YES! You Can Sell Your Music!

We're not alone in this position. If you have ever attended a TAXI Road Rally, or been to one of the many events hosted by the large Just Plain Folks songwriting community, or read the terrific articles by CDBaby Founder Derek Sivers, you'll know this to be true: Songwriters, in droves, have abandoned the hope of getting "a deal."

Why? A Record Deal often means the end of the road for an aspiring performing artist (at least for awhile). How can that be?

In the early years of the modern record industry, label heads were creative artists themselves. Often they were record producers. They were definitely talent scouts. They were in the Artist Development Business. Sam Phillips, Snuff Garrett, Barry Gordy, Clive Davis, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Don Kirshner...even David Geffen (who later earned the reputation among some as the executive who changed the priority from music to money)...they found and developed talent.

As the years went by, their companies were increasingly bought up by big conglomerates whose priority was definitely money over music.

SONY, BMG, UNIVERSAL, EMI, WARNER. All the small "creatively led" labels have been ultimately taken over by big profit-first multi-national corporations.

Of course there are still experienced and passionate "music people" in these companies, but the combination of the "hard times" in the record biz brought on by piracy and faltering CD sales in the face of growing competition from digital music (MP3s), has made them even MORE preoccupied with "the bottom line." Profits.

And so, "artist development" is out the window. No time for that. Artists signed to a record deal have to "break" early. A certain amount of money is committed to the act. Most insiders say, these days, that's about one million dollars.

If the act doesn't break, they're done. They're dumped, often before their debut record is even released! (The label will generally "go to radio" with a "single" song or two, before releasing the record. If they don't get a lot of "adds" to radio station playlists, and "chart action," enough to think the artist will "break," they bail on the project. NEXT!)

So then what? Where can a recording act go after the fall? Is someone else going to pick them up? Not a "major" label, that's for sure. They're "snake bit" before they even get started. And many times the artist can't do a thing except wait. Wait for the label to decide to let them out of their deal, if they will. Or wait for the contract to expire. At any rate, usually they end up in limbo-land. Careers on hold.

Another common scenario, again caused by the general lack of patience shown by the profit-hungry labels, is that the person who IS committed to the artist— the A&R Rep who signed them, or a supportive division head— is FIRED before the artist even finishes their record, much less promotes it. So the act becomes a "red-headed step-child" and it's a new crop of talent, touted by "new suits," that gets all the attention (and "push").

The result is the same: Stuck. And to make things even worse, the artist can't sell their own record even if it is done, "in the can." Because THEY DON'T OWN IT.

So, maybe you can't "go platinum" (sell 1,000,000 units). Does that mean you can't have a successful career in the music business? Well, to the record companies, it does. They want "all or nothing." "Artist Development" is simply not their M.O.

But YOU want a career in music, don't you? Well, here's the good news: You can have it!

You can make your own record. A quality record using all the same equipment and technology used by the big boys. If you are careful, smart, talented (and align yourself with people of the same ilk), you can make a GREAT record— for a LOT LESS than the record company could have ever done.

You can have your CD replicated, or manufactured, for $1-2 per unit. You can sell it for $5-15. Let's say you sell it for $10 a unit. Even if you mortgage your house (which we don't recommend) and sink $50,000 into the recording and manufacturing of your CD, you'll break even after selling just 5,000 units.

That's the good news. The bad news is that there is probably someone reading this article right now with 900 of their initial 1000 CDs sitting in their spare bedroom. And they're saying, "yeah, right...if."

So what's the problem? The problem (probably) is that you are only selling your CD to people at your live shows. And if you are a local performer, if you only play in a limited geographical region, your sales will slow down in a hurry after that inital "CD Release Party." 5,000 CDs is a LOT of CDs if you're only selling a dozen or so a week.

"STOP! HELP! You're making me sick! How do I SELL MY MUSIC?" We hear you. And, while we don't have all the answers (who does?), we can show you how those Indie Artists that we know and work with who ARE selling enough records (along with performing) to own a house, not have a "day J.O.B." (that's an acronym for "Just Over Broke," you know), HAVE A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN MUSIC.

What's a "successful career"? That's for you to say. But for most it means making music for a living. Are they RICH? Not by Donald Trump or Diddy standards, perhaps. But can you make more than you could doing anything else, given your background, education and aspirations?

Yes, you can. And you can make enough to be happy and live comfortably on your own terms.

Work your way through the pages of this website and we think you'll come out the other end knowing a lot more about how to sell your music. And, as a matter of fact, we think you'll be SELLING MORE MUSIC.

Sell Your Music! How to Promote Your Music Successfully on the Internet