United States

I was offered a deal to have someone sell my CDs, where they keep half the profits.
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I produce them myself. I give them to family, friends, and prospective clients.
So, ok, - lets see.
What did I do to earn half?
-Spend over 1000 hours practicing and writing the songs, over a period of years.
-spent over 400 hours recording and mixing them.
-copyrighted the songs at the Library of Congress (money and legal paperwork involved)
-Bought CDs and Cd cases.
-burned the Cds
-checked (listened to) each CD to make sure all songs are good.
-hand-labeled each CD.
-designed the CD covers
-printed and trimmed the covers
-glued the covers into the cases.
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Then this person says “Hey, you wanna buy a CD,” sells them to their friends and gets half.
Sound fair to you?
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Yeah, at $10/pop, it’s $5 I wouldn’t have had.
But . . . it's a lot of work for a crummy $5 . . .
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Hey - if I’m giving 50% away, then it'd be nice if they did half the work.
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Otherwise I’ll wait till I have more money, and let some pros do it all, from burning to packaging to marketing. A pro will make it look more professional, anyway . . .
Then I wouldn’t mind if I only got, say 25% - 30%, because I wouldn’t have to do anything additional. And they'd sell in high volume.
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But - if I have to do it ALL - AND give away 50% . . .
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I should mention that they are ON the CD; so it'd also be self-promotion for them . . .
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What percentage do you think a ‘friend’ should get for selling my CDs?

For some reason, I didn't have a button to click on to vote, but with you doing all the work, we're probably not talking large scale numbers so I'd have to say, pay them no more than 25%. If they played on it and want to make 50%, tell them if they want to help with the process of copying, printing, cutting, assembling and sales, you're ok with it. Of course this means they could do it themselves on the side and keep 100% if they're not very trustworthy. Alan, do you make so many of them that you need someone to get out there and sell them for you? A lot of the small pubs and coffee houses that have bands around here are more than happy to let bands put a box of their CD's up by the register, and take the money for them and give the artist the whole amount. Of course, that's because most of these places don't pay the bands much, giving them free drinks and meals and passing the tip jar for them, so they're happy to help them out anyway that they can.

0%, buy them beer.


If you make any real $, give them what you feel is fair.

Else forget it...

The thing that complicates it is, of course, that they played on the recordings. Assuming you've already compensated them for their time and there's no royalty agreement, you're free to do what you want and and keep the proceeds. However, having a contributing musician sell the end product means you should be fair, especially if you ever intend to use said musician again. Yes, it's time consuming making the CDs, but for anything smaller than 300 unit runs it's the most economical option. Even 300 runs are about $3.50 a CD (at DiscMakers, you could probably find it cheaper but you get what you pay for). I would gave them 50% of the proceeds; yes you only get $5 but it's another body who has your music and is a potential fan, which is priceless.

It's your music...your time..your trouble...if they are your REAL friends they'd be out there plugging it for you for free. Ya get my drift? I'd promote you just because you have some awesome music...and not expect a dime...and I hardly know you....

I have a hard time with "friends" offering me to help me than expecting something in return....but...it's really your call....

I have a hard time with "friends" offering me to help me than expecting something in return

Amen

Nothing.

It depends on how much effort they're putting into your sales, & volume & such.

Just having someone peddle your CD's locally? A beer is fine, man.

O/l & promotional sales? 10-25% is kinda high for a guy that does everything himself, & I wouldn't go higher.

Who in their right minds (beside your mom and your girlfriend) are going to take their time and energy to promote your music for free? Especially if they played on the music. Nobody, that's who. People talk a lot (especially on the internet) but the reality is no one does anything for free. If you really think you can move some units go get a thousand pressed up (probably a little over a buck a piece) and then let people sell them for $10 and keep $5 - you'll still make over three bucks a disk! Careful with those thousand runs though, you'll probably be giving them to your grandkids for presents.

The thing that complicates it is, of course, that they played on the recordings. Assuming you've already compensated them for their time and there's no royalty agreement, you're free to do what you want and and keep the proceeds. However, having a contributing musician sell the end product means you should be fair, especially if you ever intend to use said musician again. Yes, it's time consuming making the CDs, but for anything smaller than 300 unit runs it's the most economical option. Even 300 runs are about $3.50 a CD (at DiscMakers, you could probably find it cheaper but you get what you pay for). I would gave them 50% of the proceeds; yes you only get $5 but it's another body who has your music and is a potential fan, which is priceless.

They played on 2 of the 21 songs.
And I believe standard industry practices are something like:
Artist (composer/lyricist): 50%
Producer: 15%
Manager: 15%
I am all 3.

There's no such thing as industry standard percentages, it's whatever you can negotiate. I can make up numbers too but the bottom line is: sell them yourself if you think you can do it. Bands that tour are lucky to sell ten Cds at a show. The music biz is changing rapidly and the old model is dying. Homemade Cds (or any Cds) are not in great demand.

If he is truly your friend. In all sense of the word as I understand it.
And it benefits you for him to "put your music out there".
And we are talking about half the profit not half the selling price. (net not gross)
I see nothing wrong with this arrangement.

I say 10%, only because they should get something for their effort, but certainly not 50% or anything near that. I think 20% booking fees and 15% management fees from "non" friends is bad enough.. but 50% ??? dude is ripping you off, no matter how many cd's he can move.

My group is mainly cover. We got 3500 cds made up for $1000 last year. We would sell a couple a show for $5 each. The cd has our mayspace on it. So I just said to hell with it and started giving them away. These cds have wound up in some odd places and we are starting to get to bid on gigs that pay better. Local fairs, Rallys, a lot of it is the fact that we can provide lights and sound.

But back to the cds. Some of the people that contacted me, I have asked how did you hear about us, and they have said someone gave me one of your cds and Ive been listening to it, and then contacted you thru your myspace. In our case our cds are our business cards. They were very inexpensive to press, 28 cents is less than I could make them myself. They are the cheapest merch we have. I think the huggies I had made up cost about 55 cents apiece. We have some bids for band/sound gigs out that will pay in the neighbor hood of $2000 each. i dont think we would have stumbled into these if I had kept trying to sell the cds. Plus I would still have around 3000 of them. Ive got 2 boxes left w 500 each, thats 1000 left over. My singer and bassist played in an all original group for 4 yrs. They made a first class cd, with all the fold outs and the photos and the thank yous. They got 1000 of them for $2500, our bassist still has a box of them sitting there in his studio. Im not sure how many are left. Like Jimmy said you will have them forever if you dont have a clear way to sell them.


Im w Jimmy, I dont think even major acts sell many cds at thier shows. I bought a cd at a Jeff Beck concert a couple of years ago. I talked to the merch guy and he said they had brought 1000 cds on their tour and still had a bunch of them. Nashville was near the end of the tour. The same for Trower last year in Memphis, I bought a T-Shirt(it was cheap quaility) but I talked to the merch guy and he said he had sold very few cds.

If Jeff Beck and Robin Trower arent selling many cds at their shows, then why are people going to buy your cds. Are they that special? be honest with your self. Alan I went to your myspace where you still have music posted and you are a very very talented guitarist. I have a huge amount of respect for your playing.

If you can find soemone that will sell your cds and really push them I mena get in peoples face while you are playing, in other words catching them in the heat of the moment. I think it would be worth paying them 50%. We sell merch and I had a person doing the merch sales for a few monthe on a 50/50 split. Some nights we sold stuff some night s we didnt, but I didnt have to deal with it. Since this person left, I have to find the merch and make change. Its something I would rather not do. I mean our band plays very physical hour long sets. The last thing I want to do after the set is haggle with someone over merch. I want to get outside get some air and decompress some between sets. Chase women, you know the important stuff.

Anyway, dont take what Ive said as negative. Im just like you trying to figure out how to make a little extra doing something I love. I would gladly give 50 % away for someone to handle our sales.

Just my 2 cents!

John, you always seem to get it. Kudos!