At 05:39 PM 4/7/2006, you wrote:
>In the end it seems it's all about distribution
>and promotion. If you produce your recording you
>ultimately have to get it in shops. Without the
>budget to promote your recording the sad truth
>is noboby cares. Check out the $1 bins of used
>record shops and they're full of indie releases.
>I suspect that even if you have a distributor
>you'll be lucky to recoup your investment. Many
>releases sell in very lower numbers, even in the
>dozens. How are you going to get back $2K on
>that? It seems one would be better of giving the
>music away and selling t-shirts or merchandise. Pretty sad, but true.
I made an electronica CD in 2001 and either sold
it at live shows or at one point had our very own
Groove Distribution sell it. Thing is, the CD
sold real well right after its release, and I
think Groove asked for another shipment. Some of
the DJs who are and were on this list played
tracks from it in their playlists. But as time
wrought on, sales slowed down and they returned
half of the second shipment back to me. It's
currently on sale on CDBaby.com where it gets
sporadic sales here and there. I did recoup the
costs of the CD's production eventually, but then
again that was five years ago. And I still have a
couple hundred copies sitting in boxes in my room...
>What I wonder about people with digital music is
>what happens when they upgrade they're computer
>or their iPod? Or what about when it crashes? Or
>when the tecnology shifts again. Or is music that disposable?
Backups. Storage is cheap these days. I keep a
partition specifically dedicated to my MP3 files
and my iTunes directory is on there.
But yeah, a CD, record, cassette, 8track, etc is
a tangible product. Someone can show their
grandchild a copy of a Beatles album bought in
the '60s. Someone on this list can show their
children an Acid-Jazz CD bought in the '90s. But a download? Hmmm...
Elson
Elson Trinidad • Los Angeles, California, USA
e l s o n @ e l s o n g s . c o m
The new shade of soul: www.elsongs.com
Received on 2006-04-08 03:33:06