How cool would it be if you could make a living with your music? We believe you can. Below is a summary of how you can maximize your sales and profits. This was born out of years worth of experience and hundreds of artists careers and then simplified into four bullet points and affectionately named L.I.V.E.
1. LIMITED - limited time and/or quantity. Outside of the credit-card-happy-music-junkies, most of your fans will probably drag their feet when it comes to buying your downloads and CDs. It's not that they don't want your music, it's just that most people are busy, indecisive and/or lazy. Nothing cures indecisiveness better than a sense of urgency and nothing creates more urgency than limiting something. Have you ever been left standing on the street because the show was sold out? Never again, right? Next time you're ordering tickets online 3 months in advance. Same concept applies to your music sales. Have a 24 hour sale on your new love song on Valentines day. Your fans who missed out will pay more attention next time you have a "24-hr sale." Autograph a limited amount of your new CD, say 100 copies. If you stick to your word and only give out 100 copies, those who get one feel special and those who don't will surely act next time around. And next time you can offer a larger limited quantity. There is no exact science and it will take some experimenting on your end but rest assured that if you limit the quantity or the time frame, it will put more money in your pocket.
2. INTERACTION - if you care, so will your fans
. Most artists are not natural born sales people. And that's okay. You don't need to be. And "sale" doesn't have to be a dirty word. You just need to be yourself, be confident and be passionate about your new music. If you're proud of the music you're writing and recording, then your fans need to hear that. When you have a new song or CD for sale, it's not enough just to let your fans know it's available on your website (although you'd be surprised how many artists neglect this first step), you have to let them into your world and share some of the details of that newly recorded music. Why did you write that song? What's the story behind it? Was there anything unique about the recording process? Did you record your new CD on top of Mount Everest or on the beaches of Mexico? Then let them know that. It's those details that make your music that much more interesting. Fans are buying you, the artist, and your experiences as much as they are buying that MP3 or CD.
3. VALUE - add more and charge more or discount your existing products. Who said a song is worth $.99 or a CD $10? You are an artist for goodness sakes, get creative with your pricing. Every artist has fans with varying "wallet sizes" and every fan has a different idea of how much cash they're willing to spend on entertainment (e.g. your music). Some folks will spend $100 if you offered a limited edition CD/Vinyl/DVD bundle with their name on the packaging. Others, your "cheap" fans, may not buy your CD at full price but may be compelled to purchase if you discounted it by 50% during a 24-hour sale. Tell you what, next time you have a new EP, go out to Walmart, buy a Polaroid camera, take some candid pics of all your band members galavanting around Walmart, autograph the pics and your EP and sell 20 "Limited Edition" packages to 20 of your core fans for $25 (instead of the normal $5-$10). Those 20 fans just generated $500 for you. Don't believe this is possible? Have you tried it? We dare you. You can thank us later.
4. EXCLUSIVE - sell 1st to your core, active fans. The fans who are visiting your website, your Facebook or Myspace profiles and opening your emails are the ones who are probably more interested in you and your music. Before you make your music available to the public, figure out ways to release new music to your core fans first. Not only will those fans feel special, they'll most likely plunk down more cash. It's typically 20% of your fans that are generating 80% of your sales. Make sure those 20% are taken care of.
