Living
the Dream: One CD at a TimeI read somewhere
not too long ago that someone was lamenting that artists are putting out too many
albums without spending enough time promoting them. Well, I hate to say it, but
my group, the Brobdingnagian
Bards, is guilty of such a crime. You
see, when I started The Bards a couple years ago, I knew that bands needed a product.
So we recorded our first album, Marked By Great Size, bought a CD burner,
and started producing the CDs ourselves to sell at gigs. Six
months later, we released our second album, Gullible's Travels. By this
time, we'd only had a few decent reviews of our first album, but we'd sold a couple
hundred CDs after playing at numerous Renaissance Festivals. Now, our second album
was underway. We
recorded it, and got a whopping one review for the album. But with extensive gigging
we sold a couple hundred copies of this album. Six
months later, we completed our third album, Songs of the Muse. By this
time, we starting to wonder if we were stretching ourselves too thin. Andrew was
duping all the CDs while I was getting them printed. And his burner wasn't quite
fast enough to keep up with the demand for CDs. But it was about this time that
we got started on mp3.com, and we got introduced to DAM CDs, a much easier way
to produce CDs when you have several, but can't afford to mass produce any. All
of a sudden, the reason for our recording CD after CD made sense. We could get
paid for people listening to our music, and the more music you have the more money
you made. Talk to Ernesto
Cortazar and 303infinity
if you disagree. Now,
we could order CD one-offs from MP3.com, sell them at gigs for $10-15, and make
a nice profit while our music climbed the charts. But did I promote "Songs
of the Muse"? Well,
we started recording for our next albums (yes, plural) at the beginning of 2001.
We've done some minor promotion of our album, and quite honestly, SOM is the best
of our albums, and now our first mass-produced CD. So yes, we should do more promotion
for it, and we are. But no, we are still not spending all of our extra income
promoting this or another album why? Why are we recording more albums. Well
first, Songs of the Muse was recorded to meet a very specific market. It's
an all instrumental album, and was designed to get us wedding gigs, which it does
quite nicely. But
the other reason we don't is because we are meeting our goals...making a living. While
some are after a record deal or becoming the next pop star, we are on a journey.
Yes, I'd like to be a pop star. Sure, I wouldn't mind having a record deal. But
our music is still evolving. We have a long way to go before I feel we are ready
for that record deal or super-stardom. The first step is making a living. That's
what living the dream is all about. You have to take care of the basics first.
In my case, it involves getting out of debt, building a regular income, building
a following, and one day earning enough from the music to quit my day job so I
can become a full-time musician. Does it matter that our first few albums may
never be heard? No. It doesn't. Those first albums will be Collector's Editions
once we get there. ;) Once
those goals are met, then I can work on my dreams of super-stardom. Yes, I am
working on those steps now. I'm not gonna find a publicist to promote us unless
we are guaranteed a decent return on our money. But I will continue to get our
music to local publications, slowly but surely. And one day, you're gonna read
a message from me saying, "I am now living the dream!"
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.
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