Are you, or have you ever met someone working a regular wage job while trying to make it as an artist? In my personal opinion, I feel the more energy put towards music, the better and stronger it will become. In light of my discovery of how to sell CDs effectively, I decided to create a lifestyle around my music. I’ll put together some numbers for you to see that as you invest in yourself as a musician, you’ll be better off than if you stayed working a regular job. For those who have degrees and are making 60k+ a year I can understand your hesitation behind focusing your energies solely behind making money from music but if you’re really adamant about having some success as an artist, it’s a price you’re going to have to pay.
1. Selling CDs
When I finished my first album I ended up paying $5 per CD (full Jeweled Case with Barcode) and I would perform at shows and try my best to sell them for $10/$20. I found that only a few in the crowd would buy it and I didn’t really know how to approach people and ask them for money at the time. It was many years later in my artist life that I learned how to sell CDs like a champ. I give props to Jet Tanner for showing me truly how to sell CDs – here’s a music video he did about selling CDs. It was only a couple small things that he did that made the biggest difference – a difference between $50 a day to $400 a day. First of all the location is essential – he was in between the bridges in Las Vegas between the Casino’s – you’ll find quite a few people there on that bridge and around the area selling CDs as there’s a lot of tipsy people with lots of $20’s in their pocket. There are other hot spots, such as Downtown Disney in Orange County, Universal Studios in Orlando, Waikiki in Hawaii, but there are also other places that are great to go, like gas stations, malls, and pretty much anywhere where there are people who are in and out stopping for a short time or who are there on a vacation or in a spending mood. By saying things such as “Whatever you can do, any tip or donation…” followed by a, “Show some love, throw that twenty…” with a smile – things like simply placing the CD in their hand, asking them their name, taking the CD back and signing it, putting it in their hand again and then asking for the donation… there are several small things that I learned that helped me sell CDs, and to this date I’ve sold over 10k+ CDs independently. So here’s the mathematics: If you’re burning your own CDs to start out with then you’ll want to get some clear plastic sleeves and print out your album cover in color and burn the CD. Per CD that cost around 80 cents. Selling that for $5 means you are multiplying your money almost 6x. On the other hand there are amazing places around the world like Disc Dup USA that provide quality metallic, vinyl, & clear coat CDs with the cover printed on the CD itself. This is where most people get confused and held up in their career – they don’t realize that you can take WHATEVER audios you have, burn them on a disc, put it in a clear plastic sleeve (or the white sleeves from Walmart) and simply print out your cover and sell it for $5 to $20. You then use that money to make better music – to book time in the studios, you get the people’s contact information for who you sell your CDs to and be disciplined to send a Newsletter each week with a new track with a new artist – don’t be afraid to collaborate with anyone that you can find and then absorb their network – asking them for emails to send the new songs to and to add to your newsletter list. Keep building up, keep selling CDs, go out and do it and don’t stop, everyone from G-Eazy to Justin Bieber started this way – either selling CDs or busking – and most of the time people don’t even ask to hear the music. Having headphones for them to listen will give you an even better opportunity to stop them in your tracks so they can buy the tracks you worked so hard to write and record. Again, gas stations and malls are gold-mines for selling CDs. The great thing about is that you won’t need to worry about who you speak to if you have a radio editted track. I would suggest to all of the artists who have explicit lyrics – when you’re selling your burned CDs, go ahead and load up an audio editting program and make sure that you bleep out or use a Theasaurus and change the curse words to neutral words – that way you can sell your CDs to other demographics of people older than you or of a different religious background. Because I have a parental advisory with a cross through it (showing that it’s a clean CD) I’ve been able to sell my CD to 100x more people than if I had parental advisory on it. Using these methods – going up to say a hundred people a day for three hours a day you’ll be able to sell 20+ CDs and if you sell them for $5-20 you will start getting $200+ a day, get more fans, start selling stuff off of your newsletters, and get more people to come to your live shows. Keep in mind, after you sell them a CD you might want to upsell them on something else, like merchandise. (Also one big tip – always wear a lanyard with your music logo on it – for some reason people trust other people with lanyards)
2. Selling Merchandise
This is where an in-person presentation of your kickstarter would be brilliant, having the merchandise offered by your different tier’s of kickstarter awards on you would be even better. Many times I’ve walked up to people and pitched the idea of them buying a CD off me only to hear a few reasons why they can’t do it right then or there, mostly things like they don’t have cash, they aren’t into that type of music, they don’t have a CD player or what not, and when you find out their reasons for their ‘rejection,’ if you’re prepared, you can use that as a reason why they should take you up on your second offer. What I mean is having USB sticks, funny or cool T Shirts, Posters, an incredible online platform you can give them & their business a shout-out on or just by having a different type of genre CD available, having a credit card swiper for them, or selling them a ticket to your show or simply asking for a donation towards your next recording studio session or music video shoot. Being prepared in this manner is what can earn you a couple extra HUNDRED dollars a day or you might get someone to donate a thousand dollars to your Kickstarter account. Another great way is getting a stand at some sort of concert, a place where there are stands selling food, surf competitions, or wherever that you might be able to post up with your merch and CDs, have a video playing of you doing your music and sell your merchandise and get people to sign up for your newsletter. I recommend doing this once a week, and if you cannot find a place to do it just set up your own table somewhere (this is when it helps to have a girlfriend to help you out). Recently a buddy of mine who sells Pineapple Juice in Hawaii made almost $10,000 in a weekend having a booth at a surf competition – and I’ve sold quite a lot of CDs at conferences.
3. Selling Tickets
This is another thing you can do while you’re out and about selling CDs or if you have a booth – sell Tickets to your upcoming shows. Another great way to do this is to have a mobile app where you can purchase tickets on as well as new singles and where you can show off videos of your performances.
For those who have a job because of medical/dental insurance benefits there is always medicare, and if you budget right and put away money each day towards a dreamliner there will be other ways you can invest money and make more, whether it’s stocking stores with your CDs on consignment and picking up a check from them each week to doing CD signings in stores, getting stores to play your music or just going up to where concerts are and convincing them to let you perform in-between a set. I cannot even remember how many times I’ve gotten to perform at a concert I didn’t even know about until I got there. Hiring a booking manager is always good to get you gigs and that’s where you can sell your burned CDs – just remember, your music career can be built on selling CDs, having a venue you perform at weekly so you can invite more and more people to see you perform and you’ll be motivated to come up with new songs (even if it’s an open mic each week that you perform at and show off your new songs and collaborations, bringing other artists to perform with you.)
Interested in ordering CD’s? Call (808) 393-0153 and let me know how many you need and I’ll get you the beat deal.
