What to do with 1,000 CDs...

[kenm]

Hi All,

 

My band finally got our 6 song CD to the presses. We are going to have the big band marketing meeting soon and I would appreciate your suggestions on what to do with 1,000 CDs. The things we already have in the works are playing shows, sending them to magazines, college radio, and lastly to indie labels. What am I missing? What worked for you and what didn't work. If anyone wants to share databases of radio/press/labels I'm down with that too.

 

Also, how much should we charge for the CD? We feel like $10 is too much, but $5 too little, but would hate to have to bring a bunch of $1s to every gig to make change if we charge $7. Is that just silly?

 

Thanks,

Ken

[BlueStrat]

 

Originally posted by kenm Hi All, My band finally got our 6 song CD to the presses. We are going to have the big band marketing meeting soon and I would appreciate your suggestions on what to do with 1,000 CDs. The things we already have in the works are playing shows, sending them to magazines, college radio, and lastly to indie labels. What am I missing? What worked for you and what didn't work. If anyone wants to share databases of radio/press/labels I'm down with that too. Also, how much should we charge for the CD? We feel like $10 is too much, but $5 too little, but would hate to have to bring a bunch of $1s to every gig to make change if we charge $7. Is that just silly? Thanks, Ken

 

 

 

 

Since you had 1000 made, I'd plan on selling them for 5 bucks. Even full length CDs can take more than a year to unload at 10-15 bucks. Not that many people are going to want to buy what is basically an EP, as compared to whole CDs. A better idea might have been to make 500. Be that as it may, I'd caution you to not do what i did with my first CD, which is to take the "shotgun" approach and just send them anywhere and everwhere to see what happens. I ended up wasting a lot of CDs. First, I'd plan on meeting with the band and deciding how far you're willing to travel and for how long. Then, I'd concentrate on increasing my regional draw within a 300 mile radius of where I lived. This is where the bulk of my CDs would go, to radio stations and media writers for weeklies, etc. Also getting reviewed by national magazines is a big step in getting yourself legitimized as a viable regional act. Make sure you have decent representation; you won't be taken seriously without it and a good agent will get you better gigs and better money than you can for yourself. Sending your CDs to indie labels won't hurt anything, but it likely won't help much, either, since few indies can do much more for you than fronting you the productin on your next CD. But you never know, just don't expect a lot, especially in a market as soft as this one is at the present time. Oh, and get some professionally done promo, if you haven't already. Be prepared to spend some coin, but it will be worth it later. If you want to be percieved as a contender for the big time, start acting like it and present yourself as such. Good luck! And don't forget to have fun!

[klik]

Another thing to look into is CDBaby www.cdbaby.com they keep one CD so if you send them 10, they'll have 9 for sale. My band, Ashpool, http://www.cdbaby.com/ashpool has sold like 7 or 8 CD's through CDBaby to people from Brazil, Italy, Virginia and Boston and other places. You can set your own price and you'll always have a place where you can link to where people can buy your CD online...

 

I'd reccomend selling them for 5 dollars at local gigs and 10 dollars at gigs where you might want to make money back from travelling. We sell our 5 song EP for 5 at shows in or around SF but when we played in L.A. we sold them for 10 and made enough to pay for gas and food...

 

-klik-

[promotu]

I recommend Technoinnovations.com you should always never compromise. If you feel your music is worth $10 sell it for that I have found tons of music not worth a Red Nickle but the artist sold it for more. SIGN UP

[Outkaster]

Also remember that if you get 1000 cd's it will take so long to unload and if you have members leave or the band breaks up it is very hard to get rid of them. We realized we made a mistake when the came in the door. There were like 6 or 7 boxes full of 150 each and that is quite a realization when you get them. I would never get that many made now, even to save a few bucks.

[Scheming Demon]

If you're going to shop, contact the labels first before you mail anything. Check them out first to make sure they handle the musical style you perform. Then ask them if you can send them a promo kit which would include your CD.

 

Ask specifically who to address the package to. Any label accepting demos will give you this info. That way you're not just blindly sending out demos.

 

We sold our 3-song demo at shows for $5. $10 is not that bad for 6 songs, especially if you think it's worth it. $7 may be more palatable but you have to make that call.

 

After awhile if you can't sell them you may want to consider giving them away as promotion for your band. Hang out at concerts where there is similar music and just give them to people. You may attract some extra fans this way and at least spread a little word of mouth.

[kenm]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

Right now I'm thinking that $5 is the way to go for shows where people have already paid $5-7 to get into the show, then $10 for free shows or on the web. I am going to put our CD up as many places as I can to sell it on the web. Also, give away a ton for free. Perhaps a cold send to indie labels is not the way to go. Instead, I'll keep working on my web/magazine review list. I agree that keeping things local for the most part is the way to go. Do you think that this also counts for radio? Should I only send to my local college stations or college stations all over the world?

 

Ken