow-able interest.

[michael_B]

Well, I give you props for sticking your neck out. Maybe that's all it takes for some. And frankly, if one only sells a fraction of the "1 million", you're still doing pretty good. Heck, I'd be happy with 1000, or even 100.

 

As far as mixing on headphones, who cares? I've heard that a million times, and frankly, I don't think it matter a heck of a lot. Just the old guard gate keepers telling the at home folks that they can't possibly make a good sounding recording. Bunk. Is there a difference, absolutely. Does it matter much to the general listening public as long as your mix is good and the levels are consistent? Nope, nobody cares, except for other musicians and "recording pros". Just my opinion, of course.

 

Is the whole deal doable? Doesn't matter, your talking about it and he's getting exposure. Keep it up.

[3shiftgtr]

I never set out to be video or reality tv star. I don't have the personality for that, I'm a very laid back kind of guy and it took a lot of contemplating to decide to post a video blog

 

Hey, an honest statement! You might actually have a chance! Seriously, I wish you good luck!!!

[BlueStrat]

 

As far as mixing on headphones, who cares? I've heard that a million times, and frankly, I don't think it matter a heck of a lot. Just the old guard gate keepers telling the at home folks that they can't possibly make a good sounding recording. Bunk. Is there a difference, absolutely. Does it matter much to the general listening public as long as your mix is good and the levels are consistent? Nope, nobody cares, except for other musicians and "recording pros". Just my opinion, of course.

 

 

 

Given that most stuff is being dumped on an mp3 player, you could be right. But I don't think so. Music that gets put on an MP3 player needs to be mixed better, not worse, to be listenable.

 

People might not know why something doesn't sound good, but they mostly care that it does sound good.

 

Just my opinion, of course.

[richardmac]

 

Well, I give you props for sticking your neck out. Maybe that's all it takes for some. And frankly, if one only sells a fraction of the "1 million", you're still doing pretty good. Heck, I'd be happy with 1000, or even 100. As far as mixing on headphones, who cares? I've heard that a million times, and frankly, I don't think it matter a heck of a lot. Just the old guard gate keepers telling the at home folks that they can't possibly make a good sounding recording. Bunk. Is there a difference, absolutely. Does it matter much to the general listening public as long as your mix is good and the levels are consistent? Nope, nobody cares, except for other musicians and "recording pros". Just my opinion, of course. Is the whole deal doable? Doesn't matter, your talking about it and he's getting exposure. Keep it up.

 

 

This is where knowing what you are talking about comes in handy. People don't mix on speakers instead of headphones because the "old guard" says they have to - they do it because you get superior results. Including a "good mix." Might as well toss in "Your guitar doesn't have to be perfectly in tune because most people can't tell," or "Doesn't matter if you hit a few wrong notes because most people will not notice." While they may be true, why would you want to put out something that isn't your best? Unless you are lazy. Or, in Mr. Million's case, you are using headphones because you have to mix at night when the kids are sleeping and you don't have a choice. That's fine, but even Mr. Million mentions he checks out his mixes on stereo speakers and in the car. Which is exactly what you should do.

 

And I'm talking about it while he's doing it? You have it backwards. I've released 3 CD's on my own, and he's talking about it. And I've sold more than 100. But, um, less than 1,000, I'll admit.

[soundwave106]

 

As far as mixing on headphones, who cares? I've heard that a million times, and frankly, I don't think it matter a heck of a lot. Just the old guard gate keepers telling the at home folks that they can't possibly make a good sounding recording. Bunk. Is there a difference, absolutely. Does it matter much to the general listening public as long as your mix is good and the levels are consistent? Nope, nobody cares, except for other musicians and "recording pros". Just my opinion, of course.

 

 

Headphones IMHO are much harder to get the mix right on. In general, I've found that the equalization profile of headphones is more inaccurate than speakers. Bass in particular is problematic. If you can get around this, more power to you! I can't. *shrug*

[Croakus]

I think many people fail because they start out motivated and then just give up when things are not going as planned. I intend to work harder when things do go as planned

 

I think people fail because they set completely unrealistic goals without understanding what it would actually take to achieve them.

 

I've seen amazing albums that got millions of radio plays, and were certified as standards by BMI sell less then 200,000 copies. Those guys had experienced marketing teams with big budgets, full time professional songwriters creating their material, artists who did nothing but perfect their performance, 300 sold out shows a year, AND every major radio station in the country on their side.

 

You've got a YouTube channel and a family to take care of.

 

Not to mention the fact that you evidently spend most of your time on the Internet hyping an album that doesn't exist. Shouldn't you be writing, tracking and mixing something?

 

But hey. Don't let me stop you. Hype away!

 

[fingerpicker]

So did you already start or are you still talking about how you are going to sell your million cd's. Why are nightclubs going to buy your cd? I dont get it. Most nightclubs use dj's. Dont dj's purchase and or steal mp3's off the net?

 

One MP3 purchase doesnt count as a cd, but even if you did a million MP3 purchases in one year I would be utterly impressed.

 

Your getting negative feedback here because talk is cheap. Come back in three months with your proof that you have sold 1/4 million cd's and someone might take you seriously

[fingerpicker]

I just watched your other posts.

 

Ypur first goal should be actually making enough decent songs for a cd in the first place.

[BlueStrat]

I just watched your other posts. Ypur first goal should be actually making enough decent songs for a cd in the first place.

 

I watched the you-tube video in the OP. His first goal ought to be coming across as being at least a little bit more exciting than a mortician.

[Blackwatch]

But seriously folks....

 

What bothers me about this post is not that the guy's goal is to make the best album of songs ever....it's about selling the most product.

 

Which tells me this guys wants to be rich and famous and doesn't particularly care is it's good music or not.

 

So What? Guys that want only money and fame are a dime a dozen.........

[bcolburn]

On one hand, I tip my hat to any musician that's trying SOMETHING to get their name out there. It's a bold move, sure -- but I would expect a move like this for a band who may have a disc or two out there, and is maybe trying to drum up some hype amongst an already established mailing list / social networking circle.

 

The OP's thought behind this must be, if you create enough hype, you can sell a product. But to that I would have to say no -- simply because the largest "hype" I can think of in modern music, American Idol, doesn't even guarantee a million sales! Think of how large of a audience they capture week after week. If THAT doesn't guarantee $$$, I don't see how YouTube vlog can.

[BlueStrat]

Yeah, especially form the comfort of one's own home.

 

How many of these 'make a million dollars at home' scams have ever worked? I don't see this as any different.