I just caught this video over at pampelmoose.com and found it so straight forward and to the core of what independent artists need to know and absorb, that I’m re-posing it here for Marmoset followers. Please, no matter how much of a late adopter you may be or how much you enjoy having and holding a physical CD in your hands, understand that the world is changing and is moving forward… with or without you.
As Mux Mool explains, kids (aka consumers) don’t want to buy CDs – they just want to get music and get it onto their iPods so they can enjoy it. Cut to the chase and give them what they want. Embrace digital (and having an effective digital strategy).
As artists, you really need to stop thinking about “releasing your next CD” and start approaching things as though digital format (ie: mp3, lossless, etc) is truly the only thing most people care about today. Start thinking about 1) your next digital format release, and 2) other creative compliments to the digital format release that may be interesting, compelling, and an added value to your fans.
In my humble opinion, CDs are a dead medium/format. While they are not truly dead yet in real terms (my friend Lee Cohen just reminded me how CD sales still outweigh digital sales in most markets on planet Earth), the trends are overwhelming and powerful, and in short time, say a year or so, digital will quickly overtake CDs in gross sales in the United States (probably your target market, right?). In fact, many researchers predict that digital sales will beat physical sales worldwide by 2016, if not sooner.
The Bottom line: stop thinking in terms of CDs. Get out in front of the trends and think about digital format and creative merchandising strategies you can develop to compliment and add value to your digital music.
…Thanks to Dave Allen for sharing this at Pampelmoose.
More From ryanwines
- What if records are nothing more than a promotional tool? | Pet Marmoset PR + Digital Strategy, Publicity, Press, Websites, Digital and Online Marketing Services for Independent Artists.
- Everyone in Portland is in a band | Pet Marmoset PR + Digital Strategy, Publicity, Press, Websites, Digital and Online Marketing Services for Independent Artists.
- New Music: Alela Diane, The Baseball Project, Devotchka… | Pet Marmoset PR + Digital Strategy, Publicity, Press, Websites, Digital and Online Marketing Services for Independent Artists.
Whilst I’m very ready to embrace the digital age (our first album is now completely free to download from CD Baby and our own site), we still sell CD’s at gigs.
We could consider selling USB sticks at gigs, giving download cards out etc. but people still ask us if we have any CD’s for sale. They’re still a viable option for us. We have two forms of media that sell: digital and CD.
We’ve shifted more digital copies but the CD’s have made us more profit, which can be pumped back into the band to pay for the next recording. Whilst not in profit yet overall on the CD’s, we will be soon. As for the digital downloads, it’ll take much longer to reach a profit thanks to the other people who take a cut from the sales (iTunes, CD Baby…).
To be fair though, if you look at online sales it’s almost all digital downloads and hardly any physical orders at all, but as long as fans at gigs keep asking for CD’s, we’ll keep selling them.