How Do You Sell 30,000 Copies?

[brandondrury]

There are a few problems here:

1) The typical dj on the radio doesn't have the power he/she used to. I've seen how the clear channel system works. They have a touch screeen that's tapped into a song library. There is no way the DJ can just add a local song without uploading it to the big boss. While they can certainly hook a cd player or something up, this is up to the radio station bosses. The bottom line is it is not that easy to get music on the radio unless it goes through big boy channels....Clear Channels. There are always a few smaller stations that will play local music, but they are more like college stations. I've not really see any of these equate to album sales, but I know it has before.

I have some buddies who are in a band that consistently draws about 500. Of course, they've only sold about 700 cds (I'm guessing). While they are in a band and make original music (which they paid A LOT for), they are really in the party business. People know all the whores will be running around half naked at their shows and so the guys come.

The problem with local exposure is it's local. Granted, any exposure is good exposure, but in my Missouri neck of the woods, it's usually embarrassing. You look like a LOCAL band when you are on the cover of the local magazine. This immediately reduces the changes of people taking you seriously, but I guess it's better to be taken unseriously than for people not to know about you at all.

Brandon

[spellcom]

Of course good shows and good music is needed, but if you need to produce 30,000 copies, then you need a really good replication company. After a while, it gets expensive to produce all of those copies and there are some companies that take shortcuts and leave you with copies that weren't worth the money. I know of a good company, however, that has graphic artists on hand and computer wizards so that you get both the technical and artistic stuff right.

I just wanted to post this because I thought the other posts were missing a major part of success, and that's actually producing the physical discs. I hope this helps . I'll be around to answer questions about producing CDs and artwork for them and the like. At the meantime, you can check out the website, which is a great CD company that I know of.

[brandondrury]

Dude, I understand that you are pushing your product / service. That's fine in moderation. However, I've not heard of a single bad experience with any replication company. Bands I've worked with have probably used 20 different companies. Because the fact that my clients have had great luck with so many different companies, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there aren't really any "special" replication companies. At least none that I know of.

So let's take this to a real thread: What Makes A CD Replication Company Special?

[seansdadj]

just sell them on websites, shows, and just try to sell about a few cd per day...that sometimes works.

[DT Chris]

I think if you don't have the ability to advertise, produce and distribute your music yourself you're going to have to go to some talent management agency to help you. Shop that record to the guys who can help you. What else can you do.

Or you can write a stupid "joke" (in Tay's words) song like "Chocolate Rain" and get huge attention, but stuff that hits like that makes no sense, so is not dependable either.

[equinoxsounds]

The good think of being independent is that you don't have to sell thousands of copies to make a living because you get the 100% of the profits. If you are selling a CD for let's say $12 and you work hard promoting it you could be selling 100 each month and this is $1200.

[brandondrury]

I think, in the end, the really great stuff will do most of the work for you. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I think that if you have the kind of music that friends want to tell friends about, the hardest part is done for you. It's just an issue of making sure the first friend hears you.

I'm all for pushing the marketing thing, but nothing markets itself like a truly great song.

Brandon