Members jeffoest Posted February 1, 2005 Members Share Posted February 1, 2005 Ok - admittedly that's a pretty open-ended question! But I was curious for an 'average' independent artist (say one that gets play on an internet radio station like Radio Paradise or RadioIO), how many CD's do they sell (say for a year). 1000? Is that hard or is that easy? Is 10,000 a whole lot harder than 1000 or not so much harder? Asking for both curiousity (mostly) and my own musical interests (if I could ever get to the 'average' state)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The_Idiom Posted February 1, 2005 Members Share Posted February 1, 2005 well in the USA its easier....you have many BIG large markets that are very near to each other.... i live in canada... things are smaller... realistically if you are a touring band and have college radio airplay and your on the road a lot... moving 1,000 cd's in a year probably shouldn;t be too hard if you play 100 shows a year... and only sell 5 cd's per show... then thats already 500 cd's... i know a band that is on a major label... that tours canada and the states and now overseas.... they do not have very strong main stream radio... but so far they are at about 50,000 copies of theirs.... but this band can also bring in 10,000 dollars for a local festival show... well you asked an open-ended questions theres the open-ended answer Brandon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steve Robinson Posted February 1, 2005 Members Share Posted February 1, 2005 I think the The_ Idiom is on it as far as the live thing goes. I think it's more difficult to sell without playing live. I'm not touring these days,and have just released a solo CD. I'm starting to get some healthy airplay and good reviews; we'll see how this translates to sales. My gut feeling is that it's not going to be easy to move 1000 units this way. I'm trying to think outside the box as far as marketing the thing goes; it's a challenge, but I'm enjoying it in a way. The bottom line is that I believe in the quality of the songs, so I have no qualms about referring people everywhere to at least have a listen to samples at http://www.cdbaby.com/steverobinsonFeedback is always welcome; cheers to all! Steve R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted February 2, 2005 Members Share Posted February 2, 2005 It's harder than many think, but it depends a lot on where you live. I live in a fairly rural area, and my first CD I did with a band that had been together for 10 years, so there were a lot of people waiting for us to make one. I got a guy who did a lot of LA movie work and did recording and live sound for Stanley Clark and recorded Alan Holdsworth quite a bit to do our CD. We sold 1000 in about 7 months, and another 500 in about another 10 months. I went out on my own and made 3 more CDs, all of which took longer to sell than the last one. I still have about 400 left of a CD I did a year and a half ago. It's my favorite one, and by far the best one, but I found out that unless you tour and promote constantly and if you put out a CD every year, you end up flooding the local /regional market and it gets harder to move product, especially when everyone and their dog has a CD for sale, something that wasn't the case when I did the first one 6 years ago. FWIW, the guy who did my first CD told me that if I couldn't sell 1,000 CDs in a year I had no business making one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members anthony Posted February 2, 2005 Members Share Posted February 2, 2005 My band went ahead and went with 1000 CDs. I figured they'd stay stored under the bed and in the hallway for the next 20 years. Surprisingly we've sold 100 in the last 6 months. While many say thats lame I'm pretty satisfied being a weekend jammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blackwatch Posted February 2, 2005 Members Share Posted February 2, 2005 It's taken me 2 years to sell 1000,( But I order them 100 at a time @ $275/100) and that's giging every weekend. I did start selling more at shows after I got rid of my overbearing bass player. I think people can hear the songs now and that's translating into about 3-5 CD's per show.I also have been seriously thinking about hiring a cute young girl to actively sell CD's and merchandise at the shows. The couple of times that we had somebody go around and approach people we sold much better than expecting them to come up to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steve Robinson Posted February 4, 2005 Members Share Posted February 4, 2005 I tried having a cute girl sell CDs for me.It worked too; my 8 year old daughter, Emma, sold one to her teacher. I was so proud of her.Of course, she wanted commission. I gave her a dollar and she's happy; I may explore this further. http://www.cdbaby.com/steverobinson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members juineaux Posted February 4, 2005 Members Share Posted February 4, 2005 I just released my CD a little under 2 weeks ago and I have almost sold 100 so far(my goal is 1000 for the whole year). I think I will be able to reach 1000 if I start playing more shows out of town and if I continue with the internet sales. One really important thing is a Big CD Release party. Not only do you sell a bunch of CDs, but now you have a reason to send the local papers info, which will hopefully get you an article or review. That first show really helps build(or destroy) momentum and motivation, so try to make it big. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blackwatch Posted February 5, 2005 Members Share Posted February 5, 2005 I tried having a cute girl sell CDs for me.It worked too; my 8 year old daughter, Emma, sold one to her teacher. I was so proud of her.Of course, she wanted commission. I gave her a dollar and she's happy; I may explore this further. Is she available for this weekend???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bennyz Posted February 5, 2005 Members Share Posted February 5, 2005 This sounds like a situation I just embarked on.... My band just sent our master off for reproduction. We wanted to get 500 copies, see what happens. We figured out what our 'break even' point was... we spent 1000 on the recording/production and 1500 on the actuall reproduction... meaning a total investment of 2500...so, to break even, we have to sell 250 copies... If we had only printed 500, or reproduction cost goes down to 1000, and our total is 2000. now our break even point is 200 cds... we figured we may as well get the extra cds, and hope we can sell 50 more... I think this is the best way to look at it... what is your break even point? Have FunBen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sickwindsor Posted February 6, 2005 Members Share Posted February 6, 2005 Originally posted by bennyz This sounds like a situation I just embarked on.... My band just sent our master off for reproduction. We wanted to get 500 copies, see what happens. We figured out what our 'break even' point was... we spent 1000 on the recording/production and 1500 on the actuall reproduction... meaning a total investment of 2500...so, to break even, we have to sell 250 copies... If we had only printed 500, or reproduction cost goes down to 1000, and our total is 2000. now our break even point is 200 cds... we figured we may as well get the extra cds, and hope we can sell 50 more...I think this is the best way to look at it... what is your break even point? Have FunBen Well I dont know how much recording cost up where you are but down in the states or dallas where I am recording cost out the ass.The AVG cost per hr Is $60/Hr Plus you have to pay extra for mixdown and mastering and you have to pay extra for Hardrives.Most people charge $300 for a 3 song demo and they only give you 4hrs to do it in.If you run over then they charge by the hr.Its about $100 hr total cost and on an 11 song EP thats $1100 if your lucky enought to get every song nailed with vocals,bass,drumer and guitar player every hr.1 full song 1hr thats cutting it close especily with mastering and mix down.And those prices are cheap prices.Higher end studios cost $1200 per 4 hr block with 3 blocks min to get time there at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted February 6, 2005 Members Share Posted February 6, 2005 Yeah, it can vary a lot. My first CD cost me 50 bucks an hour to record and mix, and I was the last band to get that price before they went up to 60. I had 90 hours into it, plus masters and formatting charges, so recording was 4800 bucks, printing and manufacturing another 1400. Later, I found a really good studio put together by a fellow musician to record his own band, and he discovered he could make money out of it. It was in a converted garage off his own house, so his overhead was low. He gave me a project price of 2000 dollars to record and mix (which is great because you don't have to watch the clock if tyou have your poop halfway in one pile) and I handled the manufacturing and printing end of it. I did two CDs with him and it ended up costing about $4350 and 4600 dollars, respectively. He still ended up making over 25 bucks an hour working at home and I got a decent product, so everyone was happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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