Selling Music In A Changing Economy

By, Wendy Day (www.IndieLabelBuilder.com)

The most dangerous person in the music industry is the one who doesn’t understand how it actually works. They chase false goals and are doomed to follow wrong paths! --Wendy Day Twitterism

We’ve all heard the adages about how during a recession, music sales increase. But we’ve never been through a depression before (they won’t start calling it that until we come out of it for fear people will grip onto their spendable dollars even tighter). And prior to the shitty economy, music sales were taking a nose dive anyway…some say because of bad music choices, and some say due to downloading and free P2P music swapping. Others say it’s due to too many entertainment choices vying for our attention; we all only get 24 hours each day.

Chris Anderson wrote a great book called “The Long Tail,” and what I took away from it was that each artist now needs to reach his or her own niche directly--through building their own movement and interacting with fans, and potential fans, directly. I see it reinforced everyday on Twitter. Those who are skilled at interacting and inviting their fans into their circle will fare the best. Ludacris (@Ludajuice) and Tyrese (@Tyrese4Real) are exceptionally skilled at this. Gucci Mane and Yo Gotti are exceptional at working the streets and clubs. Drake and 50 Cent are great on the mixed tape circuit. But the real challenge is to be great at it all!

I’m fortunate in that the indie labels that I consult are doing very well. They still are able to sell CDs and downloads by spending promotional dollars in places where it matters, with people who are legitimate, and grind like their lives depend on it—which they do. But not everyone has this same experience. The key is to make great music, market and promote it well to people who would buy it, and work harder than every other artist out here.

Word of mouth and people hearing songs that they like are what sell music. Therefore, promotional efforts should be based around letting people hear your music, and sparking people to talk about you. Everything you do needs to revolve around working your single and getting your word of mouth buzzing. Spreading your music while showing your image is important. Some artists use mixed CDs, snippet CDs, YouTube videos and footage, and upload stuff to places like WorldStarrHipHop.com and VladTV.com. Most artists tour and do shows whenever and where ever possible. The more someone sees you is the more they recognize you!

Artists with bigger budgets use radio spins, promotional tours within a 3 to 5 state area, and songs featuring other artists in addition to the other promotional methods. Keeping in touch with fans via phone calls, email, newsletter e-blasts, twitter, websites, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc. With the over saturation of music and rappers, it takes more work and more time to sell less music. It almost seems like giving away music for free and selling merchandise, shows, and endorsements makes more sense. It’s about good music and an interesting story to get people talking about you. A fucked up image can do more damage than bad music, however.

While most artists are still begging the major labels for record deals, the smarter artists have realized that working their own project to build a buzz and sell their own music is the ticket to success. The best start is to make good music that has a competitive sound. That does mean that it needs to sound like all the other crap out there, but it can’t be so completely different that no one wants to hear it. The quality needs to be relatively tight, at least professional enough to compete in the marketplace. Can your single be played on the radio between Young Jeezy and Kanye and still sound good?

When you’ve got good music, it’s best to get feedback from DJs and retail stores to see what they feel are the best songs (let them choose your singles). Then focus on the single to build awareness. Depending on the budget you have available (and like EVERY business, this one also takes some money to make money), you draw a circle around your city. For example, you draw a circle that’s a 3 hour driving radius around your city, or with a bigger budget, you draw a circle that’s a 5 or 6 hour driving radius around your city. That circle becomes your target market area.

You cover every inch of that market promoting at clubs, barber shops, malls, high schools, flea markets, clubs, hair salons, colleges, car washes, strip clubs, community centers—anyplace where your market hangs out. If your music is more street (like Gucci Mane, Maino, or Young Jeezy) you focus more on the ‘hoods and streets. If your music is more lyrical (like Kanye or Drake) then the focus is college and high school campuses. I believe every artist should hit everywhere, even if your stronger focus is more street or more college oriented. If your music is younger oriented (like Souljah Boy), make sure your focus is high schools, middle schools, community centers, arcades, teen clubs, and skating rinks. Make sure your music is clean if you’re promoting to younger people.

The best tools to utilize are posters, flyers, t-shirts, wrapped vehicles, snippet CDs, mixed CDs, postcards, so people can see your image and hear your music. E-blasts of your single, YouTube videos and footage help tell the story of who you are and what your music is about. Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter let fans see personal aspects of you and your personality. Filming behind the scenes footage also involves your fans in your movement.

Gone is the day where fans want to see artists flaunt that they have more material goods than the fan will ever possess. Gone is the day of having one or two good singles and a bunch of filler to make a $20 CD sale. Today, fans pick and choose the songs they like and free music is all the rage. I read a post on Bob Lefsetz’ blog by the artist Moby, who said that his #1 sold download on iTunes was a song that he’d been giving away for free for two months. Free does help sales as we all suspected.

DJ Smallz told me that the Blogs today are what the mixtape DJs used to be to music. Bloggers are now the people who spread the word about which artists are hot and who’s who. They also now get the new music first. I’ve downloaded more mixed CDs from RapRadar.com lately than from any other source, including the e-blasts that used to spread the music. I find that I am more pro-active now, looking for the music rather than waiting for it to come to my in-box. I’m also burned out by all of the music delivery services that popped up when they saw Digiwaxx controlling the marketplace. We sure do burn shit out in this industry. If someone sees someone else doing something, rather than start a different business, they start the same one whether it’s profitable or not. In the past month, I’ve counted 30 e-blasts services that spread music for a price…most of which is free because none of them can make money with the over saturation. Some of them boast 100,000 email recipients…c’mon now. Are there THAT many DJs and tastemakers in the world? Doubtful. Save your money for the respected ones.

There are a few great services for spreading singles. I certainly don’t mean to say that none are legitimate. Just some folks jumped on a band wagon without the ability to really deliver. In this industry, there are so many bogus people—bullshit promoters, bullshit radio promoters, bullshit street team promotions, bullshit marketing companies, bullshit label consultants, bullshit event planners, bullshit publicists, etc. It’s really important to check the credentials and track record of anyone you give your hard earned money to. 99% of the people in the music industry are full of shit just trying to make a come up off of an uninformed person with money.

Once you market and promote within that 3 to 5 hour radius which is your market area, you build the buzz until there is a strong enough demand for your album (usually after fans have heard a couple of songs and a mix CD or two). You’ll be able to feel the buzz because you will most likely be getting paid to perform at shows now. Your demand will be increasing….more incoming phone calls, more web hits, more Twitter followers, more MySpace friends, more followers at shows, more invites to events, etc. Also, more local artists and producers will be hounding you to work with them. At this point you can upload your music to an aggregator like TuneCore.com for digital sales and an independent distributor (someone LEGITIMATE who can get CDs into stores for you—REALY, REALLY, REALLY check references here! More distributors are bullshit than legit). Once your music is for sale in the marketplace you have to work even harder to get people to support you and buy it. It’s truly a popularity contest, and fans vote with their dollars whether they like you or not!

In today’s declining and challenging marketplace, it’s no longer necessary to be backed by a major label or a sub-label (usually owned by another artist or producer). Provided you have the budget, or the ability to find an investor, the playing field is more level today than it ever has been in the history of the music business. Just make sure you know what you are doing and have found good guides along the way to help you. If not, this can be a very expensive hole into which you could waste a lot of money!