The
New Music Marketing Model for 21st Century
A
year ago, I wrote a passionate article on the merits of charging $15 when you
sell your CDs. Some of my reasonings included: It's tough for indie musicians
and you have a good music, so don't short-change yourself; you can always discount
the CD for special reasons (2-for-1 special); and, the "high" sales prices also
includes your various expenses. I made a few addendums, but that's the gist of
it. But
now, if you head over to http://mp3.com/thebards
and check out the Brobdingnagian Bards page at MP3.com, you'll notice something
kinda hypocritical...none of our CDs are priced at $15! What gives?? Well
first let me say, yes, I do still believe in a $15.00 sales price for many artists.
Certainly, it works best for folk artists, and singer/songwriter types. But my
reason is not hypocrisy it is a dramatic change in our marketing plan. You
see, when we started out, I knew that the only "real" income available to indie
musicians comes from CD sales and merchandising since royalties from ASCAP and
BMI are a joke. So our plan was to record every 6 months or less and put out new
material. By then end of last summer the indie process was leaving us drained,
and we were thinking we overextended. Then along comes MP3.com. One
of the things I've been raving about for the past few months is that MP3.com offers
a new marketing model by offering "royalties" for listens to your music. And if
you're getting paid from people listening to your music. Then it needs to be readily
available right? Well,
we've followed the footsteps of many of the top MP3.com artists and have about
40-50 tracks available on our site and more are coming every week. In doing so,
we make a solid $20 a day from our site. Now
with each listen, the songs are tracked on MP3.com on their music charts. You
sell a CD, the songs on that CD will rocket up the charts. So you want the CDs
to sell, because higher charting equals higher payback. Thus, our low price on
MP3.com. Now
think for a second. If you have 40 songs on your site like the Hillbilly
Hellcats, you're most likely going to make your 15 unique listens because
your songs are located all over the charts. There are plenty of songs to choose
from. Thus the new marketing model no longer relies on CD sales of $15.00, but
listens. When you realize that you open yourself up to a whole slew of, in my
opinion, simple marketing tactics that will make you more money from listens than
selling CDs from your website. I
know this all seems simplistic, but the vast reality is most artists on MP3.com
are still running their band with an older marketing model that does not yield
the highest payback. So think about that for a bit, and next week, I have a guest
writer who will give you an exciting promotional idea that could send your listens
over the top. Then the week following that, I'm going to betray my secret that
has my song "Tolkien" at #35 on all MP3.com... Stay
tuned. Same bard time. Same bard channel!
Bard Marc Gunn
of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000's of musicians make money
with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing
and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians' Texas Music Biz Tips.
Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com
for FREE "how-to" music marketing assistance.
No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free.
| 
