fishermanbob wrote:No, I'm WAY more interestrd in the pro studio. Anything I do will have to be in support of my upcoming CD AND good paying gigs, something in short supply these days.
The point of a song is an exchange of ideas (art) between people. Making a recording is great, but when that process is done you are only getting started. Until you start performing it live there will be no sales, and it will greatly discourage you to have 997 CDs left over in a year sitting in a closet
And unless you have a huge marketing budget and industry support, you really ought to consider playing ANY PLACE that will let you, and as often as you can. Better still, be your own concert promoter and put shows together in such a way where you control the door/tickets. Book shows in places that already have an audience if possible...like a good BBQ restaurant or whatever, ya know? That's how you are going to build up a fan base, and an audience who will buy your CD.
And a wise man once said, "A Prophet is without honor is his own hometown" so if you really want to succeed, you'll have to stretch your boundaries.
A recording artist is someone who sells recordings for a living. You go out to tour it around...then in 2 years you have to repeat the process. There is some debate these days about how long you should have between releases, and "some" say that you should put out a 2 or 3 songs every few months to keep from fading away. I don't think you can actually make any money selling in short runs like that, but it probably is better for keeping your name in front of potential fans. The down side is manufacturing costs are the same whether it's 1 song or 25.
But the biz is so fluid today that any advice you get is only good for a few months, if not weeks. I highly recommend keeping up with blogs about every facet of the business: distribution, publishing, marketing, etc. I also recommend reading a guy named Johnny Darker, the Bob Leftsitz blog, and almost every CD manufacturer and the PROs (BMI, ASCAP, etc) these days have informative blogs. I recommend a bandzoogle pro website and, though I'm not active on it, Twitter seems to be the best social media for a band these days.
But you will have to be flexible until you have earned some leverage. Email addresses are the new currency...and internet metrics are fairly accurate about how much penetration you've made except for fans over 50 who still call anything that contains music "tapes"
Have you signed up for pro distribution any where yet? I think CD baby offers the most and have put my latest project with them...but Tunecore seems to be making about $100 per month for me on internet sales worldwide of my lowest-budget album.
As a recording artist, I commend you for jumping in. You are now competing with Lady Gaga and every Beatles song ever made. Be excellent, work hard, have a story that makes you unique, and you will eventually get traction. Anything less and you will be selling under 10 CDs
