Any of you Indies succesfully selling CD's on the internet?

[Dyno]

I'm a engineer/artist/songwriter that is just too old and tired to go out there and promote my material by booking gigs all over the land. Mostly, I enjoy working in my awesome home studio, writing and recording all original material. I've had many notable people in the industry tell me that my material fills a unique niche and is very marketable, but I know without the gigs, it's pretty tough to sell CD's. I thought about setting up a web page not only to promote my CD's, but as a place to showcase my songwriting skills, a tool for pitching music to other artists.

Are any of you in the same boat and had successful internet sales? If so, I'm open for suggestions.

Thanks,
Dyno

[inverseroom]

No. And even at gigs, I have never sold a CD to anyone under the age of 35.

[thirdworldlover]

Unfortunately, "cred" is pretty big in the indie scene. And you get that from playing shows, getting better shows with better bands, and then word of mouth, etc.


Unless you know someone at pitchforkmedia, of course.


Cheers,


Ned

[toothpastefordinner]

Unless you have a fairly huge mass of people already paying attention to you for other reasons (I have a web site which tens of thousands of people go to every day, because I put drawings on it every day, and they are bored at work) I would say the answer is no.

I've sold a few hundred copies of my own CD and have a small record label but certainly that is all mostly due to the fact that so many people look at my stuff that a few of them are bound to buy my CD here and there


drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[cyrusjulian]

Although it hasn't really helped us sell millions, I can say sites like mp3.com, vitaminic.com, amazon.com has helped us get exposure all over the world. Especially putting some songs out for free on those Peer to Peer sites like SoulSeek, Kazaa, WinMx has helped too. Especially since it's been hard for us to get gigs in the best places in SF unless you know the "right people" In my opinion, until you're known, you should be giving stuff out for free just to get your name out and develop your fan base.

What would you rather have? $10 from two cd's you sold or 30 new fans that heard from 5 people who got free cds (I'm not sure if this example made sense but basically I'm accounting for the two people who would've bought your cd plus the three cheap fucks who love your music but are dead broke or too cheap to pay for a cd but have a lot of friends)

Keyword: Exposure

[Brett Siler]

You should read The Guerilla Music Marketing Handbook by Bob Baker. You can probably find it on Amazon for cheap. Also check out www.TheBuzzFactor.com

[inverseroom]

Unless you have a fairly huge mass of people already paying attention to you for other reasons (I have a web site which tens of thousands of people go to every day, because I put drawings on it every day, and they are bored at work) I would say the answer is no.

Actually, Toothpaste is right--the only CD's I've ever sold online were to people who visited the site for other reasons--I'm a writer so sometimes people who read something of mine visit the site, and check out the Inverse Room page for the hell of it.

Become, I dunno, president of Ivory Coast or something. Otherwise, you gotta buy an Econoline and hit the road.

It is cool as hell having a web site though. Yee-hah!
J

[junomat]

cdbaby.com is a goldmine in my opinion.

check it out...

[inverseroom]

cdbaby.com is a goldmine in my opinion.

Is it really? I've thought about that--I bought a CD from them once, they were extremely charming and funny. Do you sell much from there?

[junomat]

i actually just started selling with them...

and have been very happy...

i know a ton of people who use them...

excellent means of alternative distro...

[Dyno]

cdbaby.com is a goldmine in my opinion.

check it out...

Mat, do you attribute the sales to a fanbase or just great music?

Dyno

[Dyno]

In my opinion, until you're known, you should be giving stuff out for free just to get your name out and develop your fan base.

I should really re write my original post on this... I do want to use a web page to promote myself as a songwriter, but I have another objective here that is probably different than most.

Actually, I'm not in it for the $$ or the fans or the fame. I'm fortunate enough to be able to give most of my CD's away for free which takes all the pressure and hype out of the equation. I crank out a really unique brand of Christian music that has a hard country/americana/southern rock feel to it (definitley not your stereotypical "church" music).

My mission is to get a down to earth, inspirational message out to people who would never listen to Christian music. Whether I make a profit or not is beside the point, I'm just trying to figure out a way to use the net for exposure to make this happen.

Thanks,
Dyno

[cyrusjulian]

Hi Dyno,

I'm sorry if I misunderstood your post. I also don't mean to imply that it is all about the money. Obviously we're not in it for the money and I guess I didn't really explain that clearly in my post earlier. Not to get all cheesy here but all of us in the band truly look at it as a privlige to perform for people and are really gracious when someone likes our music and will come and watch us. And thus my reasoning for giving out free music via the internet or in person at gigs. But, I also think from a business perspective, it also helps independent bands get more exposure too. I once filled in for a really good band at a few gigs that used to sell their cds for $5. I remember a few of my friends really liked us but they wouldn't shell out the cash to buy a cd. I used to also think that each one of those same friends have other friends that would love this band and altho my friends wouldn't buy the cd.. those other people would.. Okay.. i'll try and stop rambling.. if you really want to just give your stuff out for free.. definitely check out those Peer to Peer websites like soulseek, kazaa and winmx..

Hope this made sense or at least helped in a weird way,

Regards,
Cyrus

[Dyno]

Cyrus,

Thanks for the input... I'm kind of a "case" when it comes to alot of the stuff on the web. Sometimes it seems like an enless black hole of info. Thanks for passing on those sites, I'll check 'em out.

Dyno

[junomat]

cdbaby.com is a goldmine in my opinion.

check it out...

Mat, do you attribute the sales to a fanbase or just great music?

Dyno

i think both...

check out cdbaby's interface....it's pretty easy for people to just stumble across your band/project just by searching...

i've found some great bands on there just searching with keywords...

it's pretty solid,
mat