United States

Wow, a CD as your business card!

Done right, who needs a press pack?

Jimmy, I dont know if i get it or not. I just know a lot of people that got a big pack of cds and when the band ran its course they still had half of them.

I had gotten into some sort of fued on here with Brian, goingly or whatever his name was. The thing that turned me on him was his claim to selling 300 cds at a single gig. To me that is just onheard of. When we tryed to sell 3-5 a gig was about it, thats with a crowd of 150-300 people.

For me, the cds we made werent top quality, a local rap producer had bought a bunch of cds for a project that fell thru and just needed some money. He posted an ad on CList and I just grabbed whatever songs we had partially ready and ran with them. But I am an opportunist and I knew from making my own homemade cds that the price was right. He put or name and our myspace address on the cd, just naked cds. Ive had to stuff them in a holder, and a lot of them Ive given out just as a raw cd.

I heard on the radio the other day that cd or album sales as I like to call them are 50% today what they were in the year 2000. The younger generation is used to getting thier music for free. I know its horrible but its true, so musicians are having to find ways to make money other than selling piles of albums. High profile bands are going to have to get on the road and work for a living. Making their money from live performances and merch sales, or tie ins to products and companys. This is no new news here.

I just feel like holding your music sacred and trying to make people buy it will keep people from ever hearing it in the first place.

Has anyone on here ever met anyone that actually had a song stolen? Im just curious. I read every now and then about some songwriter that says a big name artist stole their song. The biggest case I remember was John Fogerty being sued by the label that owned the old CCR music. Old Man Down The Road supposedly ripped off an old CCR song.

Alan sorry for getting a little off track here. I just was adding what I see here. You can take it or leave it, but just think on selling your cds and how you want to do it. Good Friends might help out for a gig or two, but 10-20 gigs down the way their enthusiasm will wane.

Hey Good Luck on your cd sales I hope you sell hundreds of them, I really do.

damn John, that's a lot to think about. Good info, thanks for posting it.

I wouldn't pay a friend to sit at the swag table to sell CD's and T's. I would make sure they weren't hungry or thirsty that night, but I would not cut them a check for it for 2 reasons:

1. Business expenses are tax deductions (keep the receipts), and

2. Anyone that I would pay to sell merch would end up using the little bit of money that I would offer them to buy their food/drink for the night anyway.

Why not have a tax deduction if they are going to spend the money at the venue anyway? It makes good business sense.